The Miracle of Growing Food Regeneratively
Creating Local Food Security & Healthy, Vibrant, Regenerated Living Soil, & Nutrient Dense Food
CLOCHES, COLD FRAMES, GLASSHOUSES, POLYTUNNELS & HOTBEDS
CONTENTS:
1. CLOCHES
2. COLD FRAMES
3. GLASSHOUSES & POLYTUNNELS
4. HOTBEDS
1. CLOCHES
So, let’s start with cloches, because they are the easiest and cheapest and also very useful. Their usefulness as temporary protection for tender seedlings in the spring has been covered in the section: (‘PROPOGATION’ – Hardening-off & Planting Out).
Polythene Cloche over hoops
Cloche made of corrugated plastic sheet & sticks
Long Cloches: used to be made of glass, but now are usually made of plastic. Cloches are useful to warm the soil in late winter, early spring and to cover rows of plants.
One way is to use a corrugated clear plastic sheet bent over and held in place with pegs or sticks. It is also a good idea to place a sheet of plastic to cover each end.
The other type of long plastic cloche (or grow tunnel) is made of polythene sheeting stretched over galvanised metal hoops and held down with wires. I make my own with 2.5mm hard-drawn wire turned on a jig.
Single Plant Cloches: can be bought or homemade. We use 5 litre (1 gallon) spring water or juice bottles with the bottoms cut off and the caps taken off to place over newly planted-out seedlings at night until they have settled in, but they need a bamboo pushed through the top into the soil to stop them blowing over. Plastic bell cloches can also be bought, which have holes around the rim to peg them down.
A bought bell cloche
Homemade cloches from plastic bottles
2. COLD FRAMES
Cold frames are not often known about, but I think they are a very valuable addition to any garden or community garden. They are in fact a small glasshouse, very useful for starting seedlings, striking cuttings, hardening-off young plants and growing salad crops directly in the soil through the winter.
Wooden and Glass built Cold Frame
Brick cold frames with Wooden & Glass lights
The body can be made of wood, or more permanent ones made of brick or concrete blocks. You can use old window frames with the glass in for the lights (lids), but they won’t last long because the rain cannot run off properly. You will see from the photo and the drawing how the glass at the lower end, overlaps the bottom strut, allowing the water to run off, thus reducing the inevitable rot on the bottom rung.
The lights can also be made of a simple frame with a clear polyethylene cover stretched over the frame. As long as the lights are on a slight slope the water will run off. In colder areas a brick or block cold frame can be half buried in the ground for extra warmth and protection.
3. GLASSHOUSES & POLYTUNNELS Even here in Nelson, we have a small lean-to greenhouse and a cold frame to start our early seedlings in, and homemade cloches to protect early crops planted outside, until they get established. The glasshouse is also used to grow turmeric and ginger in, as well as early tomatoes.
Our Lean-to Green House
A good sized aluminium glasshouse
In colder areas it is even more important to have a glasshouse for protection, or even a cold frame and cloches, the whole purpose being to extend the growing season.
For community gardens, for those selling produce, or those living in intentional communities – glasshouses and/or Polytunnels are a must.
The ventilation of Polytunnels are more problematic, but with many types you can role up the sides in hot weather and open the door for ventilation.
Also Polytunnels are plastic, which in the long run degrades. However at this point in time they are useful structures.
A large plastic growing tunnel
4. HOTBEDS In warmer areas with mild winters hotbeds are not necessary, but in colder areas and countries, this traditional way of growing winter and early spring crops is certainly worth considering. Hotbeds work by using the heat of rotting manure to grow a range of vegetables in cold weather. This was the method we used on our farm in the UK for early crops like salads, spinach, early young carrots and early zucchini crops. To build a hot bed, you will have to obtain a good load of fresh horse manure, preferably mixed with bedding straw. Otherwise mix in at least twice as much spray-free straw as manure + some autumn leaves you have saved if possible.
Growing frames on top of a hotbed
Pile up in a rectangular heap about 60cm (2ft) deep, and allow it to heat up. The heap should be around 30cm (12in) wider and longer than the wooden cold frame you will be using on top. The straw and/or leaves will slow the heating process down and make it last longer.
The heap could easily reach 600C (1400F) and then start to cool down. Level off the top and evenly apply 15cm (6in) of one part sieved topsoil mixed with one part well rotted garden compost. It is important to make sure the heap has reached a warm but not hot state, before sowing or planting into the topsoil and closing the lights.
With early crops like zucchini, they will continue to produce after A frame on top of a hotbed the heat has gone out of the manure, because by that time the roots will have reached the manure and continue to grow well through the summer with the frames off. One can also grow very early seedlings to be hardened off and planted out later in spring.