Winter gardening and makeshift poly tunnel construction

With a few nights into the mid 20s so far the original “pods” have done their job just fine. Everything underneath is doing quite well.

Forecasts for this week include 3 nights the upper teens here and I decided I’d cover the two other beds in the rear as well. These contain broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, all of which are considered relatively hardy.

So why go to the trouble?
First: I don’t want to repeat last year’s broccoli disappointment, where a tiny bit of freeze damage inside several heads lead to a rotten bud or two in otherwise healthy looking heads. Believe me, it only takes one rotten bud to ruin the whole head.
Second: cauliflower I’m not sure how hardy my type is and I have heard that cauliflower in general isn’t as hardy as broccoli.
Third: I’d hate to lose the lats of my fall crop over a degree or two and I had the materials on hand.

So here is are the three back beads all tucked in waiting for the chilly nights ahead:

The one on the right was my original “covered wagon” style tunnel. The advantage of this type is there is plenty of clearance on the sides and ends; plastic touching tender plats in a freeze will cause damage. Also the higher center line allows for more volume and theoretically less chance of frying plants should i get lazy and leave them on when the sun is out and the temperature inside rises. With the high only in the 30s for the next couple of days I will eave them covered during the day.
This is what the inside of the bed looks like (the water jugs theoretically are heat sinks that might protect the lettuce and you greens in the immediate area.)

To connect the pvc hoops I used conduit brackets that are all of 10 for $1.19; I cut short sections of larger diameter pvc to act as a sleeve for the hoops, My logic was that the load might be spread a bit from the “bow” stress of the hoop plus I can remove and put up the hoops easily if I need to.

The other two beds were constructed using a quick short cut design basically because I was short on time and pvc. On both of these I used an end to end arch with one (one the 12 ft bed) or two (on the 16 ft one) hoops across the middle. As you can see the broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts on the southern end are doing quite well.

Seeing how my drill was at my office, I had to come up with a different anchoring plan for the arches. I used two methods.

1. Driving a piece of larger diameter pvc into the ground to so that the hoop ends can be inserted

2. Doing the same with re-bar so that the hoop can be threaded onto it

I should note I also used a third method on the small arugula and lettuce bed. I staked either end then ran twine through a pvc pipe that had been stretched over two low hoops. This is probably the dumbest method since getting a good seal on the end in more difficult but I haven’t been worried enough yet to change it.

The staked twine method:

and a shot of the whole small bed (that’s more arugula than I can eat between now and 2014)

Some items don’t need a cover, such as the turnip green bed (The bamboo rail was put up to keep me from inadvertently trampling the bed as the seeds w er germinating and I just haven’t bothered to take it down now that the greens are up.)

Additionally shallots (foreground) and garlic could care less about most Georgia winters:

More garlic, dropped into the holes where I removed large stepping stones and covered with a mix of mostly compost and with a little soil added:

Why go to all this trouble to garden in the winter?

🙂