hoopdate
When we were tackling the giant yard projects this spring, bumping the final hoophouse assembly to fall seemed smart. Of course, I forgot we'd be busy preserving this time of year! We are moving along steadily though, in between batches of salsa and pickles. Also squeezing in fall plantings of spinach and other greens.
We're just about ready for the top plastic now: the door is hung, and end walls are framed. Still to do is creating a window/vent that opens on the back side, and a custom piece for the top of the door. The plan for the ends is to make removable framed sections that fit into the triangles/rectangles.
Exciting to be this close, and apparently a good thing as we have our first frost worries this week! Almost a month early (sigh). After a weekend with 3 days in the mid-80s, tomorrow's high is not expected to hit 60, with lows in the 30s and 40s for a few nights. The weather this year has sure been a roller coaster.
Generally our south-facing and sloped yard is enough of a micro-climate that it stays a bit warmer than predictions. Still, I'm a little worried about my peppers and tomatoes, which still have a lot of fruit to finish up. I also have a late crop of green beans just starting to bloom... I will watch the forecast, do some strategic covering, and hope that the temps trend a little higher than the forecast. A definite reminder though, that the end of the outdoor season is approaching fast.
Lookee that!
ReplyDeleteYour timing seems about right: I believe snow fell on our 2nd hoop before we got the plastic up. Sigh. What really always threw me is how much less light there is in the evenings in the fall. Can't really schedule a full plastic session between 5-7.
I like your endwall framing. And to think you have the door up before everything: you're overachievers! Never got anything fancy in either of mine for venting. Considering how few people see it, I am over it (the fact they just see a flap in the plastic above the door) but you guys will have a lot more "public" visiting than I do, so it makes sense to make it nice! But if you run out of time just remember you can staple plastic to the vent areas until you get them made...
Have fun! It looks really great.
Super fantastic! I love the idea of removeable end-wall panels. It looks great, a big hoop ti do to you....
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El: Thanks! As it turns out, we mostly ended up doing the plastic between 4 and 7, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteA: I hope the panels will work out well, it just seemed simpler to get the curved bits out of the way, and have flat sections to deal with. We'll see!