As part of developing our Market Garden, I recently purchased a 10-foot x 16-foot Hoop House kit from Growers Solution. Originally, I was going to buy one twice this sized but it proved too costly, and we would need a building permit before we could construct it. I’m so thankful we opted for the smaller size! Building a Hoop House is not an easy endeavor. It is also a two-person job!

Andy and I started construction while I was on Spring Break in March from CMU. Andy took some vacation days for a ‘Staycation’ so we could build the Hoop House together. Thank God he did because there was no way I could have built it on my own! I have to say there is something very satisfying about working as a team, building our new life in Palisade together and reinventing our property. I’ve told him numerous times there is no one else I’d ever want to do this with other than him. I feel very blessed in that regard.

So as a team, we mapped out where the house would go, laid out the materials and got to work. Of course, the first thing we discovered was that more materials and tools were needed for us to start. Luckily, we had our beater farm truck, a recent purchase, so off to Lowe’s we went. We purchased a post hammer, a sawzall (a saw that can cut through metal) and several pieces of lumber (sadly wood is still insanely expensive, so this unexpected purchase hurt the pocket book a bit). With tools and lumber in hand, we set to work.

First in were the metal poles (Galvanized steel), which we had to measure to make sure they were spaced correctly, and Andy hammered them in (my short stature made it hard to get any momentum with the hammer). As he hammered, my job was to make sure they stayed level. Each pole had to go down two feet to ensure stability and prevent wind removal (we can get some wicked winds coming across the property). Luckily, we only hit a rock once which hindered the two feet sinking of the pole. With all the poles in, Andy set to sawing the ones down that weren’t quite even. My job was to hold the pole steady while he sawed…. Never again do I want to do that! My whole body vibrated to the point my eyeballs were rattling around in my head! I think every organ in my body shook, even my brain. I was a little worried I could get a traumatic brain injury from the experience! I’m a tough cookie so for me to be seriously worried about that happening tells you how intense it was! Never again….

With the vertical poles in place, we attached the arches that form the roof of the hoop house, this is also where the house gets it name. After the arches, we installed the cross beam that runs the length of the house. That was probably the easiest to install. From there we moved onto adding the wooden support along the sides of the house, one row along the bottom and a second one along the mid-section.

From there we moved to the end walls. We started with the back wall which included two vertical square metal poles with a shorter metal horizontal cross beam between them. Then we continued the wooden supports along the bottom of the back wall.

The front wall was a little more complicated because it included a screen door. With all the metal and wood supports in place, and a lot of reading and rereading the instructions, Andy first put all the pieces of the door together off site. Once assembled, he called me out (this took place on Saturday so while he was working on the door, I was cleaning the house). Like getting the walls level, we had the challenging of making sure the door was both level and hung evenly within the door frame. Overall, I think we were successful, but we may need to add some additional insulation strips once we’ve completed the whole construction to keep the cold out.

Adding the Poly (aka skin) to the Hoop House

Our last step is to put the skin on. I call it skin, but it is a 6 ml Clear, UV-treated Poly Greenhouse Film. This is what allows the light to come through and keeps it more affordable than a glass green house. Fast forward several weeks later, we are now installing the film. As intimidating as it felt it was pretty easy to do. Conceptually I had an easier time getting my head around what we needed to do because the steps were similar to what I do when I stretch a canvas for painting! So I took the lead on this part of the project. While Andy worked in the ‘wiggle wires’ that hold the poly in place, I pulled the material tight. We started with the back wall, got that in, then moved to the front wall. Of course, as we were putting that on, the screen door fell off soooo…. We will need to fix that before the green house is operational. Perhaps that fix will also address the concerns mentioned above about the cold coming in through the cracks. With the end walls up, it was time to pull the poly over the top. Andy tied a cardboard cylinder to the poly and through the cylinder from one side to the next. We then pulled the rope the cylinder and the plastic were tied with and on went the roof! Once pulled even from front to back we started the wiggle wire process again.

The final steps (other than repairing the door) are installing the roll-up strips so that we can roll the lower sides up to get air circulation especially when it gets a bit warm in the hoop house. This step is a one-person job, so Andy is taking it on while I work on bringing manure over to our future garden beds.

Before finishing the walls and ceiling, I spread manure over the ground and Andy rototilled it so that our interior beds were prepped before we enclosed the structure. We then put down weed barrier. Once my seedlings are ready, I will be planting a variety of tomatoes in the hoop house.

We need to track the temperature in the hoop house and if it stays above freezing during the night, I’m thinking I will move all our seed starters out of the fruit shed which is currently acting as our green house. I will have enough space in it to set up two long rectangular tables on which I can place the trays of seeds. The tables will be over the area we will eventually plant and shouldn’t compact the dirt too much. Then once we are ready to plant the seeds, the hoop house will be home to my tomatoes. Using Monty Don as my guide, I’m going to string the tomatoes up using twine as the support, so they grow vertically in tight yet well-manicured rows. I’ve not done this before so I’m looking forward to that garden experiment!

Depending on how the temperature is in this new green house, I’m hoping to grow lettuce and mixed greens in it over the winter months so we can have fresh salads all year long!

As Andy and I have never grown anything to this scale before, it will be interesting to see how our theories line up with reality. For visual aesthetics I’m going to create a small outdoor seating area in front of the hoop and have a few pots of flowers strategically set around that space. I have a red metal bistro table and two chairs that should look fantastic amongst all the greenery of the veggie patch!

Building a Hoop House

Seedlings Take Two!

Planting a Mini Orchard