View Full Version : Got a hoophouse tour today!
A small farmer/backyard gardener type gave a class and tour today of his unheated hoop house. I was amazed that there was so much growing, and that a lot of it looked really good too. This farm is almost on the Vermont/Massachusetts line, and its in the low 20's today. In addition to the 60' long 13' high one, he had one hobbit sized about 3 feet tall that we could creep in to.
We got to nibble whatever we wanted to in the hoophouse. I tried some Asian greens I've not had before, as well as lettuce, chard, and celery. I will have to supplement the seeds I've already purchased with some early hearty greens. :laff:
Haven't figured out how I can include a picture here that is resident on my hard drive....
Cool! And its not heated??
no heat through the winter. He will occasionally heat it in the spring when he has all his flats started in there, and there's a killing frost predicted, just so he doesn't lose all his inventory.
There are 2 layers of plastic on the hoophouse with air between, he has a small fan that maintains the air space. Most of the plants were mulched with hay, but that's it. And it gets cold here.
Yes, I started some seeds when I got home. :)
The easiest way to upload the picture - I think - is to create an album in your profile. It should walk you through the upload process. Then you can post a link to that here in the thread.
I'd love to see a picture and I'm curious, did this look "doable" by an ordinary human? :~) I'd like to try something similar, maybe using shade cloth for a protected Summer garden.
I'm still futz-ing with uploading, but I found some stories on line that show pictures of the place I was at.
http://cheesemakinghelp.blogspot.com/2010/12/laughing-dog-farm-in-gill-ma.html
He also has a series of videos on ehow.com that show how to do a hoop house. Look for Daniel Botkin hoophouse. He's also on youtube.
by the way, if you look at the picture that shows the Laughing Dog Farm sign, yesterday the snow was so high the sign itself was just showing.
Wow - that would be some high snow! Enjoyed that blogpost and the photos - I'd love to do a hoop house too. If someone in VT/MA can garden year round - what excuse do I have? (other than the $ to buy the hoop supplies).
I know of farmers that use hoophouses to manage manure. Downright toasty in there with all that decomposing going on.
I just got a book from the library The Winter Harvest that outlines using hoophouses through the winter. I haven't finished the book but I am inspired too.
I picked up the first of my purchases to make my own hoophouses. I got 100' of some plumbing tubing for 18 bucks at Lowe's. I will cut this into 5 foot lengths to use as hoops.
Next up: some rebar, once I figure out how I'm going to cut it. Should be about 16" long, 1/2 goes in the ground, the other half is inserted into the tube/hoop. Since this tubing is already formed into a round, I might be able to get away with shorter pieces of rebar than I would need for a straight piece of PVC pipe. I did look for uv resistant tubing, but they didn't have any that I could find. I figured this is cheap enough, to easily replace if the hoops get brittle and break. Plus, I don't intend to have them out when the sun is really strong in the summer.
Then: greenhouse plastic. It was recommended to buy this specifically over generic plastic so that it will last longer.
The tubing I got will cover 5 of my (12 foot long) raised beds, and the rebar can easily be removed during growing season. I didn't want a permanent setup, as I rotate crops each year.
Next up: some rebar, once I figure out how I'm going to cut it.
Rebar can be purchased in pre-cut lengths. I've seen them in the local hardware store but don't remember the price. My neighbor gave me some. The ones I have are 2 feet long and I've used them for years for all sorts of garden jobs. If that was the closest size you could find, you could just drive them in deeper.
I just took a fantastic workshop over the weekend with some great folks who design and build sustainable, unheated greenhouses. They showed us pictures of the ripe tomatoes they harvested in DECEMBER at 8500 feet in Colorado. They're mostly made of recycled or repurposed materials, not expensive to build, and are just amazing to look at. Now of course I'm completely itching to build one for myself: http://pennandcordsgarden.weebly.com/greenhouses.html
wow, great pictures Puglogic!
I ordered a roll of greenhouse plastic yesterday, and picked up some rebar from Home Depot and already have the hoops. Just need to wait for the 3 feet of snow to melt. I'm thinking of picking up a big black plastic sheet to place over the garden to hasten the snow melting and ground thawing (so I can insert the rebar as an anchor).
I never even thought of keeping tomatoes growing that long, I was just assuming brassicas and greens. But maybe I can start some tomatoes later in the season, and keep them in pots in the greenhouse. I should be able to at least get an extra month that way.
I think those folks can pull off four-season growing because they have the "thermal mass" thing down. Those big barrels in the pictures? Full of water. In the winter, the sun shines through the big windows and heats those barrels up, which maintain that warmth like big batteries until the next morning. Recently, they say, we had a run of temperatures at -15 to -20 F. Inside the greenhouses, because of the moderating effects of that thermal mass, it never dipped below freezing. Makes so much sense (plus they got the barrels for free.... :) )
I'm so excited about your hoop house project, herbgeek. I have some Home Depot gift cards I want to use up....maybe for materials like yours?
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