Bunnies have found our spring greens. Gardeners can certainly empathize with Elmer Fudd and his “that rascally rabbit” iconic grumbling.

We anticipate spring’s luscious greens – but gardeners are not the only ones who have had their eyes peeled and palates waiting for the first bright green shoots of the season. Those rascally rabbits!

It is utterly disheartening to plan on cutting spring greens only to go the garden with our basket and find we were beaten to them by those critters with unquenchable appetites. Rabbits are sly critters, quickly finding their way to our gardens as soon as our edible greens are up.

One sure way to keep the greens for our own harvest is to cover them with garden cloches. The English word “cloche” comes from the French “bell,” for its dome shape.

The concept of the garden cloche for horticulture use is credited to Europeans in the 17^th century (cloche.com.au).  Early cloches were fashioned from hand-blown glass; they were large, heavy and expensive, which meant they were used primarily by the wealthy who could afford them.

Glass cloches became customary in the 19^th century as gardeners developed more  sophisticated techniques. Cloche shapes in the Victorian era evolved into elaborate tall cylinders, flat globes, and flanged bells with or without finials. Cloches brought elegance to Victorian gardens.

In the 20^th century cloches were already common in European gardens and were becoming popular in North America. Cloches in the early 1900’s began to be manufactured on larger scales, which lowered the price and made them more economical to a wider variety of gardeners. Glass still remained the dominant material but, as with many products in the 20^th century, plastic came into common use leading to the introduction of plastic cloches. Plastic cloches were light in weight and less prone to breakage making them practical choices for beginning gardeners.

The term garden cloche refers to a specific shape and not the material from which they are fashioned. Depending upon their horticultural use cloches are made from glass, plastic, or wire.

The function of a cloche is protection of seedlings or plants from cold, wind, severe weather and pests. In today’s column a wire cloche is featured since the focus is on protecting spring crops from rabbits, skunks, opossums, and other herbivore mammal or rodent that has a taste for fresh spring greens .

The wire cloche in the accompanying photo is a near-perfect facsimile of a Victorian hand-blown glass structure. It is an elongated, perfect bell shape that is wide and tall enough to allow the clump of sorrel greens to expand.

Gardeners choosing not to go to the expense of purchasing a manufactured wire cloche can make a structure with the same function of protection from predacious herbivores. The Better Homes & Gardens website, bhg.com, has steps to make structures out of chicken wire. Chicken wire has flexible and lightweight netting that can be formed into a circle resembling a cloche.

Garden cloches are a cherished staple for many gardeners. The classic dome shape harkens back to a gentle, slower time in our past reminiscent of Victorian elegance.

Note: Some information from cloche.com.au

Ellen Peffley taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. You can email her at gardens@suddenlink.net

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Gardening for You: Protect Spring greens from hungry critters