The new and much enlarged hoophouse is ready. It took a while. Projects seem to take twice as long as I think they will. For those who like to re-read, this was an incomplete from last season. If I had a list, this would have many extra thick lines through it – as if to say you are so done you have been redacted. At least for now. We might get a terrible wind storm and we might need to start all over again. The itsy-bitsy spider is our role model.

The hoops on this are made from a re-purposed materials. Must give credit to Rick for the concept – he came to one of Anne’s plant sales last year and thought we might like something like this. And we did.

Planting greens and other cool weather crops into the hoop house has been on the list of things to do for a couple of weeks now. Now we have six bags of spinach, radish and butterhead lettuce seeded. We’re guessing the bag planting will be fine for these shallow root crops. I did over-plant each bag so heavy thinning will be in order, but the seeds are older and germination might be less than optimal in these cooler conditions. Although it wasn’t cool in the hoop house at all when I was planting. The sun was shining and with only a light wind – probably over 80 degrees. It’s all a big experiment — later we will share some wildly anecdotal conclusions based on our initial results and experiences.

This design comes from Eric on ericprojects.com. Seems like a much more substantial build than our previous attempt at a high tunnel cool house. The previous build did not last too long.

We still have the task of applying the plastic in such a way so as to completely eliminate any drafts or flapping. That is likely what ripped the last hoop house to bits. It can be very windy here.

I constructed the door out of part of a shower door that will not likely ever be part of the shower, and pine boards I had. It all feels and looks pretty good. But then so did the last one. Our plan is to plant some cool weather crops in a few weeks and then slap the plastic on when it starts to get really cool. It’s all about extending and getting a jump on the growing season.

This is seriously disappointing. Lessons learned: binder clips are not that strong, wind sucks, better to fix something when it is a little broken – rather than waiting for morning. I suspect we need a more permanent structure… perhaps the old chicken coop could be used.

It is windy out there this morning, but the plastic is still attached. Good news.

This hoop house is suppose to be an easy assemble, easy move around type structure, but with all the reinforcing that had to happen, it’s not going to move so easily. Still, it’s exciting to contemplate the jump-on-growing-season possibilities this structure will provide – assuming it stays intact. Already the ground inside is warming up.

It will need to dry out some more before we plant anything. Not sure what to plant yet, other than spinach. I have a solar gardening book that might offer some ideas.

The holiday weekend is nearly over. The leftovers are nearly finished. Time to get back to work!

A bunch of snow welcomed us home to Iowa yesterday. A different bunch of snow ushered us out of Colorado. Snow seems to have hastened the collapse of poorly structured hoop house in the garden. The wind helped peel off the plastic even before we left for the weekend, but now the demise is complete. Bummer.

All is certainly not lost. We can rebuild him. But we have likely missed our opportunity to bury the edges of the plastic. My backup plan is to sandwich the plastic edges with 2×4′s and stack rocks and bricks on top of the 2×4′s. And I need to build a door on the one edge. But not today. Today is an inside day.

Anne has a colleague who inspired us to build a hoop house. Our growing season in Iowa isn’t the shortest, but it could certainly stand to be a little longer. And if we do this correctly we can have more fresh greens and vegetables for more of the year. It can extend the growing season a month or more in each direction.Â

The plans are not original, but were followed very closely from westsidegardener.com’s instructions. Very helpful. The length and width worked out nearly perfect for our garden space. All that is left to do is the plastic cover, and a door of some kind. This will be an interesting gardening adventure as neither Anne nor I have ever done solar gardening before. Please send all your advice to the comments sections!