It was easy peasy. It took more time to buy the materials and bring them home than it did to put the whole thing together.
So into my hoopty goes some early lettuces, broccoli rapini, some left over onions (that didn't fit into the onion bed) and my carrots.
I've tried spring time carrots before here with poor results. It gets so HOT so quick that most everyone says that carrots are better as a fall crop here in NC. I finally had a great crop last fall. But we've eaten up all our fall carrots and we're now buying organics from Trader Joes. (Oh the horror! Mine were so sweet! You should have seen SM's face when I told him we were out.)
So desperate times call for deperate measures. I hope that by starting them inside the hoop house, I'll get enough of a jump start that I'll get us some munchy sweet carrots to go on top of the yummy salads that will (hopefully) sprout soon.
I love broccoli too but just can't seem get anything to amount to much. So I'm going to try rapini this year and see what happens.
I can't tell you how excited I am by this. I really don't have a good reason as to why I haven't done a hoop house before this year. I feel like I'm late to the party. Better late than never!
In reality I hope to be 6 weeks early to this garden party. Last frost around here is April 15th. So I'll have a 6 week head start on spring veggies and hopefully be munching on that salad sooner rather than later.
Yeah me!
Whoo-hoo! You go, tami!
ReplyDeleteWonderful, Tami - I'm so excited for you. Can't wait to get your feedback on how it works.
ReplyDeleteGreat hoopty! It looks a lot like ours (as yet unused). Questions: how tall is it? And will you just unroll the plastic from the sides? Ours seemed to be very heavy and not easy to access what was inside. Of course yours is over raised beds, which might make a difference?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing how it works for you! April 15th last frost??? Ours is May 15. No wonder we want to move south.
We did the exact same thing with our (few) raised beds last year! I have spinach, onions, lettuce and peas in there already! Don't know why we didn't think of it before either. Duh! :)
ReplyDeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the party! :-)
ReplyDeleteHey Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that our IS in a raised bed makes it easier. The PVC is 10 long and then bent over a 4 foot bend. I thought about cutting them but thought I'd try it "tall" for now. The plastic is 4 mm, not too heavy. I could roll each side up but I'll likely only roll the south side up.
Yep, I did the same last year, But covered it with bird netting. Trying to keep the Crows out of the mellons. Didn't work to well and I got a few Snakes tangled up in the netting!
ReplyDeleteI want to build one this year. 10' x 12' and cover with 6 mil plastic and use it to extened the growing season.
Tom