Beware: Messy Hoop House Tour

It's been a while since I've given an update on the hoop house. Some of you may have been wondering whether or not it was still standing. I'm glad to say that it has in fact endured the terrible winter and the 90+ inches of snow that fell. One of the arches has stuck deeper into the ground and now dips lower than the rest but I'm sure I'll be able to correct that later this summer. As far as my short term plans for the hoop house are concerned, I hope to transplant all of my spring greens into it this weekend. By May, I will probably remove the cheap plastic covering and replace it this fall with the more durable and transparent professional greenhouse plastic that I purchased last November. Hopefully the professional stuff will work out even better next winter.

Anyway, here's a mini-tour of my messy hoop house:


It's not very pretty is it? I need to lay down a fresh layer of straw and clear out several of the beds. If you look closely, you can see that my spinach bed (front right) has been ravaged by voles.


The voles haven't done too much damage to this particular bed. The mizuna has come back to life and the lettuces are beginning to grow again.


The claytonia has changed dramatically since I last saw it. The leaves have become much more succulent and there seems to be enough for several salads. I wonder when it will produce it's characteristic heart-shaped leaves with a flower protruding from the center.


The Red Russian kale has made it through the winter without any problem as expected. The voles haves stripped many of the leaves, leaving the purple stems behind to rot on the ground.


I was also glad to see my friend Mr. Pippin again. Here he is among the kale trees.


Here's another bed of lettuce and mache. If you look closely, you can see some half eaten leaves on the right. (Those darn voles!) Eventually, the greens will be cleared out and I will grow all of my perennial herbs here.


Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, I'm sure the sage will rebound quickly. Thyme (left) has to be one of the hardiest herbs there is. By the looks of it, a dramatic haircut is in order.

Tuscan (Lacinato, Dinasaur) kale is less cold hardy than other varieties but this one appears to have made it through the winter. Interestingly, it's starting to branch out. It's unfortunate that I have to rip it out now.


Out with the old and in with the new. Spring cleaning, gardener-style.

Inside the Hoophouse

I thought I'd do a quick post on some of the things I have growing in my hoop house right now.


As you can see, there's not much going on at the moment. At the very least, I need to tidy things up a bit. Hopefully by late February, things will be hopping in here. For the time being, I'm relying on the kale to supply the bulk of our homegrown winter greens. The protective environment of the hoop house should get them through the next few months.


As I'd mentioned before, the carrot bed is a mess! If you look closely, you can see several holes made by voles. I have placed several traps nearby and may construct a five gallon bucket mousetrap this weekend. Pretty soon, the remainder of the carrots will be pulled and the bed will be cleaned up and planted with Asian greens.


After months of doing nothing, the claytonia is starting to produce larger edible leaves. I think I may have a fertility issue with a couple of my beds. I will have to apply a liquid feed this weekend to help compensate for this.


In front is some Winter Density lettuce that needs to be dug up, separated and replanted further apart. I'm not certain as to how well they will fair in here this winter. Last year's lettuce turned incredibly bitter by the end of December. I've read that blanching the leaves under the darkness of say a flower pot can alleviate some of the bitterness. I might just have to give this a try. In the back is mizuna, which I've already started to harvest.


It's turning out to be a good year for mache. Last year's crop never matured because of one vole with a rather voracious appetite. I should be able to harvest a few miniature heads within the next week or two.


Finally, I'm currently experimenting with growing carrots in pots. I'll try again this upcoming spring. We have rather heavy soil here and so our carrots only turn out perfect about 50 percent of the time. I'm hoping that if I can find the an appropriate variety and get the fertility just right, I'll have a new use for all of the 7 gallon buckets I'd bought for growing potatoes.

Finished Hoop House

This past weekend, I was able to install the doors to my hoop house. Though not perfect, they seem to be doing the job.

The door frames were constructed rather simply. These metal straps really do a good of connecting the wooden pieces together.

When open, the doors allow for plenty of airflow inside the hoop house on hot days. And when closed, the hoop house seems to do an adequate job of capturing the humidity and warmth of sun's rays. We've had some rather windy days these past couple of weeks (and seemingly more rain than we've had all summer). I'm glad to say that the hoop house has withstood the elements just fine thus far. Hopefully it will continue to do as winter progresses.

On a final note, I'm still doing battle with the field mice. I don't remember them being as bad last fall. I guess once they get wind of an abundant food source, they make themselves at home and breed. For the time being, they are mainly feasting on the carrot tops and Swiss chard. I really need to come up with an aggressive plan to manage them.

Building a Hoop House for the Garden

This weekend I finally got around to building my hoop house. I've wanted one for a long time now and had gone over the design in my head during the past three months. After many mental revisions and plenty of second guessing, I realized last week that time was running out and that I just had to wing it.

My goal was to erect a structure that would house six of my 3 x 6 ft raised beds. I wanted something that could be dismantled easily if needed and yet be sturdy enough to withstand our New England winters. Also I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on the materials either.

Anyway, here is how it all came together:

I started off by driving stakes made from 1/2 in PVC pipe into the ground spaced about 3 feet apart. (Marc is in the background loading firewood.)

I installed the seven arches that will serve as the backbone of the hoop house by bending 15 ft lengths of 1 inch PVC piping and slipping the hollow ends onto the stakes. (PVC piping generally comes in 10 ft lengths but can be joined together easily using plastic couplings to create the desired length.)

To help prevent the arches from buckling under the weight of snow, I drove 5 ft tall metal poles (8 total) into the ground and positioned each pair underneath every other arch.

Metal wire was then used to attach the arches to the poles.

I then used string to mark the center-ridge line as well as two additional side lines that will provide additional stability to the structure.

I attached the three lines (3/4 inch PVC pipe) to the arches using metal screws. The lines help to keep the arches perfectly straight under the weight of snow.

I also attached 3/4 in PVC piping to the base and down length of the structure.

Once the hoop house frame was finished, the next order of business was to attach the plastic sheeting to it. I needed to cover an area that measured approximately 15 ft (the length of the arches) by 19 ft (the length of my beds). After deciding against purchasing professional greenhouse plastic, I went the practical route and bought two rolls of the 10 x 25 ft 3.5 mil polyethylene sheeting available at most hardware stores. (I opted for the 10 ft width because the difference in pricing between it and the 20 ft width was HUGE!)

We attached the plastic sheeting to frame one roll at the time using heavy metal clips (the jumbo-sized ones found at most office supplies stores) and allowed for a 5 ft overlap at the top. The first roll went over the center-ridge line and was attached to the far side line. Then the second roll was draped over the first one at the top and attached to the side line on the opposite side.

Metal clips were also used to attach the poly sheeting to the base of the hoop house.

Next I focused on constructing the end-wells. The wooden frame pictured here was built using 1 x 3 inch lumber and is just wide enough to fit over the metal poles.

The wooden frame was attached to the poles using screws and metal wire. (I was pleasantly surprised by how sturdy it felt.)

I then wrapped the poly sheeting over the frame, stapled it to the inside and trimmed the excess. The end result looked reasonably neat and clean.

I have yet to construct the hoop house doors but they will fit over and be hinged to the wooden frames.

All in all, I was very pleased with my (almost) finished hoop house. It feels really sturdy and best of all, the materials (not including the metal poles, which I had lying around) cost me a modest 120 dollars. I am really excited to see how my winter veggies will fair this year and will consider growing heat-loving summer veggies inside of it as well.

SSSSSSSTRESSED

You would think that I wouldn't be since the summer growing season is drawing to a close, but ironically, the opposite is true. I'm a bit behind schedule on starting some of my fall and winter veggies and will have to play catch-up all this weekend. Also, the ultra-hot temps of this week (in the 90's) have been stressing a few of my fall seedlings, namely the spinach. So a word of advice to all of my local fall gardeners - water everyday and shade your seedlings with some row cover (properly vented of course)!

In addition to sowing seeds, here are some other items on my to-do list:

- Pull out all cucumber and melon vines (Curse the cucumber beetles!)
- Build a decent composting area
- Clear more bed space for winter veggies
- Clear and add more mulch to the garden paths
- Repair last year's mini hoop houses

Also, I'm considering building what I'm calling a PVC 'low tunnel' (not to be confused with traditional low tunnels). It's a space that will (hopefully) cover six of my growing beds. The tunnel itself will only be about 5 feet tall - high enough to duck into and low enough to withstand our winter winds (again, hopefully). I haven't finalized the design yet in my head but it's getting there. I'm aiming for a late-October installation date.

The First Harvest of April...and the Glow of Easter

Today I harvested some of the Shanghai bok choy that I transplanted not too long ago. I picked the biggest and best looking ones as I wanted to get to them before the slugs did. I can't wait to saute the crisp fresh greens for dinner. This batch weighed in at about 0.72 lbs. During the cooler months, I try to appreciate every little bit that comes out of the garden. Even when it doesn't amount to much, it still beats the mass-produced stuff at the supermarket. I guess now would be a good time to sow more seeds as I'm sure that what I have growing at the moment won't last long.


We've been blessed with great weather lately. Today's high was in the upper 7o's. I've been leaving the mini hoop houses completely open during the day as temperatures inside can easily exceed 90 degrees even when vented. I'm always thankful for the Easter holiday as it is usually a sign that Spring is settling in. We were certainly not disappointed this year.


In other news, the snow peas I sowed a few weeks ago have sprouted...


...and so have the Fava beans. Only 5 out of the 12 seeds that I planted germinated. I have a feeling that I will be disappointed by this crop this year. If I have time, I will go out and get another packet of seeds.


I also got around to transplanting my Piracicaba broccoli (4) and celery (9). As a way to extend the harvest and hedge my bets this Spring, I also have a second sowing of broccoli that should be ready for transplanting in a couple of weeks. For those of you interested, here is a nice piece written by Barbara Damrosch about this particular variety.

I will be posting more gardening updates this week. I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter Sunday. Our day was glowing and merry. All I can ask for now is that our friend, the Sun, will decide to stick around for a while.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Notice anything askew in this picture? Either two of my mini hoop houses grew legs and jumped off their beds or mother nature is frowning upon me at the moment. For the past 48 hours, we've been battling torrential rain and tropical storm-force winds. Several large trees were uprooted in our neighborhood and much of our yard is still under water. My poor next-door neighbor whose house is downhill from ours got 4 inches of water inside his finished basement. Hopefully, the weather will let up soon despite what the weather man says.

My shorter 2 feet tall hoop houses seemed to ensure the high winds just fine. I wish I could say the same about my 3 feet tall hoops, which luckily are still in one piece. I'll have to install stronger hinges and a lock to prevent this from happening again. Pests, flood, flying hoop houses - I guess it's true that bad things come in 3's. Hopefully, this will be the end of it!

UPDATE (Fri. 11:00 PM): I just went into the garden to survey the damage. As some of you may know, all of my 3 x 6 feet raised beds are enclosed by 2 x 4 inch pine frames. Imagine my surprise to find that my 2 taller hoop houses were still attached to their frames. Yup, the wind had ripped the frames right out of the ground. I didn't even think that was possible!

Second Snow Storm of the Year

We woke up to more snow this morning. There was a bit of fog in the air as well. Perfect weather in my opinion for a nice fire and some comfort food.


My reinforced hoop houses are doing a much better at withstanding the weight of the snow this time around. By noon, we had about 8 inches on the ground. The metal frames did not move an inch, which is a good indication that the PVC cross bars have helped to stabilize the structures.


Also by noon, the temperature outside had reached 18 degrees F, while the sensor inside my hoop houses registered 30 degrees. Not bad if you ask me for a snowy and cloudy day. I dusted the snow off the tops of my hoops houses just to be on the safe side but left most of the sides untouched. I'm hoping that the white stuff will act as a kind of added insulation for the next couple of days.


As I was outside doing my day's chores, a rather large flock of crows settled into the tall pine and oak trees in our backyard.


I couldn't help but wonder where they were headed off to. Hopefully somewhere warmer.

Studying the Winter Garden

Last weekend, I picked up a digital max min thermometer from Home Depot. I'd been meaning to get one for a while now and by chance happened upon this one. It has a sensor that you leave outside to measure the outdoor temperature. It then sends this information to a small display that you keep indoors, which also measures the temperature inside your house. The screen shows the current indoor and outdoor temperatures, as well as the highest and lowest that was recorded during a given period. A button in the back allows you to reset this information.


I am hoping that this device will give me a better sense of what is happening temperature-wise inside my mini hoop houses. Specifically, I will be comparing the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded by the sensor, which is hung just beneath the inner layer of fabric, to the official high and low for my town on a given day. I will keep a daily record of this information for the rest of this winter. This information will be useful I think for a number of reasons:

1. It will allow me to better predict how warm the hoop house will get on a given day and under certain conditions (cloudy, sunny, partially sunny, snowy, windy, etc.). Based on my previous findings and the current weather forecast, I'll know if say venting is necessary.
2. In the fall, I'll know when to apply the inner layer of fabric once nighttime readings begin to dip below a certain temperature inside my hoop houses.
3. During the winter months, I'll have a better idea of how cold hardy a certain variety is by comparing the registered low to the damage (or lack of damage) done to that crop. Also, if the weather forecast is expected to dip below that minimum temperature, I'll know to harvest that particular crop before that happens.
4. Finally, once nighttime temperature readings are consistently above freezing in late winter, I will begin to sow some of my early spring crops (like lettuce, beets, peas, radishes, turnips, Asian greens and carrots) under cover. Hopefully, this will give me a jump start on the spring and summer growing seasons.
   

The frigid temperatures this week proved to be a serious test for my hoop houses. And the results are somewhat telling. On Thursday, the temperature in our town reached an afternoon high of 18 degrees at 1 PM (4 degrees if you factor in wind chill). When I got home, I noticed that the thermometer had registered a high of 53 degrees inside my hoop house for that day (granted it was sunny all day long). As expected, this also had an impact on the lows registered that night. While our town recorded a low of 7 degrees F Thursday night/Friday morning, the temperature inside my hoop house only got down to 20 degrees F. Over the past several days, I've observed anywhere from a 25 to 35-degree difference between the outdoor and hoop house temperatures during the day, and a 7 to 13 degree difference at night. My guess is that these differences will be less dramatic on cloudy and windy days.

I'm very excited and encouraged by these readings. This is some early indication at least that my mini hoop houses are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Also, I'll be very anxious to see what my veggies look like tomorrow, when I finally get a chance to check up on them. On a final note, I think I'll buy another max min thermometer to keep out in the open in my backyard in order to get outdoor readings specific to my garden.