Our Latest Project

Before the snow flies, Harold is trying to finish building a High Tunnel greenhouse for us.   This is different from the usual greenhouse -  in a high tunnel the sides roll up for ventilation and it is not made of glass.  If we can get it finished before the snow flies, then next spring we can get an earlier start on gardening and go longer in the season.    We are building this high tunnel at the top end of one of our gardens.  The rest of the garden will be a regular garden like before, and the area behind the high tunnel will be a regular garden area also.   We wanted to do this earlier but needed to wait until after the sugar beet season and after Harold earned some cash for this.   Also Harold is just getting over a virus and cough, so things are progressing a little slowly right now.  You can buy kits to build these things, but we are doing it the cheap way by doing most of the work ourselves.   Instead of buying the metal hoops that are pre-formed, we are using cattle panels that we bend ourselves.  We have looked at these high tunnels made out of cattle panels on YouTube, so we know that others have done this successfully.   We will need to buy the special very thick plastic that goes over the top and sides and the fasteners, and also a doorway (we will just get a used storm door from somewhere for a doorway).  By the time we get done, we will have spent a fraction of what a kit will cost.  We are building one approximately 14 1/2 ft by 25 ft.  You can grow a lot of things in a space like that.  Here is a photo of someone else's high tunnel from a kit that will give you an idea of what I am talking about:

Our high tunnel will look similar to this one, but with just one small doorway.  Our sides will be able to roll up.  This one was built from a kit.  Ours will have wooden posts for support.

So far Harold has set the 4 corner posts, and bent one of the roof panels.

Lining up the posts on our high tunnel. 

Studying the next step. 

One of the bent panels for the roof.  We need to bend 5 more panels. 

Inside the high tunnel, you can either grow things directly in the soil, or use raised beds.  We will probably do a little of both.  We went to a high tunnel workshop in North Dakota earlier this year.  There are different growing techniques with high tunnels compared to regular flat gardening.   Several of the farmer's market vendors have high tunnels, so we have learned quite a bit about them from the other vendors.   We are excited about the prospect of growing things earlier and later (and better, too, because you don't have to put up with wind and hail and those hungry deer!).  Does this mean we will now be considered 'professional growers'?  I know that I can start a lot of plants in one of these high tunnel greenhouses.  This way I won't have to turn my living room into a greenhouse every March!  My living room is usually tied up with plants from early March to almost the end of the first week of June. 
     I will update you on the progress of this project as we go along on it.