HOOP HOUSE |
In the past couple of years I have witnessed many extreme weather changes which have devastated most home gardens in my area. Weather extremes are not unusual, but they are generally not common. How can a normal person expect to have a successful garden if every year you are forced to deal with extreme floods and high winds one month, then two months of triple digit temperatures and drought conditions, followed by a winter with weeks and months of temperatures dipping down below freezing? Preparing, planting, and tending to a fairly large garden is an investment in both time and money. If you have an extreme weather condition it normally just sets you back a little bit, or shortens your production season, but it doesn't completely destroy your entire season. Having several extreme weather conditions in one season destroys your entire season. Having this happen several years one after the other and it can destroy your entire motivation to have a garden. I decided having a garden was something too important to me to just give up on, so if I wanted a garden in the future I had to come up with a way to control my growing environment. For a long time people have used green houses to give themselves a jump start on a growing season, or extend production at the end of the season. The problem with a small green house is just that, it's small and isn't meant for year long growing, but rather just for starting seeds. A large green house is very nice, but is also normally very expensive, and completely out of the budget for most small gardeners. Budget was my biggest problem. Most available funds are going into my bills and renovations to the new homestead, leaving very little for any additional projects. After lots of research I finally decided that building a hoop house might be a solution for me. |