June 28, 2020

My hoop house is filling up with empty pots. Nearly all of my seedling have been planted out in the garden by now. I have a few plants left in the hoop house. A couple big pots of greenhouse cucumbers. They do very well in here – I’ve grown them inside a couple years now. I am trying some eggplants in pots this year. In past years the flea beetles have killed them out in the garden.

April 22, 2020

out with the cabbages, in with the tomatoes

My little unheated hoop house is working out very well this year. On Sunday I brought all my tomato, pepper and basil plants down to the hoop house. Since it was full to the brim with onions, brassicas and greens, I moved all of these out to the garden. They can stand the cool weather and I just covered them with a light row cover. The pictures here show the full hoop house, then after I emptied it, and then the hoop house with the tomatoes, peppers and basil. Still…

April 14, 2020

mice in my hoop house

I knew I had a mouse in my hoop house. It was leaving half eaten acorns in some of my plants. Then it started nibbling on the pea seeds in a couple big trays full of pea seedlings. I took the peas up to the house to grow and put out three snap traps with peanut butter. The next day I noticed nibbled Swiss chard. No mice in the traps. I brought all the chard up to the house. Then today, I saw they had started nibbling on the kale.…

March 15, 2020

seedlings in my hoop house

I planted lots of Brassicaceae (cabbage-family) seeds a week ago. They are all cute little sprouts now. They are down in my hoop house with onion, beet, parsley, spinach, and lettuce seedlings. It’s cool, in the 40’s (F), outside today but bright sunshine. The hoop house is at 80F. My husband ran power down there the other day, so my fan is kicking in when the temperature gets to 80. I love to be able to tend seedlings in on the hoop house benches rather than inside on my shelve…

March 11, 2020

chilly night ahead for my hoop house

Our forecast says 30F tonight. Chilly for my little seedlings. I put the trays on the cement floor and covered them with a couple layers of row cover. I hope that’s OK for them.

March 11, 2020

the first seedlings in my hoop house

I moved several trays of seedlings to my hoop house on Monday. This morning they are looking really happy. Having plants in there has made the air nice and humid. I can feel it when I walk in. It’s wonderful. No need to have my heat mats on yet as the nights have been staying around 40F. This weekend will get close to freezing and I’ll get the power on and the mats going then. The plants I put on the hoop house are very cold hardy: lots of onions,…

February 27, 2020

my empty hoop-house is warming up

In the bright sun and near 60F weather this past weekend, my little hoop-house was heating up. It’s 80F in the picture taken mid-afternoon on Sunday. The vents open automatically at 80, so the temperature doesn’t go above that. I hope I can figure out how to use my hoop-house this year before the end of April, which is when I put seedlings in it last year. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to get it to retain heat at night. The big open hoop-house is not like my low tunnel,…

April 23, 2018

my new greenhouse – an unheated small hoophouse

April 8, 2018

hoop house taking shape

April 7, 2018

hoop greenhouse construction

We’re building a hoop house today!! It will be 10×12 ft and will go in the backyard, unheated, and should hold lots of seedling trays. It will be a temporary, spring-only structure to give extra space during April and May. Today is a chilly wet day, so we are enjoying this as an garage project for now. We bent the first hoop and it looks good. So far, so good!!

weeks and counting until my last spring frost