Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
digit_gw

hoopies on the lawn!

digit
11 years ago

It seems that I've posted this picture here before:

It is from last year and just to show how I start off with some protected growing when the greenhouse & larger tunnel begin to overflow.

Here is a picture from this morning:

These were not the plants that were here overnight. Those plants have been moved back onto saw horses where they are preparing to be set out into the open garden. The plants here are having their first adventure outside the greenhouse. They will be "danced" back into the garage by sundown and the tuffies will take their place overnight.

Other "semi-tuffies" are across the aisle in the plastic tunnel. They are from my 1st sowing of tomato seed and do not need the transfer to the garage every.single.night. The smaller tomatoes here have just made the move to 4" pots and are living the good life, albeit a bit chilly under the rain clouds.

Steve

Comments (4)

  • amester
    11 years ago

    Gobsmacked with admiration, am I.
    Well done!

  • Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
    11 years ago

    I never realized you were setting the hoops up on your lawn, Digit! Do you have some kind of sockets in the ground that you stick the ends of the PVC into, or do you just stick it directly into the ground by itself? Sure looks all nice and evenly spaced!

    When you disappeared around here for a week or so I figured a few hundred of your seedlings had jumped on top of you and were holding you down! ;-) NO! You CAN'T go inside! If you're gonna make US stay out here and suffer, you're gonna stay with us!!!!!

    Glad to see all your (kazillions of) plants are doing well, and that your weather is apparently improving at least somewhat! And, I think I've said this before, but I will never ever, ever believe you're olde as long as you keep growing THAT many plants!

    Happy spring,
    Skybird

    P.S. The Rainy's and Woodles are up! Very small, but up!!!

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Oh, I just needed a little encouragement . . . You know, this forum sometimes becomes very Denver-centric. With by far the most residents in the region, that is how it should be. Then, there was a focus on landscaping -- I'm not much of a landscaper. Come pretty close to being a displaced subsistence farmer.

    These plants are taking a lot of my attention right now:

    Really, the larger tunnel is just a larger "hoopie." I think it would be more stable if I had used something heavier than 1/2" pvc pipe but it has just always served its purpose. The pipe over the 2 garden beds, as with those on the lawn, are just pushed over 3/8" re-bar driven into the ground. The beds are growing Asian greens and the central path is once again covered with flats of tomato plants.

    No, the weather has not improved much. I'm having trouble even finding the moment when the plants can come out into the open to be watered. The predicted high for yesterday of 48F was horribly off the mark. Yes, it did manage to make it to 50F . . . The next 2 mornings will likely see frost and I feel sorry for the few things I have already set out into the garden.

    Here at home, it really isn't so much the cold that they are struggling against in their more protected environments. It is a month of April when we officially had not 1, single day that was "clear." There was sum sun . . . but certainly not from sunrise to sunset so as to warrant the definition of a clear day.

    I would be shy to show you the peppers and eggplant (including the Rose Bianca :o) under these conditions. I'm trying to pump a little more heat into the greenhouse to see if that doesn't improve things for them. Still, without much light - they struggle.

    Another cool windy day is forecast but next week holds the promise of some 70F days! It kind of looks like everything needs to happen next week. I will, of course, not put out anything frost-tender just on the promise of adding to the 2 days we've already had this year that were above 70F but, the garden beds have all been cultivated and are waiting. Mother Nature has been training me to expect these long, slow warm-ups but I put up quite a bit of resistance to the lessons.

    The longer days are dawning for us up here near the 49th parallel. My resistance to lessons is one thing but the resistance of the cool weather and clouds to all that sunlight from above is something different. Happy Spring!

    Steve

  • highalttransplant
    11 years ago

    Digit, I often feel displaced around here too : ( My weather is probably closest to David's, and more similar to the folks in the Denver area than yours, but as you mentioned, the conversations typically revolve around what's currently happening along the front range.

    I really should set up some kind of hoopie thing myself. Some of my wintersown tomatoes are ready to be potted up, but could really benefit from some night time protection still, which they'll lose when they move from the milk jug to a nursery pot. I guess for now, they'll have to be hauled into the garage on chilly nights. We had a frost a week or so ago, and there was some minor foliage damage in the perennial beds. The forecast is calling for lows in the mid 30's a couple days over the next week, but I remember one year when the forecast was for low 30's and we ended up with a low of 18 degrees. Not as trusting of forecasts anymore. Have to go with my instincts, and err on the side of caution these days. I do have onions, peas, and lettuce out in their permanent homes, but I will hold off at least 3 more weeks before I'll risk the peppers and tomatoes. Haven't even started taking the pepper seedlings out for field trips yet, because the winds have been ridiculous lately, which is the normal spring time pattern here, but irritates me every year regardless.

    Bonnie

0