A winter garden

Oh, the sun is just beautiful again this weekend and I have been outside enjoying it as much as possible.  My first morning cuppa joe was sipped on the back porch in my swing.  It is on the southeast side of my home and so as I warmed up on the inside, I also warmed up on the outside as the sun rose to greet me.  Jagger, who is spending the winter in the backyard, was curious as usual.  He finds humans interesting.  Llamas are naturally curious, much like cats, and he is no exception to that rule.  He looked at me, looked at the swing from different angles, looked at the coffee cup in my hands with the steam rising, and then looked at me and tilted his head!  All at a distance of perhaps three feet.  I held out my hand, down-turned, to him and he took a step closer, but not onto the concrete porch.  He sniffed the top of my empty hand and I turned it palm up. He sniffed my palm, then looked back up at me as if to say:  "Why is it empty?  Where is my treat?!  I really would like a treat!" 

Jagger's sweet face, asking for a treat

I assured him I would get him a treat after I finished my coffee and he blinked his lovely eyes, looked once more at my hand and wandered off to watch the birds at the feeder.  He got his treat in a little bit and then I came back into the house for another cup of coffee and to check email and to read a chapter in my current Jack Whyte book in the Camulod Chronicles series.  I have made it almost through the 5th book, The Fort At River's Bend.  I finished my third cup and got to a stopping place and it was time to make a trip to my winter garden and see what might need picking.

I have been able to take the plastic sheeting off of the portable greenhouse hoops in the beds the last two weeks as the temps have been mostly between 34 and 60 degrees F.  Folding the plastic sheeting has been difficult and I have not done a very good job of it....in fact, I would say that I just wadded it all up until I can get it all dry and have another pair of hands to help me.  I am talking about you, Ben!

Portable Hoop Greenhouse in position

Framework of the PVC for the Portable Hoop Greenhouse

These hoop houses were so easy and inexpensive to build quickly using 1/2" PVC pipe and 6 ml plastic sheeting.  My son, Ben, and I put two of them together one Saturday in December in about two hours as the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and the rain/sleet began to fall in the first of many strong and frigid cold fronts that have passed through here this winter. Nothing like what other parts of the country have experienced, of course, but pretty darned miserable for those of us here in East Texas.  And for me, with this being my first winter garden, I thought I had another week to get these built, but it was not to be!  We were able to get everything under cover, though, in a short time and before we were totally frozen to the bone.

We used 1/2" PVC pipe (and 3/4" would have been better, I think, because the wind gusts did knock these over a few times) that come in 10 ft lengths.  We cut 10 of the pipes in half and drilled holes in the PVC at the top ends of the 5 ft. long side pieces, and used cable ties to fasten these side pieces to the top 10 ft long piece at approximately 2 ft intervals.  This was NOT easy in the cold and wind, but we did it!  I came back days later when I could and tightened the cable ties even more, which helped with the sturdiness of the framework.  We also attached the bottom ends of the side pieces in a similar fashion to another 10 ft long PVC pipe that would lay on the ground. This meant that the frames could be folded up and easily stored when not needed.  But that plastic sheeting is still going to be a real booger to fold!  

The e-book we used

The directions that we got from the e-book by Taylor Birch used special PVC pipe clamps to hold the plastic sheeting to the pipes, but we could not find these clamps at our local Lowe's.  So we just held the plastic down at the ground with some rusty T-posts.  I found out later that I can order the PVC clamps online from one of several greenhouse supply companies and they are very inexpensive (about 65 cents or so apiece.).  The e-book is available for purchase and download to your computer or device from Amazon.com, and it also has good directions for building raised frame beds.  Check it out!

Inside the hoop frames my winter crops have flourished even though the outside temps have been quite extreme at times, as you can see from the photos below.

Inside the portable hoop greenhouse all is nice and warm!

And since my raised beds are 4 ft wide and I made three rows of plants in each, I am able to sit on my weeding stool inside the greenhouse and weed and harvest quite comfortably!  This was not consciously planned.  It was a lagniappe, a serendipity, for sure!  Gosh, I need a new weeding stool, don't I?!

Weeding and harvesting is easy inside the hoop frame!

You can see in this last photo that I ended up having to anchor the bottom pipes down with some stones and pavers to keep the 60 mph winds from folding the whole shebang over onto its side again.  The book says to anchor the bottom pipes either to the raised beds with a different type of clamp (available at Lowe's) or with stakes into the ground.  I will do this later.  I need to re-do my raised bed construction this year anyway before I plant in the Spring.  For now this is working for me very well.

It was so lovely out and I walked around my place for a bit, checking to see how the llamas, pastures and fencelines were fairing for the winter.  Everything was looking good!

But soon I came inside for it was time for NFL football playoff games at HeartSong Farm!