By David Homa, Guest Columnist
On a good year, the home garden can grow from April to October in Maine. But often crops are lost to early fall or late spring frosts. These days, the climate is even more unpredictable with early snows and heavy rains. A great option to consider adding to your garden beds is a hoop house, that can extend your growing season by a month or two on either end. Covered with a thin 6 millimeters of ultraviolet greenhouse film, a sturdy structure can fend off the chaos of climatic instability. Hoop houses can be fitted to existing raised beds or placed over areas of your garden.
There are several key details to remember when planning a hoop house or deciding to extend the growing season: they are location, structure, and seeds.
The location of your hoop house should be either south or southeast facing. This allows you to get the greatest amount of sunlight. In addition, the hoop house location should account for the reduced sun angle that comes with the onset of fall and winter. Remember that conifers will shade your growing area and deciduous trees lose their leaves, allowing for the sun’s rays to shine through during the foliage-less time of the year.
Your hoop house should be structurally sound, not drafty or flimsy. The goal is to be able to weather whatever the winter throws at us. I like to use high-density polyethylene or HDPE piping reinforced with wood strapping to help the house hoops survive and shed snow.
When deciding what to plant, think about hardy varieties. Great choices include: Asian greens, carrots, kale, and spinach. Great Maine seed purveyors like Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Fedco use the snowflake symbol in their catalogs to show winter hardiness.
Remember these details and start extending your growing season this year!
David Homa owns Post Carbon Designs and does permaculture design and implementation in Southern Maine. For more info, visit www.postcarbondesigns.com.
