With so many lights running in the basement, I’ve started tripping the circuit breaker several times a day.  That gets pretty old pretty quick.  Plus, it’s not so good for the plants to sit in the dark all day!

So I undertook to build a mini-hoop house in the back yard.  A hoop house is a bit like a greenhouse.  It differs in that it’s not heated, and it’s built out of light weight materials that make it easy to move.  I designed it as a small scale version of the house I’m planning to put in the field out at the farm.  The one out there I’ll use not only for plant starts, but also to store tools and equipment in.  The one in the back yard is just tall enough for me to stand in, is about 14′ long, and is wide enough for one row of seedling trays along each side.

It’s made using 3/4″ PVC pipes bent into hoops and placed over rebar stakes.  Two pieces of 1″ x 1″ lumber are zip-tied to the hoops to form a purlin that runs the length of the house at the peak.  Pieces of 1″ x 3″ are screwed to the hoops about 36″ up from the ground, and serve as a place to anchor the 6 mil builder’s plastic covering.  The plastic covering is attached to the end hoops using clips made from split 3/4″ poly irrigation pipe.  One side of the house is designed to roll up using chain link top rail. 

So far it’s working out great.  The plants are all getting plenty of sun, and with the shade cloth I put over the top, it doesn’t get too hot in the afternoon.  Here are some pics:

I finally got around to transplanting the 320 or so lettuces that have been sitting under lights in the basement.  Despite the fact that I’m still working out a good, efficient process, it went pretty quickly.

There are six different kinds of lettuce in the two beds; a mix of buttercrunches, and green and red leaf.  The basic procedure is to jab the transplanter into the bed, open the bottom kind of like a post hole digger, reach down and take a plant from the tray and drop it into the tube, lift the transplanter, step down the row, and repeat.  Every three plants or so I have to pull the cart closer to me.  Not ideal (it would go much faster with two people), but it’s definitely workable on the small scale I have.

Here are some pics:

What a nice day we had yesterday: 81 degrees, very sunny, nice breeze blowing.  It was a great day to have the windows open!

Today is a different story: 34 degrees, heavy, wet snow falling.  The trees have budded, some have even started to leaf out, so I’m hoping the snow won’t break a lot of branches. 

I had set a few trays of vegetable seedlings out last week in preparation for transplanting them into the ground, so I made a trip out to the farm to put them in the barn lest they get crushed by the heavy snow.  As I opened the door, some movement caught my eye, and I thought, “Great, the mice are inside.”  But then I discovered it was a baby rabbit.  “Cute,” I thought.  Until I realized that rabbit had been snacking on my broccoli!  One tray had been munched on pretty heavily, but luckily the rest seemed to be okay.  So I set them up high where hopefully they won’t get eaten.  I suppose I wouldn’t blame the little bunny.  A nice warm barn full of tasty, tender greens on a cold, wet day.  Seems like rabbit paradise to me…

The moisture is a welcome thing, though.  We’re 2 inches behind normal for precipitation so far this year.  And we’re only 4 months into it!  That combined with a cooler than usual March has wreaked havoc on our planting plans.  The lettuce and spinach we started back in mid-March hasn’t amounted to much, with only very spotty germination.  Guess we should have started irrigating sooner.  Or else planted later.

At any rate, we’re running a good three weeks later than originally planned.  Our earliest salad greens won’t be available until late this month.  Chalk it up to inexperience.  It’s definitely a good learning opportunity, though.