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.