Create a Hoop House
A hoop house is a great addition to your garden that can extend your warm temperature vegetables gardening a month longer and earlier during the season. In general, a hoop house is a portable greenhouse that can be moved from one garden bed to another in less than an hour or so. It can protect your plants from excessive rain, wind, and increase the temperature around 5-10 degrees (and more). It will allow you to rotate the plantings and protect small seedlings from severe weather and frost. You can choose to build either a mini hoop house that will protect a raised garden bed, or a large walk in hoop house that can house a variety of plants. Here are the steps on how to build a sturdy hoop house.
You will need:
- 10 piece of 25 foot lengths of 1 inch diameter flexible PVC tubing
- 5 piece 10 foot lengths of rigid 1 inch diameter PVC
- 26×26 foot sheet of 6mm plastic sheeting
- white or black tape
- 20 piece 2 foot long of 7/8 inch re-bar
Steps:
- First, insert the 2-foot long pieces of 7/8 inch diameter re-bar about 1-foot into the ground and 1-foot apart.16 feet from the first row, make a second row of re-bar.
- Then, search for the center point of each length of flexible PVC. Use a duct tape to attach the center point of the flexible PVC to one of the 10 feet lengths of the rigid PVC. Wrap the tape over and below across both diagonals where the two pipes cross. Repeat the taping process until you have all the 10 flexible PVC pieces attached to the pipe and 1-foot apart.
- Next, bend the flexible PVC into arcs and place each end over two pieces of re-bar that are 16 feet apart. The position of the rigid pole is at the apex of the arc formed by the PVC when it is placed over the re-bar. Attach the remaining four pieces of rigid PVC down side of the row of hoops using duct tape. Attach one on each side at ground level and another on each side about your hip height.
- To cover down on each open end, drapes the 8 feet plastic sheeting over the hoop house. Start from the fifth rib of the hop house. Use a staple to staple every 2-inch down the ridge line going from the fifth rib to the front of the hoop house. Pull the plastic tightly as you go. To make sure that the plastic has even tension, return to the fifth crib and repeat stapling each 2 inches going towards the rear of the hoop house. For each side support, repeat in the middle and work towards the front. Return to the middle and work towards the back.
- Finally, cut the plastic sheeting from the center point on the ground up to the ridge pole. During the day, allow the pollinators such as bees and butterflies to access your plants and temperature control by rolling the sheeting back on each side and tie it open.
Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5032544_build-hoop-house.html
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason-riedy/2715538555/
