Home-made bell-type cloches

[Primrose]

I have a few empty plastic water containers of the type used in office water coolers, which with the bottoms sawn off, make wonderful bell-type cloches for protecting early courgettes, cucumbers,squashes etc when planted outside. But they need a lot of storage space when not in use and I wonder if anybody has any suggestions as to how I could rig up some substitutes perhaps using thick clear polythene bags. It's really the outer structure I'm seeking inspiration for, (over which the polythene bags would fit) which could possibly collapse or fold when not in use.

[Compo]

You could cut the tops of the plastic water container with a saw which would leave you with a cylinder or more accurately a tube. If you then cut the tube down the side you could store one tube inside another (The outer tubes would expand and the inner ones would roll up tighter) and so on allowing say half a dozen tubes to be stored in the space of one.

You could then use that tube as a 'frame to put your poly bag or whatever over the top!!

Hope this is clear?

Compo

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, maybe you could think along the lines of a Red Indians Teepee, swop the wooden poles for bamboos, and swop the Buffalo hides for your plastic bags, if you pushed the bamboos in upright before tying, it might give a little more width inside.
You could hold the bags on using clothes pegs.

Stop laughing you lot, it was just a thought.

[Primrose]

Thanks for your suggestions. The plastic water bottles are unfortunately too thick and rigid to roll up but the teepee idea might work.
Perhaps I should submit my problem to Blue Peter to see if they can come up with a real winner of the competition instead of all the people who entered but couldn't be selected.