Ok, so I wanted a couple of these cloches for my new allotment (yayyy!) but they tend to be sold as either with the fleece, polyethene or net covers and cost around £25 each for 3m/10ft length.
So to save money and to have greater flexibility in terms of the covers I use, I wanted to just buy the hoops and swap and change the covers as and when I need. By the way, the fleece and polyethene covers are used during autumn, winter and early Spring to protect crops from the cold and frost. The fleece ones will allow rain to water your plants but will block some of the light which can already be low during the autumn/winter and of course the Polythene covers allow the light in but no rain, so you would have to water your plants. The net covers are used to protect your crops from insects and birds.
Items I used:
1 pack of 6 Tunnel Hoops from the Royal Horticultural Society £8.99
(these were free as part of a prize I won with them he he) - and from what I read you can also use plumbers MDPE 25mm piping
4 packs of Fleece Cover (1.5m x 5m or 1m x 6m) from Poundland £4.00
4 reels of Strong Thread (@ 0.65p each) 70% Polyester/30% Cotton - Stockport Indoor Market
Approx 20m of clear elastic used for swimwear £7 - enough to sew on to all your edges but not as long or wide as the fleece fabric as you will be stretching the elastic as you sew - Stockport Indoor Market
Total Cost for 2 x 3m/10ft Cloches with Fleece Covers £21.94
my cost as the hoops were free £12.95
Ok, if you want it really simple, just place each hoop in the ground at say 1m apart and throw a cover over the top, secure it with tent pegs or something similiar. However, I wanted my fleece covers to be elasticated so that they fit more snug to the hoops.
So, I measured one of the hoops, which at the widest point was 1.8m (around the arch) and 65cm tall.
So for one cover I used 2 pieces of fleece (one of 1m width and the other of 1.5m width) and cut them both to a length of 4.3m (3m for 3 hoops spaced at 1m apart plus 0.65 + 0.65 to cover the ends/height of the cloche hoop). The width of 2.5m is a bit wider than necessary but it was easier to just join the two pieces of fleece at the width they were supplied in and meant I only had to cut the length.
I then joined the 2 pieces of fleece together (making the 2.5m width) using zig zag stitch and strong Thread on the sewing machine. I used the same stitch for sewing the clear swimwear elastic (it is water resistant not sure about sunlight yet!) on to all the edges. I intend to use 3 hoops per cloche, spaced at around 1m apart with the fleece cover over the top.
So the end result is 2 fab cloches with elasticated fleece covers, sorry I can't show you a photo yet as I have no need to use the cloches right now! but I will do later down in the year and update as to how the covers faired up over winter.
PS Poundland also sell some smaller 1.5m (5ft) Wire Cloches with plastic covers for £1 - which could be used for overwintering smaller crops such as winter lettuce, salad leaves etc. Again, fleece covers could be made for these also if you do not want to use the plastic ones supplied with the cloches. Pin It
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