Build a Hoop House!

Building one of these things is pretty straight forward.  If you have even the least bit of carpentry experience you and a friend could easily build one like the one Randy and I built in a couple evenings.  It can easily extend your growing season by 5 weeks, and will make warm sunny days about 8 degrees C warmer inside.

We built the 6' X 12' hoop house last week beside the one we are already using on Colleen's property.  Up here in this area of the Yukon, we are in USDA Hardiness Zone 2a (east coast equivalent would be in areas of northeastern Ontario or northern Quebec).  It's crazy to think of the difference in climate mountains make around here - on the Alaskan side of the St. Elias Mountains (about 300km south of here, on the Alaskan coast) is Zone 7b (equivilant to central Texas, or Georgia).

Anyways, USDA Hardiness Zones are used to determine what varieties of plants can grow region to region.  Zone 2a means that only plants that can withstand winter temperatures of -42.8 - 45.5 C will usually survive here.  Yes, it does (I've been told..) get that cold up here in the winter.  As such, Whitehorse (capital of the Yukon) has an average of 75 frost free days per year.  To put that in perspective, Toronto has an average of 150, whereas New Orleans has 300.

Using a hoop house is kind of like moving a piece of your land hundreds of kilometres south, into a different Hardiness Zone where there are more frost free days.  Up here in the Yukon and interior Alaska, the combination of daylight (FYI, tomorrow is the Solstice.  The sun will rise at 3:20am and set at 11:38pm) and using a hoop house makes for a delicious combo.

Supplies you will need are:

2'X4's to make the frame

1" tubing which make the hoops
(which are fitted into 2X4 frame by using a big drill bit)

Plastic covering and thin pieces of wood
(placed over plastic and drilled into frame to keep plastic covering in place)

A door, nailed to the frame.  Voila. 

A few summer projects

This’ll be fun.

A couple of the hotel buildings, in the 1960s

I’ve been back up in the Yukon for a little over a month and have three more to go until the contract at the hotel I’m working at is complete.  My job up here is to landscape and maintain the grounds at the hotel (same one as last year).  The hotel has changed a fair bit over the years, but it still has a bit of a lodgey vibe from when it was called the Alas/Kon Border Lodge when it first opened in the 1960s.  It’s been here since then and takes up a decent piece of property with the grounds requiring a fair bit of work.

Last summer was my first season working this job and coming back for this season means I know what to expect and what I need to do to have fun with it.  I also now know the land up here a bit more, the climate, the town and friends from last year so I figured I’d use the resources that exist here, coupled with a few ideas of mine, and make my summer into a giant agricultural experiment.

Beaver Creek in the 1960s -
A few lines and dots in the Boreal forest
(not much has changed)

So I came prepared and have been laying the groundwork for a few summer projects.  Here’s what I have in town to work with:

1. 35 - 40 garden beds at the hotel with a
 liberal spending budget for the landscape.

2. Greenhouse and compost at Colleen’s place.

3. White River First Nation Community Garden

   with greenhouse, compost system and tiller.

4. Lots of junk.  Old barrels, tubes,
        old fooseball tables, etc.

5. Container gardens built on skids
at the back of the property

I’ll keep ya posted on progress.

"We want y’all to go to school, do the right thing, and ride y’all bikes”

My friend in Detroit posted this short doc on riding bikes in Detroit.  Oh, how I miss racing city busses on my bike in downtown Hamilton on a hot summer day.. Enjoy!

Detroit Bike City from Alex Gallegos on Vimeo.