Kitchen Garden Forum

Well, its been a busy few weeks, the culprits have been strong winds and rain-and-rain. I mustn't complain because we didn't get flooded though we did have problems with the septic tank filling with rain water daily and more roof problems.

I had the foul content emptied from the septic tank then kept pumping the rainwater down into the valley so at least we could shower. Poo-poos were in the chemical toilet in our motorhome which in-hindsight has been a luxury outside toilet to the one I remember from 'The-olden-days'.

All my fleece covered ex-met cloches ended up half a mile away down in the valley and very difficult to extricate from a blackthorn. The ex-met without fleece over the cabbages survived.

And so on to my latest project, cloches than can be mechanically screwed down to the raised-bed structure and covered with polytunnel covering. Anyone with reasonable joinery skills could build these, you need a jigsaw and drill plus a means of cutting up an 8X4 sheet of structural ply. 18mm slate-lathes are used with the ends glued and screwed. Polyurethane adhesive is used and the structural ply will need painting.

These buggers are going to stay.

Well they certain,y lot a lot more sturdy than my wire hope and transparent polythene/plastic sheets which got totally shattered and blown across the garden. I will have to see if somewhere like B & Q stock the sheets and will cut them down to size so they can be replaced. ,uki,y the wire hoops are still intact

I never did go down the hoops route even though I had been making plans, I studied a hooped cloche belonging to a local gardener and decided it would last five minutes here.

I have now made two of these with another in the pipeline, they are time-consuming and to be honest you need a spacious workshop or fine weather to build anything the size of mine which are eight foot.

Premier Polytunnels cut me a one metre strip of polythene from a 24 foot wide roll so enough for three (£6 but £8 delivery). Each one costs about £15 in materials. The slate lathes were 16 foot lengths so another convenient size but I have to go back to the builders merchants for more board and lathes though that order will be tagged onto the back of a roofing job.

Afternoon Richard, a first class job indeed. Infact they are that good, you want to mind they don't dissapear in another way than the wind, as in they might get stolen....

They do look fine and substantial but, not wishing to put a damper on the project, I've always found any sort of grade of plywood outside a bit dodgy.

Geoff wrote: I've always found any sort of grade of plywood outside a bit dodgy.

I'm happy with constructive-criticism Geoff, and you're quite-right. I have used cheap structural softwood ply which quickly de-laminates at the edges though I had often wondered if it were protected would it survive. In this case I have given it an undercoat and top coat of oil paint after the photo was taken. Maybe bitumous paint would be better. All the top edges of the ends have the polythene wrapped-over, nailed with galvanised clouts, then an acrylic sealant gunned along the edge of the polythene. Only the part touching the soil is vulnerable and I'm about to deal with that. I'm a belt-and-braces man Geoff, if the ends fail I'll be happy I gave it my everything.

As regards theft, I'm quite isolated here and whilst that has its own problems I don't have people wandering around helping themselves like you poor souls who work allotments.

Sounds very thorough, I hope it works.

Can one still buy bitumous paint?

Creosote has gone and iudging by how quickly last years resurfacing has become fine gravel Hertfordshire road surfacing no longer contains tar.

I believe the good old elf has got rid of tar.
When they patch potholes they don't use hot tar as an adhesive any more so one day they roll the stuff in next day the traffic rolls it back out.

peter wrote:Can one still buy bitumous paint?

I still have a part-container of bitumous paint by Evostick. Because it has always been part of my war-chest I have recommended its use to pals and am aware that its available though it may not be the same.

All my paints come from Johnstones, they do a bitumous paint so I'll be replacing my empty tin soon. The last job was to paint the galvanised steel twin-wall flue that exits the the roof because that electro-galvanised stuff doesn't usually last long. I also painted the steel sump-pan under our Fiat 500, Fiat didn't bother to protect it.

Back to the structural ply, I covered my wood-store with it and painted the ply with bitumous paint then blinded it with sand though I didn't make enough effort around the edges so as Geoff points out it doesn't look good and has started to de-laminate.

Both front and back porch roof-canopies have structural ply on 6 X 2 timbers then slate lath and slate. In this case the ply was painted and hasn't de-laminated so I figured I was in with a chance if I paid proper attention to the edges.

I'm never to proud to share my failures, if anything I'm self-deprecating in that respect so I'll keep you informed.

I have this idea that one of the further two of those cloches will be covered in an insect mesh to protect my carrots. Right now I have a plan to build five, two with mesh and three with polythene.

I'm playing 'British-Bulldog' with the elements, so far, elements 8. Richard 2.

A "coat" of fibreglass as a U-section on the edges prior to painting could be the answer?
It would add mechanical strength as well as waterproofing. As a local shop product it would probably be a ships chandlers product these days, boat repairs, though google shows at least three internet sales outfits.

peter wrote:A "coat" of fibreglass as a U-section on the edges

Yes Peter, its the bottom section of the ends that even though its painted needs this sort of treatment. What I have done is formed a 'U' section with some two-inch 3M repair tape and allowed the cloche to stay in the warm workshop/shed overnight so hopefully the adhesive has amalgamated. Everything else is well protected though if I can't keep the weather from coming through the key-holes I accept that something may fail.

I have yet to decide how I'm going to hold them down though the forecast isn't showing anything more than 30 knots within seven days.

My garlic will appreciate a bit of shelter, its doing ok but the greenery is showing signs of wind damage. Cabbages are looking much better and they only have ex-met covers, no fleece.