Winter gardening at thrift-store prices
Have you ever lusted after those cool greenhouse and cloche kits in garden catalogs that cost a fortune? They provide a great way to extend the growing season for summer crops, overwinter cool season crops and start spring crops early. With a little imagination you can use many different cheap or found items as greenhouse and cloche structures. I was at Goodwill the other day and ran across some irrigation tubing–a 50-foot coil of tubing for $3.00. I grabbed it thinking I might use it next summer, but on the way home realized that it would probably work well as a hoop frame for the cloche over my cool season crops. So off to the hardware store for some plastic sheeting and then home to build the frame. I cut the coil into strips long enough to bend across my four foot bed–pushing both ends into the ground. Then, because my tubing was a little flimsy, I laid a piece of bamboo from my neighbor’s bamboo grove across the top and secured it with duct tape. I cut the plastic sheeting to size and stretched it across, leaving a slit opening on either end that allows me to put the flaps up on warmer days. The whole project cost about $18.00.
cloche open on a warm day to let in some rain
I also made this small greenhouse from a children’s shade canopy that I found on the clearance table at Walgreen’s for $3.00! First, I assembled the frame and cover as indicated on the box with the help of my four-year-old daughter and our neighbor Sam. They played. Then I convinced my daughter that the garden fairies would prefer a place to hang out for the winter (so clever) and that “we” should create a greenhouse! No excitement on her part. But I removed the shade canopy, duct-taped all the joints to make it more sturdy, screwed the base into some scrap boards, and threw plastic over the whole thing. Voila! A Greenhouse.
the greenhouse is not exactly beautiful but it will work....
For other low-cost season extension strategies, check out Gayla Sander’s post on using plastic soda bottles, Aaron Newton’s GroovyGreen article describing cold frames made with old windows and straw bales, and a great DIY hoop house made by Travis Saling using PVC pipe.
Hello fellow NWer!
I’m from Portland too. I really like you winter set up. I myself have an 4×8 cold frame that I have been using for winter crops. My favorite green has to be cornsalad!
I like the info you have here- I’ll be sure to stop in often.
Happy Gardening!
Hi fellow Portlander. Unfortunately my winter set up just got completely blown apart by this crazy winter storm! I’ll have to redo with better structural support. thanks for checking in.
Well, I’m not sure the corn salad in my cold frame is going to make it through this storm! Not to mention the lettuce and spinach- we’ll see. Luckily my small greenhouse is somewhat protected by the nearby garage, or I’d lose everything in it and possible the greenhouse itself with all this wind! Snow, on the other hand, is a great insulator, so maybe I’ll get lucky with the cold frame
we can only hope.
I was thinking about your low tunnels, and I was wondering if you’d read the book by Eliot Coleman called Four Season Harvest? In it he talks about the low tunnels or chennels (I think that’s how they spelled it) in Southern France and how they keep them from not only blowing off, but the setup allows you to do any work needed inside without taking the whole sheet of plastic off. You might want to check it out- it’s very inexpensive and I’ve used the method before- I plan on using in on the inside of the greenhouse at some point.
Keep warm!
I’ll try to pop back in soon.