Making a Hoop House for Winter Vegetable Growing

Many gardeners take the winter season off from gardening. They work hard from early spring through late far then take a little break but you don't have to stop growing vegetables in your garden just because the weather has changed. One way to continue growing vegetables in cold weather is to construct a hoop house. A hoop house is simply an unheated greenhouse type structure that will help keep the temperatures several degrees warmer. In areas with mild winters a hoop house can allow you to continue growing all the way through the winter. Hoop houses can be made of many different types of materials. In this post you will see one way to put together an economical, small hoop house for your garden.

(The materials for this project were furnished by Lowe's as a part of the Creative Bloggers Network!)

How to Make a Small Hoop House for Winter Vegetable Gardening:

Materials for a Hoop House

• 5 - 3/4 in. electrical conduits (10' cut in half)
• 2 - 4"x4" pressure treated 8' posts
• 2 - 1"x4" pressure treated 8' boards
• 2 - 1/2"x2" pressure treated 8' boards
• 20 - 3/4 in. conduit straps (one package)
• Screws
• 1 roll of 6 mil plastic
• A few pieces of scrap wood

It took me part of one day to put together one hoop house so you can easily put together several over the course of a weekend. You could even create a larger hoop house using the same type of construction materials.

The first step to making this hoop house is to cut the conduit pipes. For this I used a pipe cutter. I cut each length of 10' pipe into two 5' lengths.

Once the pipes were cut in half I wanted to bend them to form a slight curve. You can buy a pipe bender to bend the conduit which I would recommend if you plan to put together a lot of hoop houses. I went a simpler route and placed the two 8' pieces of 4"x4"s a short distances apart and bent the pipe by placing my foot where I wanted the bend to start. Then I adjusted one end upward slightly to form the curve. It's not an exact method but I was able to get all the pieces to bend fairly consistently.

After the pipes were bent I attached them to the 8' 4"x4" lumber with the conduit straps and screws to create the ribs. I did this for both sides of the hoop house then moved them into the garden.

Next I attached two pieces of 1"x4" together to form a ridge. The ridge will hold the tops of the conduit with more conduit straps. It also serves as a good place to attach the plastic which comes next.

I rolled the plastic out on the ground and measured it to 14' long. This allowed for the 8' of hoop house I needed to cover plus an extra 6 feet for covering each end. I centered the plastic which was 10' wide over the peak and left a couple inches on each side of the hoop house to attach the plastic to the 8' posts.

Once the plastic was in place I secured it to the peak using small pieces of scrap wood leftover from a previous project and attached the bottom of the plastic to the 4"x 4" base posts. I used the 1"x 4" pieces of lumber to clamp the plastic to the base.

I anchored one end of the hoop house with a couple retaining wall blocks and the other end I folded over and used a small piece of scrap hose to hold it onto the hoop house. If I have to secure the plastic to other poles later more hoses can be used.

Inside the hoop house I should be able to maintain a warm enough environment for winter greens to grow!

Build a Mini-Hoop House to Get an Early Start on the Garden

This winter has been cold and nothing if not unpredictable. Here in Tennessee we're experiencing a warm day every now and then followed by extreme cold. Hopefully now that March has arrived and spring is close things will be shaping up very soon. With that in mind I put together a project that will help me to get a jump start on my vegetable planting this season: a mini-hoop house. I grow most of my vegetables from seed and a hoop house is an ideal way to thwart the cold and get those spring and summer vegetables started early.  Lowe's provided my materials for this project as part of their Creative Ideas program.

A hoop-house is essentially a greenhouse. Typically a hoop house will cover a garden area to heat it up enough to extend the season.  Once warm temperatures arrive they can be taken down or covered with another material like shade cloth to grow cool season crops longer.  While a large hoop house is probably restrictive in many subdivisions due to HOA rules a small one that covers a single bed and is portable is an excellent way to get an early start on the vegetable garden!

To build this mini-hoop house I gathered some cedar fence boards (which I like to use for a variety of projects), PVC molding, 1 1/4" deck screws, Velcro tape, and 6 mil plastic.  You could make a couple of these for under $100.

The PVC molding strips were something I've wanted to try working with for a while.  I spotted them at Lowe's one day and though these would make excellent ribs for a greenhouse so I decided I would adapt them to a smaller scale.  I still may go back and gather up some 12' long pieces and put together a greenhouse later.

35"

5'

To put together the mini-hoop house I build a base frame out of the cedar planks.  Each base is made from 2 5 foot lengths and 2 35" lengths.  The fence panels are dogeared so You have to subtract about 2 inches from each plank to compensate which leaves you with two 35" pieces from each board (3 boards will make each base). I pre-drilled the holes in each side then screwed the corners together with the 1 1/4" screws.

Then I started the screws in each hole.  I've found that it's easier to stick a screw part way into each hole while it is on a table then bring the pieces together to attach them rather than screwing them while holding all the parts together simultaneously.

Next I carefully bent each 8' piece of PVC molding to fit on the inside of the base frame.  I screwed them in place from the outside.  The outer ribs (PVC) were screwed in from both sides this way the rib was attached to the small end to help relieve some of the tension it would exert on the long sides.  The middle rib was only attached to the side board.  If this were a longer mini-hoop house I would need thicker wood for the base or I would need more reinforcement between the long side pieces.

Next I used the Velcro tape to create a removable covering.  Get the strongest tape you can for this as it will be subjected to the environment.

The Velco tape  makes it easy to open up the mini-hoop house when access is needed to work in the vegetable garden.

What is nice about this hoop house is that I can start my seeds underneath it, get the plants hardened off, then move it to another location to start more. It's light enough that one person can move it around but heavy enough the normal weather conditions won't knock it over. A couple brackets on the side with some rebar stakes would probably make it even more secure.  

I hope you like this project idea.  If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them!

Check here for a look back at some of my other projects for Lowe's!