me, I'd push bamboo poles from the $ store into those sections that are around the perimeter to make them more stiff, stable, a bit more weighted. i'd keep that balled up extra too, but tucked inside a reusable grocery bag tied snug to keep things from going in to live in the lovely soft fabric.
I love your programs. You always cover just what I need to know with just enough background information (without a bunch of time-wasting chit chat) so that I understand the “why” as well as the “how” and can adapt the project for my own needs. Thanks you for the complete materials list and calling things by their correct names and including cost estimates. Yours is one of the most helpful channels I have seen. Thank you and God bless you for sharing.
Thank you so much! I'm so happy to hear that! I made sure to copy the item names from Lowe's website, because frankly, nobody knows what all these parts and fittings are called. I'm an electrical engineer and spent a decade installing underground conduits and fittings in the field, and everything had a nickname. Even the people that install this stuff don't know the part names 😆
@@TheMillennialGardener An engineer! That explains a lot about how you approach things. I was thinking maybe you were a teacher. Thanks for acknowledging my comment. I know you can’t always respond to every one, but it’s a personal touch that is sadly missing in so much of our world. God bless,
If you found this video helpful, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊 TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 How To Build A Greenhouse Frame That's Modular 0:52 Reasons To Build A Greenhouse Cover 1:42 Materials List 2:10 Building A Greenhouse Frame 4:36 Mounting The Hoophouse Frame 7:10 Installing The Greenhouse Cover 10:49 Why I Chose A Modular Hoop House Design 12:04 Securing The Greenhouse In Wind 14:22 Adventures With Dale
I always did something i was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of, 'wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's When you have a breakthrough.
I hope to eventually have my entire garden screened in and covered in some fashion. Most plants we grow for food just don't like getting wet, unfortunately.
Cool!👍This project is a game changer!😃 I had my hubby make a giant cube hoop house out of PVC last fall. I grow most of our food in containers. I can fit 2 large pots with zucchini plants inside or three 18 gallon totes. We used sand inside the corners pipes to weight it down and I made a door in the mesh cover on one side by draping tulle from top to bottom. I use clips to close it. The cube has served us well! It's easy to pick up and move. Right now it's covering 2 acorn squash plants planted in the ground...until vine borer season is over.🙂 Hi to handsome Dale! He is cute drinking out of the hose.🙂 Nice looking strawberry patch, corn, tomatoes, and asparagus I saw growing!👍
It's so much easier to grow inside a structure. Most plants just don't like rain. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, melons...they all just hate getting wet. One day, I hope I can grow everything inside a structure of some sort. The corn is one of the only things that doesn't mind being outside 😆 Dale says hello!🐕
Dale is a requirement for every video! I think he's a part of every single one of them going back for around 2 years. One day, I'm going to have to make a Dale's Greatest Hits compilation.
You are AMAZING!!! I appreciate your attention to detail ( put the snipped end of the zip tie down so it doesn't snag the cover). This would have been a learning curve, ie mistake, for me. I am a single female so the ability to handle this cover myself is VERY valuable.
Upon constructing a modular greenhouse using this guidance, I must make a couple notes to future builders: You also actually need 8 pieces of PVC - the additional piece is for the center support for the hoops (this piece is not accounted for in the parts list). Also, if you don't need to extend the long sides as depicted in this video, DON'T (especially if you are using brand-new PVC pipes) because the tension of the center hoop makes the long edges bow at the Tee fitting and the center hoop sits lower than the end hoops, resulting in the overall frame not being true. In this video, pre-used PVC is employed in the build, so it already bows as needed and doesn't interfere with the ends. I'm going back to get 3 more PVC pipes for the center support as well as to redo the long ends, and I'm going to get another couple 3/4"x3/4"x1/2" Tee fittings for the center hoop to make it more stable. But overall, great idea.
I also saw the middle hoop push the sides out dramatically. My solution for now is to pull the side pipes back toward each other with wire to resist the tension of the middle hoop.
Perfect timing 👍🏼 I sat down today planning out my winter seed starting and thinking 🤔 how am I gonna protect all my lettuce and brassicas from frost? Thank you!
This will definitely do the job. Usually, I can grow lettuce and brassicas uncovered here, but when we get an annual minimum, they tend to burn. Hopefully, this will keep that effect to zero and also prevent whiteflies in spring!
Paint the pvc pipes with some oops paint you can get anywhere or some sample paints. They will last so much longer. Since they are not in the bed there will be no leeching . Love the ideas and tips you share. Keep them coming.
I was in Lowes last week looking at PVC pipes, etc, to build a hoop house. I left the store empty handed as I couldn’t come up with viable solution (older female here) to keep the shape of the hoops without using something like rebar pounded into the ground. This system is fabulous and something I can build myself. Central Florida here and some years we don’t even have to use frost cloth, but last year, they were used quite a bit. Nice to have options for covers as the seasons change.
This design makes everything easy. It only takes a few pounds of pressure to bend the 1/2" pipe yourself, so it's no problem at all. Believe it or not, these covers will be far more useful in the summer than the winter. While having the frost protection will be nice for you, the protection from insects and sunlight will be 100x more useful. Not having to worry about insects damaging your plants while also cooling them off some will change everything!
What an innovative design! I absolutely agree about your stated deficiencies in stationary hoop structures. I have also been experimenting with raised bed hoop designs, which are very similar to yours. Since I sew, I have made a flat shade cloth top on a square PVC frame with net sides. Everything is easily clamped to the frame with those nifty PVC snap clamps. Also noticed that very versatile Japanese hand saw. I bought one after you first reviewed it; it is my favorite hand saw.
I LOVE the Japanese saw. It makes everything so easy. It isn't even worth having power tools most of the time. By the time I even get the power tools ready for use, the Japanese saw has the work done.
I'm thinking of building a rectangular frame, too, so I can fit a frame over my tomato cages. If I leave the clamps on the top and corners, I can split the cloth and raise the sides up for harvest, while clamping at the base between accessing. Maybe putting velcro on the sides to seal. Lifting a frame over a 3'x8' bed to harvest without crushing the next bed over is a concern. But I lose most of my tomato crop to stink bugs, so I have to try something this year. I love my PVC ratchet cutter. It handles 1/2" and 3/4" like a dream.
WOW! I wish I had come across your video before the sun burned the leaves of my green beans. I will most definitely use this design to create cover for future!
Great idea. My beds are different sizes so I made row covers out of 17" garden stakes, sold to make tomato cages, and 1/2 inch drip irrigation tubing. Drive the stakes in the ground, cut tubing to length, bend and put over stakes. Works great for bird netting too. Not modular but I made 20 hoops for under $40. Use stainless steel clamps sold on Amazon to hold in place.
I love this hoop house- so easy I can make it. You might want to remind squash gardeners that they'll need to leave it open so pollinators can get in, or they'll get no squash!
It goes without saying that if you're going to keep all insects out, that includes pollinators. Luckily, the overwhelming majority of what we grow doesn't require bee pollination. Zucchini is the only thing I could plant under the hoop house that would require hand pollination. Everything else is either wind pollinated or a leafy green.
Cucumbers, do they not need insect pollinators. I love your channel and your suggestions. This one looks great, and plan to follow another video of yours for my trellis beds. For cucumbers I thought needed insect pollination.
They do because they produce male and female flowers they are not true flowers that contain both male and female parts so they need pollinators, same goes with watermelon@@Acer-4Js
It really was easy. I could build, literally, 3 of these in the time it takes to build a retractable hoop house, and maybe 4-5 in the time it takes to build a hinged hoophouse. Major time-saver and much cheaper!
You just gave me the answer to numerous problems I'm having in my garden. As you said it will take care of my bug problem, the scalding sun, should keep the rabbits and deer from eating my crops. The bonus is I can build and maneuver them myself inexpensively. Thank You for sharing!
Big hint from sunny Arizona. I had several 1/2" PVC modular units covered with 3/8" bird netting covering a garden that lasted for 8 years before I replaced it. Paint the PVC BEFORE building the frame. Naked, white PVC exposed to UV rays will decay and break down within a couple of years out here. Paint em and they last for years.
Texas has been getting hammered with heat something crazy this year. Meanwhile, we've been having a below average year here in the East Coast. It was barely 80 today, which is bizarre for July. What a strange pattern. You will DEFINITELY benefit from 40% shade cloth. I have a really great 40% shade cloth linked in my Amazon Storefront with all different sizes. Super high quality and affordable.
The good news is that these covers slip on and off so easily that you can just remove it if you're getting a bad storm. Even filming it, it took maybe 3-4 mins to get cover on. If I weren't filming, it would've been even faster. Garden staples will hold it down for anything moderate.
After having tried this method and having even the empty frames blow down the street and smash into bits, I'm not so convinced this works. I've had much better luck using conduit clamps for that size tubing, screwed to the outer edges of the raised bed, and then clamping the PVC hoops down into that. Then they can't go anywhere in the wind, only the cover can get ripped off so I either take that off or anchor the whole thing down with bricks or pots. Easy to dismantle, the clamps stay there and you can move the hoops and cover to whichever bed you want.
I used a row cover for the first time this year. Have had zero pests on my cabbage and kale! Imagine that - perfect heads of cabbage with no dusting or spaying! Will be adapting some of your ideas. Great video.
Great video. I have been trying to figure out how to do this. I tried to build one with wood and it is so hard to move and is not plum. Looks really bad because it looks so bad. But I feel I can do what you described and it will be flexible and useful for whatever I need. Thx so much.
Great content again 👏 I have same garden issues with pests and wind in Southern Coastal SC. Having portable hoops that are adaptable are just a must to grow year round. This is simple and budget friendly. Thanks again
Fantastic! I'm in Colorado and did winter gardening this past winter with pvc hoops and 2 layers of 6 mil plastic, but I held the sides down with bricks and it was just messy when I had to water, harvest, vent, add fabric when the temp dropped real low. I've been wanting a frame structure that I can lift up, move around, easily vent, but couldn't figure out how to do it. My raised beds are pretty tall (for our old backs), so I will make them to fit inside the beds. I will make them not as long as I did last winter (10 feet) because that was just a little too hard for me to manage, although this frame seems simpler than 10 feet of plastic that I had to roll up and down and hold in place with bricks. In fact, I might make several smaller ones to fit over the fall/winter starts that I've already planted. Does that make sense to you?We have crazy Colorado winds, so I really like your idea of using garden stakes to fit over the bottom of the frame structure and anchor them to the soil. Oh, I also used plastic jugs of water and 1 string of Christmas lights when it got real cold. I think this should work in the frame structure as I can run the lights under the frame to get to the outdoor plugs.
It's also good for the spring, too. You can add 2-3 weeks on either side of the growing season with a frost cloth. It doesn't sound like much, but another month to month and a half of growing really makes a difference!
Dale, Thank you so much for doing this video. This is exactly what I'm needing, except I have my blueberries and raspberries planted in a large circle, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to do a circular one. I don't know how to do it but I'm going to try. I'm really loving watching your shows.
That is such a more cost effective method for those beds. I am already half way into season 2 of talking my hubby into letting me build a frame around the big main bed against the fence. I am fed up with trying to stake the indeterminate tomatoes instead of using string. He is still not convinced. Hopefully, our aphid problem might convince him more. Sugar snap peas and runner Beans don't need cross pollination like squashes, etc do they? If not, i can get two of those nets and seal the whole main bed off. On a side personal note, have you changed your workout targets? If so it is paying off! I would love to be more active other than children's activities and working in the garden but we do what we can with our state of health. I love gardening but the high pollen count and dry heat, with not much rain has made me terribly sick the past few weeks. We had two major sand storms from Africa hit our lands and it has covered everything again. Our courgettes have really suffered and not produced as well as last year.
I've tried three different methods of hoop houses, and I'm settling on this one. It's easier, faster, cheaper and more mobile. Building them into the frames just puts them in the way all the time, and it takes a lot more time and money to do it. This was so easy and cheap that I wish I would've done this from the start. Peas, beans and tomatoes are wind-pollinated, so as long as the air can rustle everything underneath, they'll still pollinate. The insect netting lets the air through, so you won't have pollination issues. If you grow squash, cucumbers, watermelons and other cucurbits under these covers, you will have to hand pollinate them manually by moving the pollen from the male flowers into the female flowers with a cotton swap or mascara brush. It is an extra step, yes, but it is easier and faster than treating for vine borers and squash bugs. I'm not sure what you mean by the workout targets. I've been following the same boring routine for years. I've just learned to listen to the seasonal changes my body wants to go through. I always gain weight in the winter, because my appetite goes up. It's your body's natural reaction to want to put on body fat when it gets cold as a survival mechanism, so I just go with it. My appetite goes away in the summer, because it's your body's natural inclination to want to shed fat to stay cooler when it's hot out. I just listen to it and let it go. I bounce in the same 10 lbs all year, dropping in the summer and gaining in the winter, so I just go with it.
So smart I sure wish I could have some help with my containers and I really would have better harvest I’m disabled and have a lot of health issues my spine is collapsed with osteoporosis and my heart problems and diabetes and have had breast cancer surgery and it’s so hard for me to get around but I try to get my family to help but they are scared of everything!! I live in mount Olive North Carolina lol so I’m not far from you I enjoy watching you and thank you for sharing your life with us
Thank you! I was just there last weekend for dinner! It's only about a 25 minute drive. Our weather is virtually identical, so if it works for me, it'll work for you! It's certainly not having any problems today in this phony "tropical storm" we're supposedly having 😂
QUESTION: thank you so much for the detailed demonstration of how to build the hoop house. I want to make a cover for some containers along the apron of the driveway here. I rent a small apt. over a garage in Fuquay Varina (in the Triangle NC) and have a "container garden" of strawberries and butternut squash growing like crazy but I do need shade cloth this summer as well as modularized fixtures rather than modifying property I rent don't own. If I just need it to be say a 5-6 ft long area by 2-3 feet wide, will the 10 ft PVC be overkill? And then the BIG QUESTION: one of my containers is butternut squash which is already doing great -- I'm growing it vertically on two garden stakes inside a 20" dia. container -- so at the moment it stands almost 6 ft tall. Your hoop houses are pretty short, what, 4 ft? so how do I accommodate the height while not taking up a huge amount of space on the shared (with my landlady) driveway? Will it be possible to make a narrow but high curve by cutting shorter segments of PVC and connecting them with T connectors like you did?
I loved it! However, for me, the challenge is that my raised beds are waist high and in various shapes and sizes. I have the Vego beds. They do make covers for them but they are too expensive. But I do love the designs and the reasons behind your creation.
I realize I may not get an answer because this video is an older one, but worth a shot! First, THANK YOU for this how to. Second, I just built this hoop house and I left the hoops at 10’ sections. I have a bit of an annoyance and yours isn’t doing this so maybe I did something wrong. Mine are 8x4’. On the 8’ section, the middles of the base are bowing from the pressure of the middle hoop. What did I do wrong? I have two 5 gallon buckets filled with soil pushed up against the two sides where it’s bowing to hopefully straighten it out. Any suggestions? Thanks again!
What size diameter pipe or conduit did you buy? It sounds like the pipe is either a wider diameter or a thicker wall thickness, so there is more tension when you bend the pipe, which is causing the bowing effect. Make sure all your pipes are pressed firmly into the fittings. Also, make sure that if you drilled them to lock them in place that nothing is twisted.
@@TheMillennialGardener I used 1/2” PVC. I realize now why mine may be having issues. I used pvc cement instead of screws to attach the pipes to the fittings. I’m thinking that’s what caused the bowing. I’ll go back in with some screws to see if that shores it up a bit. If not, I’ll use rebar hammered into the ground in the middle to hold the bowing part of the frame in place. Thanks so much for the reply!
You can, but I find the rubbing back and forth will tear the ends of the netting. It's also a tripping hazard when you only have 26" wide walking paths like I do. The garden staples will hold it without taking up any space. I'm not going to secure mine at all.
This is useful for literally everyone. It'll extend your growing season in the cold. It'll protect your foliage in the heat. It'll protect against insect damage. No matter who you are, there is a major benefit. Here, the sun and insects decimate my garden. These are the solution.
It absolutely will. I actually recommend you use the 40% shade tarp I have linked in my Amazon Storefront. It'll work better for you in your extreme conditions than insect netting.
Hello MG, Great content! I think i may have missed it: how did you keep your hoop bent/pre-bent? I thought of this design recently but opted out because the frame wasnt strong enough to keep the pipe in that hoop shape. I used PVC/conduit. Are you using the more bendy water pipes?
I enjoy your channel and decided to build my on modular greenhouse, it is impossible to find 1/2" x1/2" 90 degree side elbow I am going crazy. Even tried a cpvc
Great idea, but do you have a way to make the for metal oval raised beds. The one company has one for sale but are very expensive. My beds are 33” tall.
Living on the Texas gulf coast we are subject to intense summer heat. Will the insect netting be sufficient or go to the shade cloth? I am assuming rain will penetrate. I do not have a drip irrigation system so I need access to watering with the hose.
Thank you once again- you have just shown me how to make a cover. Have had no satisfaction with what I have found on the net, perfect timing as I have my winter veggies in and wil, be fighting cabbage white butterfly caterpillars a bit later. And!!!- I can build the cover myself. Now to see if we have those snap clamps in Aussie land. What a find-- The Millennial Gardener
A few years back I did exact thing, however I soon realized that some of my squash plants once flowering could not get pollinated. What would you suggest.
That's easily fixable by hand pollinating. Simply take a cotton swab or a blush brush and move pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers once every couple days. Yes, it's an extra step, but it's far easier than fighting vine borers and squash bugs. You can hand pollinate a dozen flowers in seconds.
If using where you can not use staples to secure. Fill the bottom PVC with water, use a hose at one corner and pull out the upright from another corner then fill until you see water flowing out. Need to move it just remove a joiner connection and let drain.
@@TheMillennialGardener cement is not necessary, 1/2" wide strip of duct tape at each joint would seal it. Or if you prefer add sand instead of water. One gallon of water weighs 8.345 pounds, adds up faster than you think. Since it's all open PVC pipe you can add as much water up the pipes to increase the weight.
Yes. Because then the connections would be permanent. It would also take you 2 days to build the frame, since you'd need to wait overnight for the glue to completely cure. By using screws, you can build the entire frame in about 30 minutes, and if any of the PVC ever bleaches and becomes brittle, you can disassemble the structure and replace the damaged pipes. If you glue everything together, the frame will no longer be modular.
I live outside Denver and did winter gardening under hoops for first time this past winter. I suggest searching Tube - there are several really great videos with details. I used 2 layers of 6 mil plastic (from Walmart, not UV protected but they are still good to use a second year for this winter). I did not use the frame structure as in this video, but just placed plastic over pvc hoops inserted directly into ground (very awkward raising up plastic to water/harvest/vent); some onto rebar stuck into raised bed and used plastic clips to hold in place on the hoops and bricks around bottom. I did insert one length of Christmas lights (NOT led) along the top of structure (not touching the plastic), and added a light sheet directly on top of the plants, as well as 2 -3 inches of dried leaves and several plastic gallon jugs of water (spray painted black to gather heat during day). When it went down to 14 degrees and lower I added 1 sheet of mylar reflective foil insulation simply clamped onto the top of the hoop. I had a remote thermometer inside the hoops - temps down to 5 degrees inside the covered hoops and plants did fine. I planted them too late in October so they were only 2 inches most of the winter (they will not die but they will not grow either) but went crazy come spring and I am still harvesting. Only cold hardy, frost tolerant - kale, collards, kohlrabi, cabbage. Trying again this year, have already planted starts hoping I can harvest during deep winter, and will use the frame structure idea in this video, but will place inside my raised beds as they are very tall. Good luck!!
You'll have to lift it. The entire structure maybe weighs 20 lbs, tops. All you really need to do is take a chunk of a 2x4, pick up the hoop house and prop it up with the 2x4. Alternatively, you can literally tip it over on its side for a moment.
Some gardeners, in order to elevate the temperatures on the beds during the cold season will do a double layer of plastic. Have you tried this with your lovely portable bed cover in some way?
I can't use greenhouse plastic where I live. It makes a hoop house far too hot in the winter. Our average highs in January are in the mid-50's, and even during the winter, our UV index is still around a 5. With a single layer of greenhouse plastic on a colder-than-average day, it would elevate to over 100 degrees in my hoop house when I tried a single plastic layer. I just can't use it. Frost cloth works better for me, because it provides some ventilation.
I used 2 layers in Denver, but often had to vent when it got too warm. It was great for 14 degrees and below. I also used a remote thermometer and checked temps often.
This barrier is going to keep 99% of them out. Some may slip through, but that's nothing a quick spray with some pyrethrin can't handle. Because these physical barriers limit the population so much, an occasional spray can keep your crops practically insect-free.
Appreciate that you don’t just say WHAT to do, but WHY you do it. Thanks for great content!
You’re welcome! I want people to know why they’re doing what they’re doing. Don’t just trust me.
❤❤@@TheMillennialGardener
me, I'd push bamboo poles from the $ store into those sections that are around the perimeter to make them more stiff, stable, a bit more weighted. i'd keep that balled up extra too, but tucked inside a reusable grocery bag tied snug to keep things from going in to live in the lovely soft fabric.
I love your programs. You always cover just what I need to know with just enough background information (without a bunch of time-wasting chit chat) so that I understand the “why” as well as the “how” and can adapt the project for my own needs. Thanks you for the complete materials list and calling things by their correct names and including cost estimates. Yours is one of the most helpful channels I have seen. Thank you and God bless you for sharing.
Thank you so much! I'm so happy to hear that! I made sure to copy the item names from Lowe's website, because frankly, nobody knows what all these parts and fittings are called. I'm an electrical engineer and spent a decade installing underground conduits and fittings in the field, and everything had a nickname. Even the people that install this stuff don't know the part names 😆
@@TheMillennialGardener An engineer! That explains a lot about how you approach things. I was thinking maybe you were a teacher. Thanks for acknowledging my comment. I know you can’t always respond to every one, but it’s a personal touch that is sadly missing in so much of our world. God bless,
If you found this video helpful, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊 TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 How To Build A Greenhouse Frame That's Modular
0:52 Reasons To Build A Greenhouse Cover
1:42 Materials List
2:10 Building A Greenhouse Frame
4:36 Mounting The Hoophouse Frame
7:10 Installing The Greenhouse Cover
10:49 Why I Chose A Modular Hoop House Design
12:04 Securing The Greenhouse In Wind
14:22 Adventures With Dale
I always did something i was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of, 'wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's When you have a breakthrough.
I hope to eventually have my entire garden screened in and covered in some fashion. Most plants we grow for food just don't like getting wet, unfortunately.
Cool!👍This project is a game changer!😃 I had my hubby make a giant cube hoop house out of PVC last fall. I grow most of our food in containers. I can fit 2 large pots with zucchini plants inside or three 18 gallon totes. We used sand inside the corners pipes to weight it down and I made a door in the mesh cover on one side by draping tulle from top to bottom. I use clips to close it. The cube has served us well! It's easy to pick up and move. Right now it's covering 2 acorn squash plants planted in the ground...until vine borer season is over.🙂
Hi to handsome Dale! He is cute drinking out of the hose.🙂
Nice looking strawberry patch, corn, tomatoes, and asparagus I saw growing!👍
It's so much easier to grow inside a structure. Most plants just don't like rain. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, melons...they all just hate getting wet. One day, I hope I can grow everything inside a structure of some sort.
The corn is one of the only things that doesn't mind being outside 😆 Dale says hello!🐕
A little bit of Dale should be a requirement for every video!! Thank you for showing him to us!!
Dale is a requirement for every video! I think he's a part of every single one of them going back for around 2 years. One day, I'm going to have to make a Dale's Greatest Hits compilation.
@@TheMillennialGardener greatest hits would be wonderful. It’s so good for your memories too!!
You are AMAZING!!! I appreciate your attention to detail ( put the snipped end of the zip tie down so it doesn't snag the cover). This would have been a learning curve, ie mistake, for me. I am a single female so the ability to handle this cover myself is VERY valuable.
The last thing you want to do is tear a cover. Ask me how I know 😂
Upon constructing a modular greenhouse using this guidance, I must make a couple notes to future builders: You also actually need 8 pieces of PVC - the additional piece is for the center support for the hoops (this piece is not accounted for in the parts list). Also, if you don't need to extend the long sides as depicted in this video, DON'T (especially if you are using brand-new PVC pipes) because the tension of the center hoop makes the long edges bow at the Tee fitting and the center hoop sits lower than the end hoops, resulting in the overall frame not being true. In this video, pre-used PVC is employed in the build, so it already bows as needed and doesn't interfere with the ends. I'm going back to get 3 more PVC pipes for the center support as well as to redo the long ends, and I'm going to get another couple 3/4"x3/4"x1/2" Tee fittings for the center hoop to make it more stable. But overall, great idea.
I also saw the middle hoop push the sides out dramatically. My solution for now is to pull the side pipes back toward each other with wire to resist the tension of the middle hoop.
Perfect timing 👍🏼 I sat down today planning out my winter seed starting and thinking 🤔 how am I gonna protect all my lettuce and brassicas from frost? Thank you!
This will definitely do the job. Usually, I can grow lettuce and brassicas uncovered here, but when we get an annual minimum, they tend to burn. Hopefully, this will keep that effect to zero and also prevent whiteflies in spring!
Paint the pvc pipes with some oops paint you can get anywhere or some sample paints. They will last so much longer. Since they are not in the bed there will be no leeching . Love the ideas and tips you share. Keep them coming.
I was in Lowes last week looking at PVC pipes, etc, to build a hoop house. I left the store empty handed as I couldn’t come up with viable solution (older female here) to keep the shape of the hoops without using something like rebar pounded into the ground.
This system is fabulous and something I can build myself.
Central Florida here and some years we don’t even have to use frost cloth, but last year, they were used quite a bit. Nice to have options for covers as the seasons change.
This design makes everything easy. It only takes a few pounds of pressure to bend the 1/2" pipe yourself, so it's no problem at all. Believe it or not, these covers will be far more useful in the summer than the winter. While having the frost protection will be nice for you, the protection from insects and sunlight will be 100x more useful. Not having to worry about insects damaging your plants while also cooling them off some will change everything!
What an innovative design! I absolutely agree about your stated deficiencies in stationary hoop structures. I have also been experimenting with raised bed hoop designs, which are very similar to yours. Since I sew, I have made a flat shade cloth top on a square PVC frame with net sides. Everything is easily clamped to the frame with those nifty PVC snap clamps. Also noticed that very versatile Japanese hand saw. I bought one after you first reviewed it; it is my favorite hand saw.
I LOVE the Japanese saw. It makes everything so easy. It isn't even worth having power tools most of the time. By the time I even get the power tools ready for use, the Japanese saw has the work done.
I'm thinking of building a rectangular frame, too, so I can fit a frame over my tomato cages. If I leave the clamps on the top and corners, I can split the cloth and raise the sides up for harvest, while clamping at the base between accessing. Maybe putting velcro on the sides to seal. Lifting a frame over a 3'x8' bed to harvest without crushing the next bed over is a concern. But I lose most of my tomato crop to stink bugs, so I have to try something this year. I love my PVC ratchet cutter. It handles 1/2" and 3/4" like a dream.
WOW! I wish I had come across your video before the sun burned the leaves of my green beans. I will most definitely use this design to create cover for future!
same here! just tore out and replanted my green beans. Building this now.
Great idea. My beds are different sizes so I made row covers out of 17" garden stakes, sold to make tomato cages, and 1/2 inch drip irrigation tubing. Drive the stakes in the ground, cut tubing to length, bend and put over stakes. Works great for bird netting too. Not modular but I made 20 hoops for under $40. Use stainless steel clamps sold on Amazon to hold in place.
I love this hoop house- so easy I can make it. You might want to remind squash gardeners that they'll need to leave it open so pollinators can get in, or they'll get no squash!
It goes without saying that if you're going to keep all insects out, that includes pollinators. Luckily, the overwhelming majority of what we grow doesn't require bee pollination. Zucchini is the only thing I could plant under the hoop house that would require hand pollination. Everything else is either wind pollinated or a leafy green.
Cucumbers, do they not need insect pollinators. I love your channel and your suggestions. This one looks great, and plan to follow another video of yours for my trellis beds. For cucumbers I thought needed insect pollination.
They do because they produce male and female flowers they are not true flowers that contain both male and female parts so they need pollinators, same goes with watermelon@@Acer-4Js
Probably your best video to date, great editing, great step by step clarity
Thank you. I tried to make the video as short as possible without compromising instruction.
I took everyones advice and built my first garden hoop house! Thanks!
This video is a great resource. Easy to do and so effective. Thank you for sharing your build of the Modular Greenhouse.
It really was easy. I could build, literally, 3 of these in the time it takes to build a retractable hoop house, and maybe 4-5 in the time it takes to build a hinged hoophouse. Major time-saver and much cheaper!
You just gave me the answer to numerous problems I'm having in my garden. As you said it will take care of my bug problem, the scalding sun, should keep the rabbits and deer from eating my crops. The bonus is I can build and maneuver them myself inexpensively. Thank You for sharing!
the garden behind the house that I dream of 🌹
Big hint from sunny Arizona. I had several 1/2" PVC modular units covered with 3/8" bird netting covering a garden that lasted for 8 years before I replaced it. Paint the PVC BEFORE building the frame. Naked, white PVC exposed to UV rays will decay and break down within a couple of years out here. Paint em and they last for years.
This is so thorough. Every time i had a question, boom! There he is with the answer 10 seconds later
Well done
Thank you
You're welcome! I'm glad it was clear. I tried to provide every detail necessary without making the video too long.
Thank you. I lost alot of my garden to Texas heat and grasshoppers. You solved my future gardens. Thank you so much.
Texas has been getting hammered with heat something crazy this year. Meanwhile, we've been having a below average year here in the East Coast. It was barely 80 today, which is bizarre for July. What a strange pattern. You will DEFINITELY benefit from 40% shade cloth. I have a really great 40% shade cloth linked in my Amazon Storefront with all different sizes. Super high quality and affordable.
Great idea. My first thought was wind and you covered that well.thanks.
The good news is that these covers slip on and off so easily that you can just remove it if you're getting a bad storm. Even filming it, it took maybe 3-4 mins to get cover on. If I weren't filming, it would've been even faster. Garden staples will hold it down for anything moderate.
After having tried this method and having even the empty frames blow down the street and smash into bits, I'm not so convinced this works. I've had much better luck using conduit clamps for that size tubing, screwed to the outer edges of the raised bed, and then clamping the PVC hoops down into that. Then they can't go anywhere in the wind, only the cover can get ripped off so I either take that off or anchor the whole thing down with bricks or pots. Easy to dismantle, the clamps stay there and you can move the hoops and cover to whichever bed you want.
This video is amazing. You’re the first person I have seen explaining in step by step on how to build the a raise bed. Thank you
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Brilliant!! I'll have to make one to see how it works for my garden 🤓
Very practical and easy to build along with great instructions. Thanks!
You're welcome! This can be done in about 30 minutes!
Amazing, thank you so much for this info. I'm so excited to build my first hoop house ❤
I used a row cover for the first time this year. Have had zero pests on my cabbage and kale! Imagine that - perfect heads of cabbage with no dusting or spaying! Will be adapting some of your ideas. Great video.
They can't eat your food if they can't get in! Netting is often overlooked, but it's such a cheap, easy tool.
Just bought everything yesterday, going to use this design, thanks for the content!
Another great video! Can’t wait to build
My hoop house! 💕
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Great video. I have been trying to figure out how to do this. I tried to build one with wood and it is so hard to move and is not plum. Looks really bad because it looks so bad. But I feel I can do what you described and it will be flexible and useful for whatever I need. Thx so much.
Great content again 👏 I have same garden issues with pests and wind in Southern Coastal SC. Having portable hoops that are adaptable are just a must to grow year round. This is simple and budget friendly. Thanks again
Thank you! I'm not too far from you, and our conditions are almost identical. These covers make an enormous difference and save so much time.
Fantastic! I'm in Colorado and did winter gardening this past winter with pvc hoops and 2 layers of 6 mil plastic, but I held the sides down with bricks and it was just messy when I had to water, harvest, vent, add fabric when the temp dropped real low. I've been wanting a frame structure that I can lift up, move around, easily vent, but couldn't figure out how to do it. My raised beds are pretty tall (for our old backs), so I will make them to fit inside the beds. I will make them not as long as I did last winter (10 feet) because that was just a little too hard for me to manage, although this frame seems simpler than 10 feet of plastic that I had to roll up and down and hold in place with bricks. In fact, I might make several smaller ones to fit over the fall/winter starts that I've already planted. Does that make sense to you?We have crazy Colorado winds, so I really like your idea of using garden stakes to fit over the bottom of the frame structure and anchor them to the soil. Oh, I also used plastic jugs of water and 1 string of Christmas lights when it got real cold. I think this should work in the frame structure as I can run the lights under the frame to get to the outdoor plugs.
Thanks for the info on this. Appears to be pretty awesome way of green housing when needed.
I love these frames! Great idea & thanks for sharing. Love those snap clips. Easy!
You're welcome! This is really, really easy. You can build one of these in 30 minutes for cheap.
Love it, I think I'm going to have my husband build one for me. Thanks for sharing
This would be a good option for me for frost cloth in the fall. Great video!
It's also good for the spring, too. You can add 2-3 weeks on either side of the growing season with a frost cloth. It doesn't sound like much, but another month to month and a half of growing really makes a difference!
Thanks again for sharing I can use a green house covering.
You're welcome!
Dale,
Thank you so much for doing this video.
This is exactly what I'm needing, except I have my blueberries and raspberries planted in a large circle, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to do a circular one.
I don't know how to do it but I'm going to try.
I'm really loving watching your shows.
Just make a square/rectangle a bit bigger than your beds!
That is such a more cost effective method for those beds. I am already half way into season 2 of talking my hubby into letting me build a frame around the big main bed against the fence. I am fed up with trying to stake the indeterminate tomatoes instead of using string. He is still not convinced.
Hopefully, our aphid problem might convince him more. Sugar snap peas and runner Beans don't need cross pollination like squashes, etc do they? If not, i can get two of those nets and seal the whole main bed off.
On a side personal note, have you changed your workout targets? If so it is paying off! I would love to be more active other than children's activities and working in the garden but we do what we can with our state of health. I love gardening but the high pollen count and dry heat, with not much rain has made me terribly sick the past few weeks. We had two major sand storms from Africa hit our lands and it has covered everything again.
Our courgettes have really suffered and not produced as well as last year.
I've tried three different methods of hoop houses, and I'm settling on this one. It's easier, faster, cheaper and more mobile. Building them into the frames just puts them in the way all the time, and it takes a lot more time and money to do it. This was so easy and cheap that I wish I would've done this from the start.
Peas, beans and tomatoes are wind-pollinated, so as long as the air can rustle everything underneath, they'll still pollinate. The insect netting lets the air through, so you won't have pollination issues. If you grow squash, cucumbers, watermelons and other cucurbits under these covers, you will have to hand pollinate them manually by moving the pollen from the male flowers into the female flowers with a cotton swap or mascara brush. It is an extra step, yes, but it is easier and faster than treating for vine borers and squash bugs.
I'm not sure what you mean by the workout targets. I've been following the same boring routine for years. I've just learned to listen to the seasonal changes my body wants to go through. I always gain weight in the winter, because my appetite goes up. It's your body's natural reaction to want to put on body fat when it gets cold as a survival mechanism, so I just go with it. My appetite goes away in the summer, because it's your body's natural inclination to want to shed fat to stay cooler when it's hot out. I just listen to it and let it go. I bounce in the same 10 lbs all year, dropping in the summer and gaining in the winter, so I just go with it.
I really like this. I also like how you went through all the steps. I think I could make this.👍🤗 Thank you ☺️ Blessings to you and your family 💕🙏🤗🐕🐾
So smart I sure wish I could have some help with my containers and I really would have better harvest I’m disabled and have a lot of health issues my spine is collapsed with osteoporosis and my heart problems and diabetes and have had breast cancer surgery and it’s so hard for me to get around but I try to get my family to help but they are scared of everything!! I live in mount Olive North Carolina lol so I’m not far from you I enjoy watching you and thank you for sharing your life with us
Love your content and Dale, of course!
Thank you! Dale and I appreciate that!
Awesome info and great video👍Thank you😊
You're welcome! Thank you for watching!
Awesome!!!😉
Thank you!
Wow and thank you for this very helpful video!
You're welcome! I'm glad it was helpful!
I really appreciate this video. I just successfully built my own hoop house..now with the confidence to construct more!
That's great! It really makes gardening easier.
Yes because the sun is cooking my baby plants alive this year omg 😳
Love Dale!
We are lucky to have such a good boy 🐕
Love this one, live down the way on Oak Island. Like removing the cover for high winds. Great idea and good videos!!
Thank you! I was just there last weekend for dinner! It's only about a 25 minute drive. Our weather is virtually identical, so if it works for me, it'll work for you! It's certainly not having any problems today in this phony "tropical storm" we're supposedly having 😂
this is so nice! I think I can build this myself! ...
QUESTION: thank you so much for the detailed demonstration of how to build the hoop house. I want to make a cover for some containers along the apron of the driveway here. I rent a small apt. over a garage in Fuquay Varina (in the Triangle NC) and have a "container garden" of strawberries and butternut squash growing like crazy but I do need shade cloth this summer as well as modularized fixtures rather than modifying property I rent don't own.
If I just need it to be say a 5-6 ft long area by 2-3 feet wide, will the 10 ft PVC be overkill? And then the BIG QUESTION: one of my containers is butternut squash which is already doing great -- I'm growing it vertically on two garden stakes inside a 20" dia. container -- so at the moment it stands almost 6 ft tall. Your hoop houses are pretty short, what, 4 ft? so how do I accommodate the height while not taking up a huge amount of space on the shared (with my landlady) driveway? Will it be possible to make a narrow but high curve by cutting shorter segments of PVC and connecting them with T connectors like you did?
Great idea. I may use this next spring with the broccoli bed. Have a great Independence Day! USA USA USA!
Even now, your garden will benefit from some shade during the hot days, not to mention insect protection. These covers are good year round. Happy 4th!
@@TheMillennialGardener I use 40% shade cloth all summer for the whole garden and it helps immensely
This is sooo great! thank youu!!!
Awesome video. I happen to have most of the pvc already so I can repurpose it.
That's great! The fittings are all around $1 a piece (they used to be half that a few months ago...), so everything can be secured pretty cheaply.
I loved it! However, for me, the challenge is that my raised beds are waist high and in various shapes and sizes. I have the Vego beds. They do make covers for them but they are too expensive. But I do love the designs and the reasons behind your creation.
Awesome thank you for making this video
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
I realize I may not get an answer because this video is an older one, but worth a shot! First, THANK YOU for this how to. Second, I just built this hoop house and I left the hoops at 10’ sections. I have a bit of an annoyance and yours isn’t doing this so maybe I did something wrong. Mine are 8x4’. On the 8’ section, the middles of the base are bowing from the pressure of the middle hoop. What did I do wrong? I have two 5 gallon buckets filled with soil pushed up against the two sides where it’s bowing to hopefully straighten it out. Any suggestions? Thanks again!
What size diameter pipe or conduit did you buy? It sounds like the pipe is either a wider diameter or a thicker wall thickness, so there is more tension when you bend the pipe, which is causing the bowing effect. Make sure all your pipes are pressed firmly into the fittings. Also, make sure that if you drilled them to lock them in place that nothing is twisted.
@@TheMillennialGardener I used 1/2” PVC. I realize now why mine may be having issues. I used pvc cement instead of screws to attach the pipes to the fittings. I’m thinking that’s what caused the bowing. I’ll go back in with some screws to see if that shores it up a bit. If not, I’ll use rebar hammered into the ground in the middle to hold the bowing part of the frame in place. Thanks so much for the reply!
That's great for lettuces and carrots but what do you do when building / moving the covers to access cucumber and tomato vines, etc. which get tall?
This is great. Thank you so much!!
Great information , thanks 👍
You're welcome!
Good teaching 😁
Thank you!
Dude love your videos!💙
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Thanks for another great video!
Been wanting to do this for years but with conduit. Just in time for my fall crop…
That is great info
Thank you, very nice.
You're welcome!
Love it!!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
THANKU GOD BLESS YOU
SOME PEOPLE OVERHANG THE NETTING TO PUT ROCKS OR HEAVY OBJECTS ON TOP TO PREVENT WIND BLOWING THE GREEN HOUSE AWAY
You can, but I find the rubbing back and forth will tear the ends of the netting. It's also a tripping hazard when you only have 26" wide walking paths like I do. The garden staples will hold it without taking up any space. I'm not going to secure mine at all.
Thanks for sharing! Is your corn bed also 4x10? If yess, how many corn plants can you feet in that bed? Hope you Have a wonderful evening.
I live in a cold climate area and would be useful to me to have few of them
This is useful for literally everyone. It'll extend your growing season in the cold. It'll protect your foliage in the heat. It'll protect against insect damage. No matter who you are, there is a major benefit. Here, the sun and insects decimate my garden. These are the solution.
❤ it. Thanks
Awesome ❤
Thank you!
This might be to solution to my bird problem. It will also help with the 108deg temps in central TX . Thanks !
It absolutely will. I actually recommend you use the 40% shade tarp I have linked in my Amazon Storefront. It'll work better for you in your extreme conditions than insect netting.
Great videos! Going to make some of those! Thanks! Happy 4 th of July! God Bless America!
Nice build! Any builds for container grown vegetables, like for brassicas?
Hello MG,
Great content! I think i may have missed it: how did you keep your hoop bent/pre-bent? I thought of this design recently but opted out because the frame wasnt strong enough to keep the pipe in that hoop shape. I used PVC/conduit. Are you using the more bendy water pipes?
How do the plants get pollinated? I.e. cucumbers? Do you recommend leaving one or both ends open. If one end I assume North? Appreciate your videos
what would you suggest to keep it from being blown away?
I enjoy your channel and decided to build my on modular greenhouse, it is impossible to find 1/2" x1/2" 90 degree side elbow I am going crazy. Even tried a cpvc
Great idea, but do you have a way to make the for metal oval raised beds. The one company has one for sale but are very expensive. My beds are 33” tall.
Living on the Texas gulf coast we are subject to intense summer heat. Will the insect netting be sufficient or go to the shade cloth? I am assuming rain will penetrate. I do not have a drip irrigation system so I need access to watering with the hose.
Thank you once again- you have just shown me how to make a cover. Have had no satisfaction with what I have found on the net, perfect timing as I have my winter veggies in and wil, be fighting cabbage white butterfly caterpillars a bit later. And!!!- I can build the cover myself. Now to see if we have those snap clamps in Aussie land.
What a find-- The Millennial Gardener
Very ❤️❤️nice
A few years back I did exact thing, however I soon realized that some of my squash plants once flowering could not get pollinated. What would you suggest.
That's easily fixable by hand pollinating. Simply take a cotton swab or a blush brush and move pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers once every couple days. Yes, it's an extra step, but it's far easier than fighting vine borers and squash bugs. You can hand pollinate a dozen flowers in seconds.
👍✍
Do you have a video with information about your ground cover? I guess it would be called a weed barrier.
Yes. I have a video here: th-cam.com/video/XT1reOI1-5E/w-d-xo.html
If using where you can not use staples to secure. Fill the bottom PVC with water, use a hose at one corner and pull out the upright from another corner then fill until you see water flowing out. Need to move it just remove a joiner connection and let drain.
The PVC pipe is very narrow, so it won't hold much weight. You'd also have to cement all your fittings. They won't hold water as-is.
@@TheMillennialGardener cement is not necessary, 1/2" wide strip of duct tape at each joint would seal it. Or if you prefer add sand instead of water. One gallon of water weighs 8.345 pounds, adds up faster than you think. Since it's all open PVC pipe you can add as much water up the pipes to increase the weight.
cool idea
Thanks!
My raised bed is 4x8. Can I use the same cutting pattern on mine?
So the three hoops are 10 footers just bent to the other side of your raised bed?
Appreciate the detail, but wondering if there is a reason for not using PVC glue?
Yes. Because then the connections would be permanent. It would also take you 2 days to build the frame, since you'd need to wait overnight for the glue to completely cure. By using screws, you can build the entire frame in about 30 minutes, and if any of the PVC ever bleaches and becomes brittle, you can disassemble the structure and replace the damaged pipes. If you glue everything together, the frame will no longer be modular.
How do you stop or deal with squash vine bore ??
This is awesome! I'm a little west over in Burlington. What do you use in the winter to protect crops in this 20 degree spells we get at times?
I live outside Denver and did winter gardening under hoops for first time this past winter. I suggest searching Tube - there are several really great videos with details. I used 2 layers of 6 mil plastic (from Walmart, not UV protected but they are still good to use a second year for this winter). I did not use the frame structure as in this video, but just placed plastic over pvc hoops inserted directly into ground (very awkward raising up plastic to water/harvest/vent); some onto rebar stuck into raised bed and used plastic clips to hold in place on the hoops and bricks around bottom. I did insert one length of Christmas lights (NOT led) along the top of structure (not touching the plastic), and added a light sheet directly on top of the plants, as well as 2 -3 inches of dried leaves and several plastic gallon jugs of water (spray painted black to gather heat during day). When it went down to 14 degrees and lower I added 1 sheet of mylar reflective foil insulation simply clamped onto the top of the hoop. I had a remote thermometer inside the hoops - temps down to 5 degrees inside the covered hoops and plants did fine. I planted them too late in October so they were only 2 inches most of the winter (they will not die but they will not grow either) but went crazy come spring and I am still harvesting. Only cold hardy, frost tolerant - kale, collards, kohlrabi, cabbage. Trying again this year, have already planted starts hoping I can harvest during deep winter, and will use the frame structure idea in this video, but will place inside my raised beds as they are very tall. Good luck!!
Greetings my question is not about this project but about fig trees two of my are having yellow leaves ,any idea why. Thank you
Likely rust is starting. This video may help: th-cam.com/video/PDwhFMli41U/w-d-xo.html
hmmm seeing the frame bending ... inserting a dowl might add some rigidity to the bottom if you wanted ..
The frame doesn't have to be perfectly rigid. It's just sitting on the ground. Leaving it flexible is fine.
How do you look after your plants inside without lifting the whole thing?
You'll have to lift it. The entire structure maybe weighs 20 lbs, tops. All you really need to do is take a chunk of a 2x4, pick up the hoop house and prop it up with the 2x4. Alternatively, you can literally tip it over on its side for a moment.
Some gardeners, in order to elevate the temperatures on the beds during the cold season will do a double layer of plastic. Have you tried this with your lovely portable bed cover in some way?
I can't use greenhouse plastic where I live. It makes a hoop house far too hot in the winter. Our average highs in January are in the mid-50's, and even during the winter, our UV index is still around a 5. With a single layer of greenhouse plastic on a colder-than-average day, it would elevate to over 100 degrees in my hoop house when I tried a single plastic layer. I just can't use it. Frost cloth works better for me, because it provides some ventilation.
I used 2 layers in Denver, but often had to vent when it got too warm. It was great for 14 degrees and below. I also used a remote thermometer and checked temps often.
How do you keep bugs from going under the bottom..... add soil to cover the base?
This barrier is going to keep 99% of them out. Some may slip through, but that's nothing a quick spray with some pyrethrin can't handle. Because these physical barriers limit the population so much, an occasional spray can keep your crops practically insect-free.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you
Year around gardening? Try that in Minnesota!
You can with a greenhouse. Anything is possible.
@The Millennial Gardener not true, at -25 you spend more on heating than the produce is worth.