More durable diy garden cloches/ enclosures

March 22, 2025 12:22 PM

Is it feasible to make a metal-framed garden cloche at home?

I’m referring to framed metal enclosures that protect plants from critters, like this, or this, or this. I’m looking to enclose a given area on the sides and the top.

I’ve seen, and we’ve tried, homemade options made of chicken wire, tubing, and cable ties, but it hasn’t really worked out (access to the plants is difficult) and we’d prefer either something that could be left out year-round or taken down with minimum fuss. We have similar cloches to the ones linked above, and I do have areas fenced off, but I want more protection for the young plants I grow every year. The cloches are expensive and the bunnies are ruthless.

What would it take to actually make something like the cloche pictured? Chicken wire, a framing material of some sort, and a soldering gun? (I am coming at this from the perspective of an outsider, looking at a rather expensive product, and thinking, ‘I could do it for cheaper’ so please don’t hesitate to tell me I’m wildly mistaken.) Where could I find suitable metal tubing(?) for the frame? Would i need a tool to bend and shape it? Would a soldering gun suffice, or is this getting into welding? (Husband has experience with soldering and at least one gun.) Thank you!

posted by queseyo to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

I have made these! All of mine had old lamp shade "skeletons" as the base. I found a couple in the trash, and went to a few thrift shops and found really gross ugly old lamp shades. I ripped all of the fabric off of all of them, and then used wire to attach chicken wire to them. I made the oldest about 8 years ago and they are still going strong, outdoors. I have left them out over winter a few times, and other times I put them in a shed. So basically, just a lamp shade, some chicken wire, and thinnish wire to attach the chicken wire to the lamp shade.

Edited to add: This is pretty much exactly what I did!
posted by the webmistress at 1:52 PM on March 22 [5 favorites]

The wire frames pictured are a heavy gauge wire/round rod (wire gauges go up to ~1/8th of an inch and then are sold by diameter). They are welded together. Lead free Tin/Copper solders that you would use with an electric gun aren't a good method of joining the frames together. DIY a better approach would be brazed together which is cheap to start (just need a MAP/PRO torch) but gas is expensive (appropriate if just making a few). Or you can buy a cheap flux core MIG that would be able to weld them for less the $150 and the cost per joint would be very low.

There is heavy gauge (12-16 (smaller is larger) wire fencing available with meshes down to 1"x1". It's stiff enough that you could build rectangular/box shaped, triangular or half round enclosures with nothing but a pair of wire cutters and some hog rings/pliers and they would be self supporting. Accessibility would be about the same?

You could also make frames out of 2x2 wood just screwed together (maybe with some sort of corner gusseting) and then wire tie the fencing to that.
posted by Mitheral at 2:31 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]

I've made these as rectangular boxes over a bed or a part of one, rather than for individual plants or rows. One big thing is easier to make than a bunch of little ones, I think. Walls are fixed (buried a few inches into the ground), roof lifts off for access -- this architecture works for plants up to a couple of feet high.

I used what's called "hardware cloth", quarter-inch mesh of a heavier gauge than chicken wire. Because our rats will go through chicken wire, but it also means no additional wire skeleton is needed, the walls are structural.
posted by away for regrooving at 8:58 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]