The One Thing Your Kitchen Garden Is Probably Missing Right Now

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There is nothing better than having your own kitchen garden. If you start growing herbs on your windowsill, you'll find yourself reaching for them constantly, elevating every meal. If you love tea, you can create a tea garden with certain herbs always at your fingertips, and there are even vegetables that grow well indoors (like eggplant, kale, and peppers), as well as outside so you have a readily available selection of delicious, healthy ingredients. Whether you keep this kitchen garden literally on your kitchen windowsill or outside depends on where you live and your local climate. But either way, there's one thing you're likely missing that would seriously up your gardening game and help your favorites grow faster, stronger, and healthier: a cloche.

A glass cloche essentially functions like a mini greenhouse, since most of us don't have our own conservatories. It creates its own tiny climate around your plants, absorbing and trapping warmth and light from the sun. It also keeps things out, from harsh winds to pests. Cloches actually enhance versatility for your kitchen garden, too: You can move plants between indoors and out while maintaining relatively steady conditions for them. Start plants outdoors in the spring, for example, so they germinate well, then move them indoors if you prefer, where cloches can keep them warm with sunlight through the window. If you do leave them outside in the winter, cloches also help barricade plants from frost.

It's believed a glassblower in Italy first crafted a cloche for gardening back in 1623. The method of creating these mini greenhouses eventually spread throughout Europe and later America. Even today, cloches are one of the most effective secrets for cultivating a thriving kitchen garden. Beyond simply using them as coverage, there are several other hacks for helping plants grow better with cloches. If you place one over soil about 10 days prior to planting, the cloche will warm that soil up so it's extra ready for those seeds, increasing the chances of successful germination.

Make sure to remove cloches to air plants out on hotter days, as they could trap too much heat. Then when the weather is colder, keep plants trimmed so they're not touching the interior of the cloche where the glass may actually be cold enough to kill their leaves. Try to maintain just a bit of ventilation, too. There are plenty of seeds that will grow well in your kitchen, and they're even likelier to do so with the help of cloches.

Additionally, cloches are lovely decor statements, too. A Cotton & Concrete cloche with a wicker base, for example, would bring antique-style charm to your windowsill garden. You'll find affordable single cloches on Amazon, like this handmade glass cloche. Alternatively, you can repurpose any glass jars for your garden.