Archive for March 27, 2015
Grow Your Own: The End of an Era
by John Weckerle
As Spring progresses, we find our interests turning toward vegetables once again – this time, wanting more, and sooner. Our shorter growing seasons here means not planting many things until nearly the end of May, and saying goodbye to some of our favorites in early September. With that in mind, we experimented with putting a high grade greenhouse plastic on the hoop house, with the idea of getting cool-weather crops year round and getting the drop on Spring, possibly planting tomatoes and other goodies in early to mid-April.
The system responded by flattening itself upon receiving its first inch of snow. While it rebounded to about its original configuration when the snow was brushed off, and did so for somewhat deeper accumulations, this did not bode well for the future occupants of the garden. Subsequently, wind became a problem; we tried several methods of attaching the plastic, but none seemed to work. Finally, the velcro we used for the door gave up the ghost, and we gave up on the experiment, removing the plastic for some future use.
Last weekend, we deconstructed the hoop house, having ordered a tube-steel framed, plastic-covered 12 x 24 Shelterlogic greenhouse from tractorsupply.com. The greenhouse has large doors and screened vents at each end, and the sides can be rolled up, and possibly removed (we’ll see) during warm weather). We’ll be assembling this over the next couple of weekends (we hope; the instructions are all pictures with no narrative) with the hope of picking up our first plants from Parker’s in April rather than late May. We may have to make some minor adjustments in the name of rabbit/squirrel control, but what we see in the hieroglyphics gives us cause for optimism on that count. With luck, we’ll be able to extend the tomato/pepper/eggplant season by a month or two in each direction, and the steel tubing construction should stand up to most elements (at least we hope so). With more luck, we’ll be able to grow greens, beans, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and other tasty edibles through the winter, with our next challenge being water delivery during freezing weather. We’ll have coverage of the assembly, installation, and subsequent activities in the coming weeks!