This past week, we enjoyed six glorious days of spring-like weather--yes, in February. Temperatures reached almost the mid-60s one day. I celebrated by pruning my blueberries and preparing their new home by tilling in the grass clippings and newspapers I put down in a long row in October. While the rest of my yard remained frozen from a late January cold snap, the covered bed cultivated beautifully. Not a shred of newspaper remained, and the tough sod beneath had broken down as well. This soil is some of the poorest in my yard, but it already looks pretty good. I sprinkled in some iron sulfate to lower the pH for acid-loving blueberries. I'll apply some mushroom soil either when I transplant the old bushes and plant the new ones, or as a top dressing after they're in the ground.
It felt good to get outside and breathe in the smell of freshly-turned earth. It felt good just to breathe deeply after another bout with illness, this time pneumonia which put me out of commission for most of January. I was winded and tired after my short gardening session, but my mood improved tremendously. Earlier in the week, I made my first foray outside into the newly warm weather out of necessity. Snow and ice just a week earlier had caused my PVC hoophouse to collapse. It was my own fault. If I'd only brushed the inch or so of snow off, the icy precipitation probably would have rolled right off. But I've gotten too used to keeping myself warm and rested inside the house.
The hoophouse is yet another experiment, one that has taken nearly two years to perfect--if in fact I've perfected it. In the fall of 2007, I purchased greenhouse film and created a framework out of 3/4-inch PVC pipe, using cross and T connectors. I placed a series of hoops over rebar driven into the ground, and connected them with sections of pipe at the top and sides. Last year's structure was high and wide, and did well during the mild winter until an early February snowstorm, which picked it up off the rebar and pulled it apart.
This year, I changed my design to make the hoophouse lower and wider, using my raised beds as the base. I purchased metal channels into which the greenhouse film is drawn tight, snapped in with a sturdy piece of wire. But a late November cold snap this year did in my lettuce and cilantro. I did manage to keep my basil alive for four weeks past the first frost, but it was already gone by the time temperature dipped into the twenties.
Part of the problem was the door. Last year, I covered both ends and then slit one in the middle, applying "industrial strength" sticky velcro to close it. It was a bit of a pain to get the velcro to line up, but it sealed well...at least until the first damp night. A little cold and a little moisture and that velcro never stuck again. For the rest of the hoophouse's short season, I used spring clamps to keep the sides together. It worked o.k., but what a pain it was to get in. This year, I covered the entire end and just left one side partially unattached, weighing it down with some old boards and a couple of bricks. What I didn't consider was that the film got incredibly muddy in the wet garden, so that every time I bent down to crawl through the two and a half foot opening I'd allowed myself, my entire back would get covered with mud. Once I tripped going in and ended up with mud all over my knees as well.
So with the hoophouse once more in need of reassembly, I decided to try something I'd seen driving by one of the local nurseries. I cut two two-by-fours to the height and angle of the end and attached them to the PVC using plastic ties. I screwed the bottom ends into the raised beds for stability. Then, I attached another two by four across to be the top of my doorway. The door is only about 3 1/2 feet high, only because the plywood I wanted to use as a door was behind about 30 other pieces of wood. I stapled the greenhouse film around the doorway securely, then placed the plywood over the opening and held it in place with a 1x2 which I slid into some U-brackets. When I want to get in, all I have to do is remove the 1x2 and lift the plywood aside. Wow, and it only took me two years to figure it out!
My son helped me patch the holes in the film with packing tape and then we went inside to check it out. He enjoyed tapping the top of the greenhouse to make it "rain" on me. I checked the thermometer. It was 90 degrees inside! I think I know where I'll be spending the rest of my winter. Inside, the carrots are small but doing fine. The spinach and lettuce is not growing, but it's alive. I'm already anticipating some very early greens this year. I'm also hopeful that the greenhouse will help me get an early start with my warm-weather vegetables like tomatoes and peppers.
It has been a particularly dark and dreary winter, but things are looking up. A few fifty-plus degree days got my blood pumping and warmed my heart. I pulled back some straw on Tuesday and dug up a beautiful bunch of carrots which I cut up and put into a pan with a roast beef. Any day now, I will place my spring order and get those first seedlings started under lights in the basement. And when those new blueberry bushes arrive, I'm ready for them.
