I came back north for the holiday, and it’s been smashing.

Yesterday, on the morn of Christmas Eve, I went out to Hopkinton to look at some used hoophouse frames. I’d done a fair bit of research on this earlier in the fall, and had found that used hoophouse frames in Massachusetts are kind like used Tacoma trucks in Massachusetts – mighty tough to track down. But I opened my email a week or two ago and found a classified ad tucked away at the end of Mass Ag Farm & Market report:

Hoop Tents For Sale -

Measure 7 ft. high, 14 ft. wide by appx. 120 ft. long
Durable ¾” galvanized iron pipe hoops, 21 ft long, bent to half-circle
Hoops 3 ft. apart insert into pressure-treated 6×8 landscape timbers
Dozens available

The design of these houses is rather unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is more conventional to anchor the hoops in the ground, by first pounding a steel tube of a wider diameter into the soil, then inserting the end of the hoop into this anchor tube, and finally bolting the two together for good measure. The resulting structure is very stable, but rather fussy to put together – you should expect to hit rocks while trying to pound in the anchors, to have headaches over placing them precisely, to spend a lot of time with a sledgehammer, etc. A hoophouse constructed in this way is also, for obvious reasons, not an easy thing to move.

The alternative design of these houses is rather clever. The pressure-treated landscape timbers are heavy enough to be used as effective anchors, but light enough that any two reasonably handy people can move them around without too much trouble. And because the landscape timbers are uniform in size, and the anchor holes have been cut at regular intervals, there is no need to agonize over placement. You can just lay them down in two parallel lines fourteen feet apart and start popping in the hoops.

For my needs, the fit isn’t perfect. In their current life, the hoophouses are being used to provide winter protection for woody nursery plants – azaleas, hydrangeas, etc. Therefore the modest height (7′) is an advantage. The structure retains optimal heat while providing enough head clearance for people to work comfortably. But I plan to grow tomatoes in them, and indeterminate tomato varieties in a hoophouse climb like spider monkeys. They could reach seven feet by mid-July, no problem.

But the price for a 120′ house is quite reasonable, and the ease of construction is immensely appealing. I’m basically starting from square one with this whole project in terms of infrastructure (except for the epic deer fence), and i don’t relish the idea of standing on a wobbly ladder in the cold gray spring, struggling to erect some fifteen foot behemoth on my own. I am confident I could put up one of these used structures on my own. So I think I am going to get two. One for tomatoes, one to break in half. Part will be used for starting transplants, part will be used for growing peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and fancy cut flowers (lisianthus, karma dahlias) under cover.

It’s a lot of row feet under cover, given the lilliputian scale of the farm, but I think for the island climate it’s one of the best things I can do to set myself up for success. The yields are just so much better in a hoophouse, and the season is extended dramatically on either side. Even the Massachusetts NRCS is getting in on the action:

http://www.ma.nrcs.usda.gov/news/news_high_tunnel_pilot.html

I’m going to apply for funding, but my eligibility is rather questionable given the farm is a first-year startup. But it’s a great idea. Everyone should check it out.

This morning I was the grateful recipient of some excellent gifts: a long-handle shovel (tall people shouldn’t have to put their backs out digging holes), a hard rake, and a cast-iron skillet (bought in chinatown and preseasoned by my dad). amazing and appropriate one and all.