Neato! You work circles around most of us, especially me. You make me tired just listening to all you get accomplished. I'm envious! Hats off to Tom! Do I hear or see a tuitorial coming up showing us how to cut these bottles? No fingers, please! I'm sure for that many containers, a bandsaw surely comes in handy. Now if I can invision what a bandsaw looks like. Guess I should go in our garage and see if hubby has one. For one or two jugs, that is not worth pulling out unless you have it set up on workbench or work table already. I know he's got a chop saw, a miter or saber saw, a jig saw but not sure of a bandsaw. When he comes back from grocery store, I'll ask. "Curiosity killed the cat!"

My goodness! When do you sleep? You are such a busy guy! Wish I had half your energy....Look forward to pics of the hoophouse as you start filling it up! What type of containers do you use in it? I have been wondering what to use in the unheated hobby greenhouse.

Tom, will you marry me? Oh wait, I'm already married. Shoot! :p

Whoa, Token! You made some changes to the hoop house! It's longer - is the wooden frame different? When I read about it on your blog, you attached the plastic to a piece of wood on one side for easy access, to release heat, etc. I imagine you retained that feature.

Question: When you put the plastic over the PVC pipe, did you attach the plastic to the PVC? I thought about trying heavy duty banker's clips.

I have the materials, except the pavers, but need to put it together. Today, the wind is blowing 10- 15 out of the north - it's COLD!

Excuses, excuses. I'll put on layers. At least the sun is shining and it's not raining for a change. We are running at least 20 inches above average annua precipitation. We had about 10 inches during the nor'easter and another 8 inches since. The trees and grass are dormant so they aren't taking it up. It's too cold for the water evaporate.

Walking outside is like walking on a wet sponge.

SWEET!!

I was just showing DH photos of just such a set up.

That's the new one for this year. Last year's hoophouse was 8' long. This one is 16'. The shorter one was too small. I had cups stacked on top of each other getting them in there. Hopefully, this year it will be large enough.

{{gwi:333269}}

I don't use anything to attach the plastic to the pipe. I attach it to the wood frame instead. There is a board on the front and one on each end that are screwed to the wood frame and the plastic is stapled to that for easy opening. It's not like I'll be doing that a lot for the next couple of months.

Awwww...that container's nothing. I've got a 15 acre container. I just don't have a plastic cover for it yet. :) :) :)

Lynda

My hoop house is pretty basic, not elegant, although it is the same size. I hammered pieces of reebar into the ground at two foot intervals, slipped 10 foot lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe over the reebar. I will cover it with 6 mil plastic from Lowe's. The cardboard is down. I like the pavers idea so I'll get them tomorrow.

I left the plastic off until the pavers are in. I'll use use heavy duty banker clips to attach the plastic to the PVC pipes. I put the hoop house in an area that is somewhat protected from the wind (no place is REALLY protected here). I am concerned that the plastic will be torn off by the wind. I am thinking about guywires to provide more stability.

I'll be on the road tomorrow, but hope to finish on Friday. We may have a bad snowstorm on Saturday.

Pam, we've got sleet and freezing rain in the forecast tomorrow night and Saturday. I'm sure that's what is heading your way on Saturday. Instead of guy wires, just get some treated 2x4's and lay them on the ground. You can use that to hold the plastic down. let the two sort ones on the ground lay on top of the longer ones. Use a screw at the junction to hold them in place. But a wood frame would be better, like on the one I had last year. This year's is build on a new raised bed and is permanent. Well...as permanent as things get in my yard.

LOL, Lynda!

Wow, Tom. Impressive. Where on earth do you find the time? I like the pavers to retain heat. Good thinking.

I've got to say, though, personally, if I had a hoophouse like that, there'd be veggies growing in it to eat during the winter, and my WSing would still be in containers in the driveway. I'm drooling thinking of all the salads a little hoophouse like that would provide!

What's keeping me from trying something like this is the fact that all those little voles would be drooling over my salad greens too! I'm just too worried that my hoophouse would turn into the Vole Motel!

:)
Dee

Dee, I find the time here and there. I built the raised bed this past fall, installed the pipe one morning last week, and covered it with plastic yesterday with the help of a friend. So really, it only took one day of working to get it all done. It was like 4 hours to build the bed. I already had workable soil there since my veggies were grown in that area this past summer. I don't eat a lot of salad, but this spring I do intend to remove a few of the pavers to grow some sugar peas and cabbage. I've grown lettuce before, but it goes untouched. There's something wrong about eating homegrown salad with store bought cardboard tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes, I'll wintersow them here in mid March for late April planting in two other raised beds.

Token, good ideas. Thank you. We have an odds and ends lumber pile at the top of the field. I'm sure I can find something. I'll wait til the storm passes to put the rest of it together. In general, weather is kinder to us than to folks in other parts of the country. Except for hurricanes and nor'easters.

That is outstanding, Tom... and no critters to disturb your containers... now that's the way to go!

How much to build one for me? LOL (okay, just a joke... but seriously..... I WANT WHAT YOU HAVE! :)

Carrie

Token do you have to water your containers inside the hoop house or does it keep enough moisture inside it?

Carrie, I spent $27 of the roll of plastic, $11 on the pipe. I already had the conduit, and the landscape timbers were clearanced due to being cracked and split. I got 30 of them this summer for $1. The pavers, they were used to keep our large containers off the ground at work. I got 121 of them for $10. The pavers aren't necessary, but it gives me a more level spot for placing small containers. And they will hold some heat. You could probably build a decent one with pressure treated wood for less than $50.

Glenna, yes. I have to water, but not much. The plastic has a lot of condensation that falls back like rain on really warm days. I usually just water the plants once a month or so. At least that was the case last year.

I don't usually worry too much about critters either. Last year, I had two owls roosting in the wild area in the gully. This morning, I spied something new.

{{gwi:456251}}

It's a really FAT hawk. She's perched herself in a squirrel's drey. I haven't seen the owls lately. I'm guessing this is why the squirrels have been chattering so much lately.

Love the container. I wish I could do one but my HOA would have a fit. I will never live in and HOA again :)

That hawk looks like it just had a squirrel lunch lol

I wonder if I could make smaller ones and put over top some seeds I direct sow like poppies?

Karen

Tom, how will the sleet effect the plastic covering of the hoop house? Will it withstand that? Where is 20 miles from you that it's snowing? There's a run on all the grocery stores today and tonight with anticipation of the "big coming snowstorm" they predict 12 or more inches. We have the refrigerator,freezer and cupboards well stocked. We are only 1 mile to grocery store which is good..probably run out of bread before Monday but we can make out. If it amounts to what they are predicting, even if we run out, the stores may not have any supplies left! We don't have to shovel..it is done for us but since we live on a cul-de-sac, our court is last to be plowed..Hubby keeps the snow shovel by front door so he can shovel to the garage(about 10 ft)go through the garage, raise the garage door and reaches down to pick up the newspaper..if he can find it in the snow!

That hawk was eating when I left for work. I think it did have squirrel. It's not a hawk's nest for sure.

pippi, the sleet will be okay. It's a pretty steep pitch and last year it held up fine under 4" of snow. More than that and I would be out there brushing it off. It was snowing in Salisbury NC most of the afternoon. It's only raining here.

Last year.
{{gwi:456253}}

Hey Token: How much snow did you get? Is your hoop house intact? We got 1.6" of rain, and a little snow at the end. I'll work on the wood frame this week.

1" of rain. No snow. The hoophouse is in fine shape. Tomorrow, I plan to reopen it, move in some cuttings and toss in a wireless thermometer. The other half sits on my desk. I can monitor the inside temperature without going outside. ;)

Good! A wireless thermometer - now that is a very smart idea! I'll try it for sure.

Pam, I finally got the thermometer installed this morning. Sitting directly on the pavers, it's 80 degrees inside the hoophouse. Outside, it's 45, sunny and windy. I'm curious if the temperature will drop to the same as the overnight low once the sun goes down. If it does, I'll have to rethink my idea of starting my annuals earlier. I don't like the idea of heating my hoophouse, but I have a few strands of Christmas lights I may use inside if it drops too low. If I can manage to keep it above freezing for a couple weeks, I'll be sowing annuals in early March.

Hey Token: What happened re: temps in your hoophouse at night? Are the pavers moderating the inside temps? At dawn this morning, temp was 27F here on Stingray Point.

I haven't finished the hoophouse yet. Running the roads, visiting family, no time. One more trip this weekend, then I'll be free ... to go back to work!

After putting the PVC pipes over reebar, I piled several inches of wrack from the last nor'easter on the ground, covered it with cardboard, put pavers on the cardboard.

Here is my progress to date:
{{gwi:456255}}

Your HH is so much straighter than mine! I was rushing to finish, weather was cold and windy. I figure my HH is an example of function over form - it won't be a work of art, but it should do the job.

{{gwi:456257}}

When we get back, I'll straighten the pavers, level the floor, put the plastic cover on, nail the boards together, and attach the plastic to the boards.

I picked up 2 strings of lights at Ollie's today - 75% off, less than $1.00 each. I think you are right about the lights providing just enough heat when it gets really cold. And the lights will bring a festive look to the little little hoophouse at night.

It's 39 and cloudy right now. It's been cloudy since about 2pm. It got up to 78 again this morning in there with the daytime temperatures running about 40-45. So that tells me if it reaches 50 outside, I need to be prepared to open it on one end to let it breathe. It might reach 90 or higher above 50 degrees on a sunny day. At night, the temperature falls slowly. I'm hoping when I add the black containers I'll be sowing in there, and the soil, it'll help. Right now it's 43 degrees. Only 4 degrees difference from outside. This morning, it was 28 outside and 31 in the hoophouse at 8am. So lights may be necessary to keep it above freezing. I'm gonna wait and see. Only perennials will be sown for now. Once the night time temps are back into the 30s in March, it'll be fine for annuals.

Token: A reliable source of heat & light is essential. For years, I used a cold frame, beginning in mid- Feb or early March. I planted seeds of flowers and vegetables in the house, under lights with bottom heat. When they got true leaves, they went into the cold frame. I kept a couple of low watt light bulbs in the cold frame. Those warming lights got young plants through a 4-5 week period when temps bounce around.(this was in the old days when we had blizzards and subzero temps in VA).

I have materials for another hoophouse (8' x 4'). I'd like to use it for cool weather vegetables and flowers. This fall, I planted a fall-winter garden - it's so easy and a great success. We are harvesting broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, kale, collards, Napa and Savoy cabbages now.

8 pound Napa Cabbage

{{gwi:348680}}

Contasting textures between blue-green leaves of Curly Kale and Caulifler:

{{gwi:348681}}

I could plant greens out in Feb or March, before starting the warm season vegetables.

BUT, I tend to start too many projects at the same time, so I may wait until fall for this one.

Wow Token (and Pam!) Those are amazing!!

Token ~ this may have been asked on another thread, so forgive me if that's the case! How often do you have to open it up for air venting? Your winter temps are very similar to mine. When you do open up that one end, do you have to tear thru the staples and wouldn't doing that over & over ruin the effect of the plastic?

Lastly, is the hoop house in full sun or p/s? I love the idea of re-using it after WS'ing, therefore utilizing that space almost year round. LOVE that idea!

Hugs,
Wendy / sassyb...

Wendy, I won't have to worry about the hoophouse until March. It can stay buttoned up until the daytime temperatures are in the 60s and only then if it's sunny. Mine is in full summer sun, but partially blocked in December and early January. As the sun angle changes, it gets more light. Once the trees leaf out, the sun angle is high enough that it stays in full sun for about 6 hours, then a brief shade from about 3pm to 5pm. In June, I get only a couple hours of shade.

I use 1x3 boards screwed to the wood raised bed to hold the plastic down for now. Once I get to a point where it needs to be opened every day, I'll just use bricks to hold the wood strips down at night, and spring clamps to hold the plastic back when open. I roll the plastic up over the boards in the front.

The plastic really only lasts 1 year. It gets brittle from the cold and UV radiation of the sun. If you want to reuse it, you could buy greenhouse plastic, but it's more expensive. I think my one roll, 10'x25' was $27.

Thanks for the info Token! Did you get the plastic roll at Lowe's or some place like that? I don't think $27 a season is a bad deal anyway. :)

Awesome job..

~Wendy