Saturday, May 7, 2016

Constructing a Hoop House

The idea to build this hoop house came to me well before Spring arrived but wasn't motivated to go out and build during cold days. Around March end, I headed to Home Depot where a staff helped me to come up with this kind of a structure as transporting 10 ft long pipes was not easy in my Ford Escape.

I have two raised beds with 8 * 4 ft and 7.5 * 4.5 ft in dimensions.



Materials needed :
----------------------------------------------------
a) 4 of 1/2 in * 10 ft PVC pipes (I then had 6 of 3 foot long pipes which makes the inverted V shape and are joined by 90 degree elbow, I had 6 of 2 foot long vertical pipes that hold the ends of inverted V and are connected by 45 degree elbow, 4 of 4 foot long pipes for ridge-lines connected by connector)
b) 6 of 45 degrees elbows
c) 3 of 90 degree elbows
d) 2 connectors
e) 20 count zip ties
f) 6 Iron Rods 2 ft long
g) Easy Gardener Bird Netting 14 * 45 ft ( covered 2 of the raised beds structure)
h) Caps to close ridge-lines open ends

How to Build:
-----------------
1) Hammer the Iron rods at 4 corners of the raised bed and one each at the center on the long side of the bed.
2) Insert 6 of those 2 foot long pipes on these Iron rods, now attach 6 of those 45 degree elbows. Make sure atleast 1 foot length goes into the bed, this will keep the hoop house intact against strong winds. 
3) Using the 90 degree elbow connect two of the 3 foot long pipes to make 3 inverted 'V'
4) Attach each of these inverted 'V' to the their respective 45 degree elbow on both sides
5) I attached ridge-lines on both the sides and used zip ties to hold them in a place.
6) Covered the entire structure with bird netting and had bricks hold the loose ends of the net. 

I plan to use a plastic sheet during fall to extend the growing season. 

No comments:

Post a Comment