I appreciate Yankee ingenuity and American grit. I love practicality.
I am also vain enough to be stung when it is pointed out that something I am doing could be done more elegantly. The stereotype of the French is that they believe they always do things more elegantly than anyone else! I won’t endanger my friendship with my dear friend, who holds a dual citizenship with America and France, by arguing in favor of practicality over grace, but I will admit that in the case of the garden cloche, the French may have a point.
The idea of a cloche is to protect a tender seedling from harsh weather, giving it sanctuary in order to get its feet on the ground, or, in the case of a seedling, to get its feet firmly IN the ground.
Below, an example of a French glass cloche, and the American version:
Beautiful glass, beautiful bell shape, an example of French elegance.
I cut the bottom off of a gallon jug of milk, cut holes for an anchoring stick to slip through the handle, and slid the “cloche” over my young pepper plant, an example of Yankee ingenuity.
Voila! An American garden!
