[MisterPlough]

Hi all,

I've done it! I have made my first cloche!

I went skip diving on Thursday night looking for some corrugated PVC but to no avail (got some wood, a pallet and a big blue bucket.) Then I was walking to work and saw in a carpet shop the plastic matting you can get to protect carpets and thought - that'll work!

£4  a metre and it is about 24" wide, so I bought 2 metres. I can't figure out how to attach a photo to this so I have put some in the album.

6 wire coathangers - unbent
every 12 inches or so punch holes and feed through the wire. Then I just bent it into shape and put it in the ground.

Dead chuffed with myself. I also managed to dig and weed three beds, train and prune my raspberries, so some lakeland lettuce, some kohl rabi, some red salad bowl and some mediterranen leaves. Then I dug in some sharp sand into one large bed. Also cleared the roof on the garrage of leaves and debris. It is made of perspex so is going to make a great big greenhouse this summer!

And the best bit........?

My purple sprouting broccoli, which was the first thing I ever planted - last April..... has started to sprout. I thought the pigeons had eaten everything after the last snow, but I have afew heads just starting to come through.

What a great weekend.

[little sweetpeas]

Thats a good idea, I found some blue plumbing pipe in a skip the other day which I hope to use to make some cloches.

[Jeanieblue]

Mister Plough, that's an impressive idea for a cloche - so much stronger than those polythene tunnel affairs from garden centre. Thanks so much for sharing it on the forum. Will definitely have a go at making one or three - will keep me sane and out of mischief when it's raining YET AGAIN !!