Making improvements to the hoop house.....

     During some unseasonably warm days these past few weeks, I made some modifications to the hoop house on the Green Kuisine MicroFarm.
     I began by digging a trench completely around the base of the hoop house. Then I attached some hardware cloth to each of the base boards. The wire mesh was attached so nearly two feet of it would be buried into the trench. This was to deter any furry creatures from burrowing into the hoop house to enjoy the warm environment and some tasty vegetables.
     Then, I filled the trench with active compostables so they could work as a heat source and as a frost barrier from the cold exterior ground. If this works well, I will repeat the process next fall. If it doesn't work as well as predicted, I plan to fill the trench with pea gravel so it can drain away the water from winter thaws and overhead snow melt off from the hoop house. *A spring project of mine will be to design and construct a water collection system for the hoop house to use during summer rains.
      The side panels of the MicroFarm's hoop house are designed to roll up and down depending if the weather forecast is for clear skies or for stormy conditions. This puts allot of stress on those thin sheets of greenhouse plastic. They were beginning to show some wear and several holes were clearly present. I was already working with the trenches below the panels and the weather was good for another day so I stretched the rehab project so it included new side panels for the hoop house.
     I sure hope that the work and foresight to do these projects now lends itself to some great harvests in the future.
     I am dying to plant something !!