As several of us are using this basic design I thought it was would be good to post this.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/how-make-garden-greenhouse-47121701

How to Make a Home Garden Greenhouse, Like Michelle Obama
Video: Keeping a garden alive through the winter, with a zero-energy hoop house you can build yourself.

By Dan Shapley

Gardens are great. Except in winter, when they're gray and lifeless, like the gray and lifeless lawn, set amid the gray and lifeless trees and the gray and... well, you get the point.

It doesn't have to be this way. You can build a hoop house, and enjoy winter vegetables all year round, even in some of the coldest parts of the country. And you can do it yourself, cheaply and with minimal effort.

Michelle Obama knows this. In the South Lawn garden the First Lady created, White House chef Sam Kass and Department of Agriculture staff, including organic and local food champion Kathleen Merrigan, built a hoop house, making this video in the process:



If you want to make your own hoop house, look no further. We've partnered with Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Garden International, to show us how. One of The Daily Green's 2009 Heart of Green Award winners, Doiron and KGI were instrumental in encouraging the First Lady to build the White House garden in the first place. A public campaign, including an innovative Facebook petition drive, helped convince Michelle Obama to team up with Sam Kass, the USDA and White House staff to plant the organic garden. KGI continues to inspire home gardeners to grow more of their own food -- something a hoop house helps you accomplish.

How to Make a Hoop House, an Easy Home Garden Greenhouse
by Roger Doiron



Worth the effort
Building a hoop house is a bit like having children: there's a lot of pleasure involved with the idea's conception, but very poor knowledge of the real work involved down the road. But just as it is difficult for me as a family man to imagine living without my children, I'd have a tough time living without my hoop house. It is a central part of my gardening life, not to mention a favorite hangout for my little boys. These instructions are meant to give you the inspiration and know-how to start a hoop house project of your own.



Weatherproof gardening
First, a few words of inspiration: tomatoes, melons and peppers. Need I say more? A hoop house provides the extra heat units you need to realize your wildest kitchen gardening fantasies. It allows you to have an earlier start, a later finish and lots of extra warmth in between. The first year I had mine up, I was so excited about all the possibilities that I gardened right through the year and was harvesting Mache and Claytonia salads in the dead of winter which is not bad seeing that I live in Maine (Northeast USA). As if that weren't enough, here's the showstopper: With a hoop house, you can garden in the rain and not get wet!



Getting started
Now the nuts and bolts. There are many plans available on the Internet for building a hoop house. The first one is the one I used for mine, adapting it from a 12' x 14' to a 12' x 16' in order to enjoy that extra row of whatever. Some of you will cringe with fear when you open up these plans and see that there's some basic carpentry involved. Fear not: I'm living proof that you don't have to be a handy person to build one, nor rich for that matter. What you do need is courage, patience and a bit of creativity to deal with the problems that will inevitably arise as you go along. There will be rips in your plastic, cracks in your joints and (in my part of the world) snowstorms that will try to make your hoop house into a large plastic pancake (they almost succeeded this winter!). Once again, do not worry for most of these problems can be resolved with some clever thinking on your part and several rolls of duct tape.



Advice for the novice
Three words to the wise: secure, support and ventilate. Once the plastic is on, your hoop house will catch the wind like an oversized kite. Make sure that the four corner posts are dug deep into the ground. Although the plans below don't call for it, I would also suggest adding some additional deeply dug support to the front and back walls. Similarly, if you live in the snowy north like I do, I would recommend that you envisage an internal support structure (2-3 beams supporting the spine will do) before the first snowstorm threatens. Once the snow has fallen, be sure to remove it quickly from the top of your structure to prevent stressing the joints. Finally, a hoop house is for growing plants not for baking bread. If you feel uncomfortably warm inside, then your plants probably do too. Make sure you open it up and allow the air to flow.


More details to download
# Small (12' x 14') hoop house plans from North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
# Hoophouse instructions from the Washington State University

I wonder if the USDA's Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, plus the Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment, plus Mr. White Chief of the U.S. Conservation Service, and all of the other Chiefs trying their best to get in on the White House garden, will also come to Colorado and help me with my hoop house and farm? As a farmer, I can tell you that not many real farmers would be interested in hoop house "farming" during the cold winter, **UNLESS** the USDA wants to give us another one of their really really big subsidies. I noticed that Mr. White the Chief of the Conservation Service tossed in that hoop house "farming" will be a big help in reducing Global Warming, Yea Right!!!! - Millet (1,121-)

High tunnel research seems to be moving along from everything I've read. The politics of the article aside I found it to be useful in trying to persuade people to build greenhouses of their own.

.....Alan.

Alan, perhaps so. However, hoop houses are not the same thing as greenhouses. Hoop houses are only season extenders, without heating, ventilation. Far different than greenhouses. Any way, thank you for the many informative articles that you provide us with, they are much appreciated, and looked forward to. - Millet (1,120-)

Hoophouses can be as minimal as that. But with a little thought they can be full-fledged greenhouses as well. They're a good way to get into the game. Mine is heated and ventilation is provided by the doors I put at both ends.

.....Alan.

Do they have that much under roof now? I had a nice talk with Monte Nesbitt over lunch at the 2008 expo about those and whether they could possibly be profitable. He said they were getting considerable more per pound for their local fruit than what they were typically selling for in Florida. He gave a nice presentation on the whole thing.

.....Alan.

I assume the 100 covered acres is divided between numerous farms. Even at that, as farms go, a 100 acre farm is a pretty small farm, but we can certainly call them farmers. For producing Satsumas a better term might by growers. - Millet (1,120-)

http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/ALsatsumamandarin.pdf
Here is some info on Alabama grown satsumas. We are currently the 3 grower in the U.S. with well over 100 acres. Meyer lemons and kumquats are also grown commercialy here.

wonder if I could get the Obama's to speak at or with our homes association concerning the hoop house. Our homes association has rules against such structures. Now if I could convince the nerds running the association that it will help control "Climate Change" we might have a deal. If I could get AlGore to come along that would be fantastic.

I am able to keep kale and swiss chard alive with this method and no external heat.... alive with minimal growth over the last month

Kale would probably live outside throughout the winter without any protection. I used to grow kale next to the chicken coop fence throughout the winter here in Colorado. The chickens would pick on it all winter long. - Millet (1,093-)

Last night, the kids and I went and picked tomatoes in the middle of January. Even for southern California, this is rare to be picking produce this late in the season. So far I haven needed a greenhouse.

Phillip

just curious, when did you plant the tomatoes

BTW Kales doesnt normally make it though my winters... also the brocelli was still alive