Two Feet in the Dirt

Building the hoop house was one of our biggest projects in getting the farm up and running and has been looming over our heads for months now. While we put up most of the structure this past fall, we opted to leave the plastic covering off for as long as we could so we wouldn’t have to worry about any damage or collapse if we had heavy snows in the early winter. But with February and thus our first planting dates coming closer and closer, it was time to put hoop house construction back on the front burner. 

Our original plan was the pull the plastic cover over the structure this Saturday when my dad was able to come help. Pulling the plastic is definitely more than a two-person job, so it was essential that we plan the work for a day when we had at least one other helper. However, covering a hoop house is also an incredibly weather-dependent job. Because we are working with a 2,000 square foot piece of plastic that will catch even the slightest breeze, it is essential that there be very little wind. In monitoring the weather for Saturday, it wasn’t looking so good. With wind gusts of over 20 mph forecast to start early in the morning along with possible rain and snow, we decided to move on to plan B and starting asking any and everyone we knew in the area if they could help us earlier in the week. Fortunately, we got a volunteer and with her help, we wrangled the plastic cover into place in about 2 hours. Mike and I hustled for the rest of the day to finish up all the other details and now we have a fully covered hoop house and it’s already feeling warm inside! We’ve got a few finishing details to work on, but knowing that the bulk of the work is done is a relief.

It’s amazing that we are already this close to the growing season. It feels like time has been flying by with all the work we’ve done over the past six months, but believe it or not, the first seedlings for transplanting will be started next week and the first seeds will go into the ground in the hoop house in about a month!