Backyard Gardener: Cloching

I finally took the leap to start the growing season outside. I know the popular thought is to wait until the May long weekend to plant outdoors, but I decided that I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Worse comes to worse and we get either a very cold night or a frost warning, I’ll cover the garden, clochges and all, with a tarp or blanket for the night. 

That said, I knew it was still a bit too cool for a free for all, so I decided to invest in garden cloches to turn the heat up on the plants until Mother Nature does it herself. Because I know they love heat, I started with planting the peppers and tomatoes that I had started from seed. Hopefully, the cloches will help them grow big and strong and provide us with huge crops!

And yes, I grow my garden in containers, mainly so that the boats behind the garden can be moved as needed without destroying any of the plants. I also discovered last year that container gardening is great for the plants as well because you can rotate the plants to give each of them some time in the “prime” garden spots. For example, the heat reflection from the boat makes the back row an ideal place for heat loving plants. 

It was so good to get out in the garden yesterday and get my hands in the dirt. As always, my garden is partially about growing my own food but it’s also about experimenting and discovering what grows and what doesn’t. I think I”m going to plant the vine plants next… get them started even though it’s still a little cool. And yes, I bought more cloches and I fully expect to have an entire garden under “glass” by the end of the weekend!

Happy planting!