Our First Attempt at Using Cloches in the Garden

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Because he lost access to his work greenhouse, Aaron was forced to use every clear, flat surface of our home to start our seeds. As you can imagine, the wall-to-wall seed trays were inconvenient, so Aaron transplanted tomato seedlings from seed trays into the garden this week. We realize this was a bit risky because tomatoes prefer warm weather, but we were able to get the soil temperature under the black row cover to a consistent 65 degrees. In preparation for any last frosts, Aaron set up the caterpillar tunnel AND was extra cautious by using Mason jars as cloches. (Basically a mini greenhouse, a cloch is a bell-shaped glass jar first used in the 1600s to keep individual plants warm.) We were confident that we were doing the right things to protect our plants.

There’s no way we could fail with this, right?

No chance this well-planned, well-executed planting could go awry, right?

Truth: it was a tomato seedling massacre. We experienced a freeze one night, and only two of the 20 seedlings survived. Disheartened and crestfallen, we decided to throw in the towel with this whole gardening gig.

Kidding! We’re gluttons for punishment. Instead, we did some research and realized what we’d overlooked. It turns out, we missed an important step in effectively using cloches. Depressing the Mason jars into the soil wasn’t enough to protect our plants from frost. We should have also mounded up soil/mulch around the base of each jar to prohibit the cold from sneaking in and killing the plants.

Failure is uncomfortable. It’s disappointing to experience lost time and energy. This is where the fail better mindset comes into play. This is when we have to realize we’re learning valuable lessons through each one of our setbacks. The benefit of losing these precious little seedlings this week is that we won’t overlook the importance of mounding up soil ever again.