Simple Cheap Hoop House Alternative & Extend Growing Season

We had freezing nights all summer so I had to come up with a simple and affordable hoop house alternative which only cost me $8. Read the full article: http://www.thedoityourselfworld.com/articles/article.php?id=11466

We planted our garden three times this year since we moved to our new homestead. The first time we planted about 300 seedlings and rodents ate them clean off.

Next we bought plants and waited until all danger of the last frost was past and planted. But this year is very strange and it froze that night.

So we bought more plants and tried again. This time we had better success but we had a lot of colder nights which seem to have stunted the plants growth.

Then in August we started to get freezing nights again. We got hit with a freeze which we did not know was coming. Then it kept freezing on and off since then.

I bought some 3 mil drop cloths at a local store for only $1.99 each. At first I was putting them over the plants directly but each time it froze, anything touching the plants was damaged.

So I stared to consider ways to keep the plastic off the plants.

And I was also sorting out plastic sheets every night because in the morning I quickly tore them off to stop the hot sun from baking the plants under the plastic.

I kept hearing about hoop houses but they have a cost to them. You have to have something to make the frame with. I cannot afford that right now.

So I came up with a modified hoop house which looks like a tent.

I have stakes in the garden rows to allow the plants to climb up anyway. So I simply strung up a rope in between the stakes. The rope is higher than the top of the plants.

I then put my plastic drop cloths in place one more time. But this time they are permanent.

When I have to uncover the plants I simply roll the plastic up to a stake. Then I use tie down straps to keep the plastic from blowing around in the wind.

At night I simply remove the tie down straps and unroll the plastic into place over the plants.

In this way I have saved our tomato plants from temperatures down to 28 degrees so far with no problem.

If you dont have stakes like I had on hand, you can use sticks, bamboo, metal rods or anything that will hold the plastic up.

The only cost was the plastic at $8 total.

This is our modified hoop house. I call it our hoop tent.

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Troy
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