Mini-hoop House

Ellen_Kay, member

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This is a picture of the mini-hoop house I built myself. I am not very handy with tools, but set my mind to it. The box is 12 ft. x 4 ft. x 12 in. My husband got the tools out, but I did all of it and even got the 660 lb. of stone and shoveled it around the edges.  Next will be the soil, and finally a covering of thick plastic and jugs full of water.  The water jugs will warm during the day and radiate at night to keep it a few degrees warmer. After the plastic comes off due to warm temperatures, I will install deer fencing around the sides. The plastic covering will give me an early start on lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots and other small veggies and also extend the season in the fall. These small veggies seem to get lost in the larger garden, as the mulch in there is very bulky and course (my own blend). This new raised bed garden will have very fine soil.

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Comments (20)

marystoops writes: great one
Posted: 4:46 am on November 8th

nicholasporter2 writes: Incredible work
Posted: 2:13 am on November 7th

deniserenatt writes: great job
Posted: 12:26 am on November 3rd

lewisclayton7 writes: Good share
Posted: 5:37 am on November 2nd

sofiabell writes: i get great knowledge from it
Posted: 1:37 am on October 22nd

Alvinbass21 writes: Good working process.
Posted: 4:46 am on October 8th

ShawnDavis writes: Nice home house.
Posted: 1:40 am on October 7th

RaisonTardif writes: keep it up.
Posted: 5:09 am on October 3rd

juantate01 writes: This is nice.
Posted: 11:47 pm on June 16th

jonahlake writes: Great idea
Posted: 10:14 am on April 11th

Kelleyraye writes: Your raised bed looks great! I was wondering what is the reason for all the gravel?
Posted: 2:48 pm on February 14th

Josephtwomoons writes: Ellen Kay -

That's a great looking early start project. I will say that I built something similar here in central Texas several years ago out of flexible PVC pipe and heavy mil, transparent plastic. Our extended UV onslaught during our five month long summers pretty much destroyed those materials in short order. Since then, I'm back to raised bed gardening "in the great outdoors". However, if I ever do it again, I'll build a metal skeleton with some version of rigid plastic panels - for several times the price of that original structure I'm sure.

Joe TM's
Posted: 5:50 pm on June 13th

frank47 writes: Dear mrco11I just put together 3 beds two 3 x 20 on 24 inch legs (very bad back) one at ground level for vines 4 x 8 With permanent trellis 7 feet tall doubled all around. Built all beds with standard mix as recommended by the square foot web site. All beds are filled over six inches deep as also recommended by square foot. 5, 4 cubic foot spragum moss and 7, 3 cubit foot sacks perlite and 12, 2 cubic foot sacks garden soil. I've used this mix before and my busy worm farm keeps giving me castings to continually enrich the mixture. The two raised beds ran about $120.00 each the 8 ft bed came from scrapes trellis was $22.00 for materials. The soil mixture was $235.00 including tax fir all three beds This gives me 152 feet of square foot foot gardening. I plant garlic chives in each bed keeps the locale felines from finding their new favorite scratch boxes

The reason the raised bed are 3 x 4 is that i used 4, 3x5x1/2 Backer boards for the bottoms of each bed with suitable drainage holes.
Posted: 4:57 pm on March 31st

Tsiri writes: I designed and use a greenhouse/screenhouse that works throughout the year. No bending of pipes required and you can adjust the size to any measurements you need:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5236480_construct-greenhousescreenhouse-raised-gardenbed.html

I have had no problem growing anything in this. The screening in the summer protects plants from our intense Texas sun and from birds and squirrles who think I'm growing for them.

Having fun gardening is wonderful, eating what you grow is even more fun!
Posted: 9:34 am on March 31st

JanaBO60 writes: Yes, I have done this for several years. It has helped extended my season greatly
Posted: 5:20 pm on March 22nd

TheBuglady writes: 2 years ago I build mini hoop houses like these but for the pipe, I used a flexible PVC. Its held up fine for the last 2 seasons and about they are about to use for the 3rd. I put my plants inside and then drape clear plastic over on the top. I am in PA.

I put mine on a concrete pad so i didn't have to fill them with stone.
Posted: 7:51 pm on March 21st

mrc011 writes: Thanks for the great advice! I'm a Pennsylvanian also (Bucks County, though), so woohoo!
Posted: 8:21 pm on March 18th

Ellen_Kay writes: To answer your question about the soil, I get it from Pennsy Supply in Harrisburg, PA. I get screened top soil and mix it with leaf mulch (my own blend). I mix about 2/3 soil with 1/3 leaf mulch in a wheel barrel and dump it in the raised bed, and go mix another batch. Then, I add in the contents from my upright compost bin full of rotten veggie scraps and stirr that around. I have a small 1/2 ton Ford pick-up truck, so I get the top soil myself, but most places will deliver, but you usually have to get a ton or more. I have yet to find good garden soil that is ready to use without ammending it with organic matter.

To answer your question about the pipe supports, They are metal conduit. I got them at Home Depot in the electrical section for $2.85 each - they are 1/2 diameter and 10 ft long. To bend them I used 2 methods, a hand held pipe bender tool and my foot. You meed to measure and mark each of the supports before bending them. One mark in the middle, 1 mark 1 1/2ft away from the center on either side and the next one is 2 feet from the previous and the last bend is minor to get it to lay flat along with height of the box - 12 inches. As you can see, mine are not exactly the same, but they are close enough.
The supports are attached to the boards with 1/2 inch metal brackets and screws you can get at Home Depot or any hardware store. Make sure you use exterior deck screws, or they will rust. The screw used for the bracklets will likely poke through the other side, but just use a metal file to sand it down, so you don't cut your self while working in the bed.
Posted: 4:21 pm on March 18th

mrc011 writes: This looks like so much fun! I'm wondering, where do you get your soil from? I want to buy good soil to fill a TON of containers, but small bags of it is just too expensive.
Posted: 11:48 am on March 18th

Ruth writes: Ellen, this is a wonderful project. I'm curious about the pipe supports. What are they, where did you get them, how did you bend them, and how are they attached to the boards?
Posted: 9:02 am on March 18th

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