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Cottage Gardens

It's that time of year again

14 years ago

The hoophouse is under construction. Last year I built a temporary cold frame to overwinter rooted cuttings and start seeds. This year I'll be doing the same. I consider it a large shuffle-in wintersowing container. I've got lots of cuttings in the basement that will be moved out during a January warm spell. It'll be covered with plastic in a few days. I used 3/4" pvc pipe and conduit. The plastic is 6mil builder's plastic purchased from Lowe's. It's 4' wide and 16' long. It's just tall enough for me to crawl into and out on the ends.

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Comments (8)

natal
14 years ago
It's just tall enough for me to crawl into and out on the ends.

Nice for while you're still young and flexible, but you might want to start thinking about a greenhouse to use further down the road. ;)
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token28001
Original Author
14 years ago
I've got plans to build a greenhouse/potting shed one day. It's just not in the budget now. I need to finish the inside of the house before I invest in something like that. I do, however, already have eight 32" square windows I picked up from a guy at the landfill. He was just going to throw them away. Can you imagine? I'm looking for sliding glass doors now for the roof.
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girlgroupgirl
14 years ago
That's very nice, Token!
I put mine up over the vegetable beds yesterday. Mine are generally shorter and I use pipe clamps on the sides to slip the PVC into - simply because I need to take it down for the spring, of course. It kept the frost off the marigolds the other night, so I still have some fresh flowers :)

I think yours is particularly handsome.
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token28001
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks GGG. I'm thinking the pipe can be used to support my pole beans next year or I can slip heavier conduit over the 1/2" stuff I hammered in to create a weird looking Florida weave for my tomatoes next summer. I like doing multiple things in the same place. It allows me to grow a lot more varieties. And boy, do I have a lot of tomatoes to try next year.
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pippi21
14 years ago
Tom,how did you bend those white hoops or are they that flexible that they bend to fit over the pipe that you have hammered into the pressure treated wood? How did you manage to get those hoops so uniform with each other? Duh! Next time can you make a video of this so we can see the process in live action? You know For us thick brain people! LOL!
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token28001
Original Author
14 years ago
The pipe is flexible. The anchors are set the same distance apart so when it all comes together, it's uniform. It's actually not. I can see differences when I stand looking straight down the bed, but you'll notice there's no photo of that. ;)
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aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
14 years ago
Now that's what I call a very elegant hoop house. I did something similar to one of my landscape tie raised beds, I pounded short pieces of rebar in on the inside edges of the ties of my bed, yours looks much nicer and much sturdier than mine.

Annette
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pippi21
14 years ago
You know it is so nice that everybody shares their knowledge and talents with others. We all learn from these message boards. Thanks to all of you who share so generously of your God given talents and gifts.
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