As the evenings draw in and temperatures begin to drop, many gardeners start to wind down for the season — but with a little planning and the right equipment, there’s no need to let the changing weather bring your kitchen garden to a halt.
Using garden cloches and polytunnels is a simple and effective way to extend your growing season, protect crops, and keep harvesting well into autumn and even through winter.
In this post, we’ll explore how cloches and polytunnels can benefit your garden and share some of the best products from the Knowle Nets range to help you get started.
Why Extend Your Growing Season?
Extending your growing season allows you to:
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Enjoy fresh vegetables for longer
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Start seeds earlier in the year
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Protect plants from cold, wind, and pests
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Make better use of your garden space year-round
Whether you're growing salad leaves, brassicas, or winter root crops, creating a warmer, more stable environment is key to keeping them healthy and productive.
Cloches: Compact and Versatile Protection
Cloches are ideal for protecting smaller plants or specific rows in your vegetable patch. They work like mini-greenhouses — trapping heat, shielding from wind and rain, and keeping pests at bay.
Lightweight and breathable, our Fleece Easy Tunnels are perfect for cooler months. They retain warmth while allowing air, light, and moisture to reach your plants — making them ideal for overwintering lettuce, spinach, and young brassicas.
Use A Fleece Large Tunnel Cloche over raised beds or containers to keep late-season salads thriving right through autumn.
For maximum light transmission, our Kitchen Garden Cloche provides superb frost protection while letting through sunlight to warm the soil. Great for hardening off seedlings or giving root crops a head start in spring.
Polytunnels: Serious Cover For Serious Growing
If you have more space or want to commit to all-year growing, a polytunnel is a game-changer. It creates a protected microclimate that significantly boosts your garden’s productivity — and allows you to grow more tender crops that would struggle outside.
Top tip: Add staging or planters inside your polytunnel to make the most of vertical growing space.
If space is limited, our Grower Frames are ideal for allotments or compact plots. Easy to move and store, they’re perfect for starting early crops like carrots, beetroot, or radishes in spring - and keeping them going into autumn.
Sturdy, weather-resistant, and easy to install you can pair with reinforced polythene covers in winter or micromesh covers in summer for full seasonal flexibility.
Added Benefits: Pest and Weather Protection
Cloches and polytunnels don’t just help with temperature — they also:
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Shield from heavy rain and hail
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Keep out pests like pigeons, rabbits, and slugs
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Reduce wind damage on tender stems
Choose from micromesh, fleece, or clear plastic depending on the time of year and the crops you’re growing.
Start Planning Now
Autumn is the perfect time to get your cloches and tunnels in place. With just a little effort now, you can keep harvesting fresh produce long after the rest of the garden has gone to sleep — and be first out of the gate when spring rolls around.
Explore our full range of Cloches, Polytunnels, and Protective Covers and get more from your garden — all year round.
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