The tunnel is up! It's not done yet, but we have already moved in ... much of what we seeded here in August was eaten by pests (squirrels got all the peas, slugs the rest) so we are transplanting things from other parts of the garden to winter over -- which is why the bok choi and kale at right seems a little wilted. Lettuce on the left is going great guns, though.
It seems to me the making of one of these is simplicity itself. Build two 3' beds and a 3' pathway between them, and when you're ready, get some ten-foot PVC pipes, snap them together in twos, mark off even distances along the length that you wish to go, punch holes in the ground with a hammer and steel pipe (we used a fence ram and steel fence post), stick the pipes in, bend them across the beds and stick them in the other side ditto, then harness everything together with 17 gauge wire. Cover with a single sheet of plastic (you can push it around overhead with a broom), hold down all the edges with bricks, tighten, and throw some dirt over the bricks. Height is seven feet, so unless you are a really tall Chinese basketball player, you won't have to stoop to work in here.
The ends are the hardest part. We've done ours with fence posts, 1X4 sill and lintel, and a piece of 3/8 plywood for the door, at each end. The plastic is cut down the middle, rolled up on laths, and the laths are wired to the fence posts.
All the veggies that will winter in here are also planted in exposed beds, for comparison. Last year, and the year before, we had enough of a freeze to make this worth while. The previous ten years we would not have needed it.
Considering all the hooraw among greenies right now about plastic bags, and rightly so, I feel a bit vulnerable to criticism for making such a big plastic bag. Arguments in favor of glass are convincing, but at current prices we did what we could do. It's intended to supply us with fresh greens through the winter, and maybe cantaloupes and sweet potatoes next summer. This is not the elegant way to do this, but it's a greenhouse for under $200. We'll see how it goes.
good for you Risa! I'll pop back later on to see if the picture is working, as I'd love to see it. I have two individual raised beds covered in plastic, and am looking forward to greens this winter here, too. Tonight might be our first freeze, so testing! I think I would like to redo my pvc to enclose the whole thing so I can walk into it, but decided to give it a go this way for this winter, since that's how I had it set up. Walking into it would be way more convenient. Always learning...
ReplyDeletep.s. happy retirement!
Good on ya!
ReplyDeleteI tried loading the picture directly from Picasa, the way it told me to, and when I last looked the picture was there. But then it seems to have broken when it shared itself to Facebook, so I've gone back and uploaded it the old way in Blogger. Thanks for the heads-up. Always learning ...
p.s. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteIt looks wonderful, and I'm sure the fresh greens will make a welcome addition to your winter meals. Do you get much wind there? I'm afraid something like that here would end up as shreds flapping in the wind.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I am not sure that the plastic should be an issue; I thought that too until I read Elliott Coleman's reasoning on why it's better long term for the environment than eating trucked in veggies all winter (and in some cases than a glass greenhouse). Plus, like you I recycle my plastic from year to year. I still have the plastic from my first attempt at a greenhouse (3 mil plastic dropcloth from a big box hardware store) and as it's time to take the shade cloth (also recycled from year to year) off my veggie beds, I'll put the plastic over the ones that will be over-wintering our veggies too.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think appropriate, reasonable use of technology is bad. It's the throwaway society model that is bad.
Happy retirement too, btw...and so what this means is you now will just be working full time at the homestead, right? ;)
I read Coleman too; that's what convinced me.
ReplyDeleteFull time, yes. People are worried that I won't have anything to do! Hahahahahaha ... wheeze.
Well, S., they tell me if it's tight and the edges weighed down -- but we'll see ... I tightened today, put down cinder blocks at the ends, spread hay all along the edges, which are rolled up under the bricks so as to catch water -- then watered the hay to make it heavy. After the first rain it should be well tucked in. Soil is of course better but on that I defer to my crotchedy back.
Oooh, how very exciting!
ReplyDeleteHappy retirement! Does that mean you'll be blogging more too?
ReplyDeleteAnd happy poly- tunneling ("poly-culture" indeed). We are still waiting for our plastic to arrive. Maybe this weekend we'll have ours up. It will be a house structure, thought, not a tunnel.
This is wonderful, Risa! I've been wanting to do something like this in my backyard for a couple of years. Now that I, too, am retired, perhaps next year...
ReplyDeleteCould you possibly post a photo of the ends? I was a little mind-boggled trying to visualize what they might look like...
Thanks! And thanks for the inspiration!
I don't have a good end shot yet (and might never, my carpentry is embar-r-r-r-rassing!) but this pic shows, at a distance, the general idea:\
ReplyDeleteYou are going to need a fan. For two reasons, to cool during the sunny days and for air movement so the plants do not rot, control humidity. Maybe some backup heat also.
ReplyDeleteLisa