Cloche Removal

Nathan and I pulled the cloche today. The tomatoes have far surpassed my expectations, shadowing the peppers and eggplants in the process, and necessitating the prompt removal of the cover. A jungle of jumbled tomato vines greeted us and the full summer sun as we lifted the plastic off. I was pleased to see several of the peppers with fruit already set peering from beneath the massive tomato hedge. Keeping the tomatoes at bay required additional staking in the form of 3-4' lengths of bamboo hammered into the ground and loosely twine-tied.

Judging by how well the tomatoes and peppers heretofore grown in full exposure to the elements next door to the cloche have performed, I foresee no issues arising in the absence of cover. August is yet before us as well. At any rate the cloche has proven mighty successful. I plan on using it soon as cover for a few winter crops I'll be attempting.

A branch of Health-Kick Hybrid tomatoes from the former cloche


Jalapeno pepper coming along nicely


The first eggplant

Dry days

Today the Seattle area tied the previous record for consecutive days without rain for this time of the year (May-June), with 29 straight days without so much as an isolated sprinkle. For the garden, it's a blessing and a curse. The long hot days have rocketed my plants into top form, with most blossoming or at least showing buds or getting ready to flower. It's only a curse in the sense that the water table is being continually lowered without the usual rain to recharge it. And really, it's not a curse, it just means I have to be adamant about watering. For once I'm actually hoping it will rain! Some pictures of the plants' progress in recent days:

These peas will be ready to pick tomorrow or the next day.

The quinoa is doing great! This is one experiment I'm glad I undertook. The plants are nearly two feet tall already. They should reach a height of about four feet and then will begin to produce seed clusters. According to the research I've done they won't be ready to harvest until after the first frost, at which time I'll cut them down and hang somewhere cool to dry.

The tomatoes inside the cloche are nearly to the top of it already, and readily blooming. Their cages are nearly hidden by the abundant foliage. The slightly hotter temperature the enclosure creates seems to be doing the trick.

Another cloche success story: black eggplant. This is definitely the largest I've ever got an eggplant to grow before, and it trumps the ones I grew last year (which hardly grew more than 8" tall and didn't fruit whatsoever). This one is over a foot tall.

A casualty of the consistently hot weather has been the spinach. I should have planted this crop much earlier than I did, as the high temps have prompted it to bolt (grow spindly and go to seed). I have been able to harvest a sizable amount of the leaves, however, and have been chopping off the tops of the plants in hopes that it will force the plant to shoot out more vegetation and cease flowering.

Cloche!

I spent nearly nearly 7 hours in the garden yesterday, transplanting, weeding, and finishing construction on the cloche. Rather than look up plans on the web I opted to wing it. The process itself was not overly complicated, once I figured out how to affix the front and back supports it was only a matter of fitting all the pieces together. Here's what it looks like:

The materials I used are as follows:

-7 pieces of 1/2" pvc pipe, 10 feet long
-4 elbow joint fittings with 1/2" openings
-4 1/2" 'T' fittings for intermediary connections
-1 roll of 3.5 mil plastic (measuring 10' x 25') to serve as covering
-4 2" wood screws
-1 4' length of 5/8" wooden dowel rod
-4 wooden stakes

Any hardware store ought to have all these parts. Four pieces of pvc pipe are first cut down to 9'. These will serve as the arches. To build the front and back arches, two pieces are cut from one of the remaining 10' pieces, each to 4'. These will lay on the ground and hold the arch in place and prevent flexing. Since the elbow joint fittings I found only have a 1/2" opening on two of the three sides, I was forced to get creative to determine how I would fit the 4' piece into the side with the slightly smaller opening. This is where the wooden dowel rod comes into play. First I drilled a pilot hole into the fitting using a bit approximately the same width as the wood screws:

A 3" piece of the dowel rod is fitted into the opening in line with the drilled hole. Trust me that a 5/8" dowel will fit into an opening that a 1/2" pvc pipe won't. It just takes a little persuasion. A 1/2" piece of dowel will be too narrow. The dowel should fit all the way to the back of the elbow. Now a screw can be drilled into the dowel. The dowel will protrude from the elbow about 1 1/2", like so:

Now the 4' length may be fitted over the dowel:

The same is done on the other side of the 4' piece, and is replicated for the remaining piece and elbow joints. From the remaining 2 pieces of 10' pvc, six 3' pieces are cut. These will serve as the flat lengths connecting the four arches. Connect 3 of the pieces using the 'T' fittings, then connect these pieces to the two 4' lengths. It should look like this:

The four wooden stakes are pounded into the ground at the four 'T' fittings to prevent the arches from flexing once they are inserted. After the stakes are secured the 9' pieces may be inserted into the fittings:

Almost done now!

Next a length of plastic is cut from the roll. The roll is 10' wide by 25' long. I cut a 15' piece so that I could use the extra length to somehow rig up a covering for the front and back, which I still have yet to refine. The plastic is tucked underneath the pipe against the ground and then duct taped to the pipe. This will probably be a temporary solution until I can figure out something better. It is important to note that there is nothing actually holding the cloche to the ground, it is simply resting there. I most likely will have to find some spare tent stakes or other scrap that can be driven into the ground and used to hold the pipes from being ripped up by a particularly strong wind. Once the cloche is finished it can be planted. I planted two rows, each about 10" from the edge, which will allow me to walk (crawl) in the middle of the cloche and provide adequate space for the plants to grow:

On the left, a row of tomatoes, and on the right eggplants and peppers. I will have to closely watch the temp inside the cloche, as I imagine it will be quite easy for it to scorch the plants if not closely monitored.