Simple Wire And Mesh Garden Cloches To Protect Strawberries And Young Plants

Young transplants and seedlings can be particularly susceptible to herbivore attacks when exposed to hungry herbivores. Cloches and critter cages offer protection from birds and mammals when your crops need it the most.

Garden cloches and cages can be an indispensable addition to your gardening arsenal. From protecting sensitive plants from unexpected cool temperatures to encouraging early ripening of heat-loving crops, they can make an enormous difference.

Prevents Birds

If you are growing fruits that birds like, such as berries or raspberries, or herbs such as thyme, rosemary and lavender that attract birds such as thyme, rosemary and lavender then using a simple chicken wire garden cloche may help protect against them munching down on your crops. Products sold as bird netting will keep them away but creating a walk-in berry cage sturdy enough for wind and weather can be more complicated project than expected.

DIY bird deterrents don’t require much time or investment – for instance, using baking soda sprinkled on surfaces where birds tend to perch will make them no longer want to land there and move away more quickly.

Another way is to hang plastic snakes or rubber snakes as predator decoys around your yard. Simply be sure to move these around regularly so they do not become familiar to birds, while woodpeckers can be discouraged from pecking by hanging aluminum pie plates from trees or high spots where they like to peck.

Prevents Pests

Thom Rutter, an established garden writer and former professional gardener, suggests using old panes of glass to construct simple yet effective DIY cloches for individual plants or station (cluster) sowings, leaning them against one another. Insulation tubing (available from Amazon) should be placed along their top edge to prevent the glass rubbing together and shattering in strong winds.

Large gardens may benefit from creating continuous glass cloches known as tunnels by arranging hoops over rows of vegetable beds. Such tunnels protect crops from frost damage while covering them in black polythene helps blanch root vegetables such as endive and chicory to reduce bitterness.

Cloches have also been proven effective at extending the growing season for vegetables such as cabbage and kale planted late summer; overwintering onions seeded later is also possible when using cloches to protect them. They do this by warming the ground beneath and encouraging early germination to offset losses caused by frost damage later.

Prevents Rain

Cloches and cages provide young plants with protection from various threats, depending on their design. Cloches can shield plants from weather and pest attack, ensure adequate pollination rates are reached, prevent weed growth and create an ideal microclimate.

Protecting seedbeds, transplants and uncovered crops from rain also helps preserve their integrity by keeping off raindrops that could otherwise damage soil structure and contamination by splashed rainwater. This is especially useful when growing leafy vegetables like spinach, salad leaves and kale which prefer softer growth conditions and may succumb to wind-induced wilting.

Cloches are easy to erect and remove, with different styles to suit different materials and sizes available. Bell-shaped guards that open like umbrellas and can be pegged into the ground can serve as simple bell cloches; more complex varieties may include plastic or recycled glass structures with wire hoops used as support, or even repurposed tomato cages can make surprising effective cloches; just ensure they’re well anchored so they don’t blow away in a breeze.

Prevents Cold Weather

Garden cloches provide essential protection from cold temperatures, frost and snow that could harm or kill plants. Furthermore, they help shield them from raindrops or harsh sunlight that might overheat the plants too much.

The cloche also helps deter hungry herbivores that nibble away at seedlings and young plants, such as rabbits or deer nibbling away at delicate herb varieties like thyme, oregano, rosemary and lavender that could otherwise be vulnerable to nibbling by rabbits or deer.

Smaller cloches can be used to protect individual strawberry plants and other low growing crops in vegetable gardens, seedlings of herb and flowers seedlings, as well as providing an environment conducive to striking cuttings. Larger garden cloches provide autumn-sown crops such as carrots, endive, chicory as well as overwintering onions leeks chard and other crops in many climates. Larger garden cloches may even be transformed into walk-in polytunnels which allow you to maximize use of garden plot or allotment spaces!