WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD, VOLUME 40 OCTOBER 5, 2012

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

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I have a greenhouse, but here in central Texas, it gets too hot in the summer. It's great for protecting plants in the winter unless we have an extended freeze though. A couple years ago, I spent over $400 for propane to keep the temps up so my tropical plants wouldn't die.

I built a hoophouse with raised beds and currently get 2 crops a year from it.

We grow cabbage, okra, a couple varieties of peppers, melons, radish, peanuts, kohlrabi, carrots, broccoli, and whatever else we can find space for. It's just a simple frame that's covered with chicken wire and deer netting to keep the deer away from the plants.
The raised beds are where the action is. The soil in my area is very poor, with an average pH of 8.5, so we amended the soil with horse manure and 3% rock phosphate. The plants love it, but unfortunately so do the weeds.
The okra plants are over 9ft tall, and several pepper plants are over 6ft. The branches tend to break from the weight of the fruit.

Here, you can see the setup of the frame. We added the center section this past spring because we ran out of room with the standard hoop. The overhead sprinkler system is real economical, and keeps the plants happy. In the center of the picture, poking out of the top of the frame are the okra plants.

This is a shot of the okra, poblano, and anaheim pepper plants poking through the shadecloth on top of the hoophouse. Peanut plants are in the foreground.

This is the left side of the hoophouse with the raised beds of radish, cabbage, carrots, and lettuce. It's a constant battle with the weeds in here, even with ground cover.

The peanuts, okra, and pepper plants were planted in March. They've done well, so we've decided to let them do their thing. The other plants were put in the ground 2 weeks ago. I expect the larger plants will freeze back over the winter, so we'll just cut them back and mulch the root ball. Most should come back in the spring.
The cool weather plants will be covered with drop cloths and continue to produce through the winter. The growing period is generally from late March through late November.

Just for giggles, this is my 5 year old tabasco "tree". It's 7ft tall and one of the few plants that love the heat of the greenhouse. It freezes back every winter, then re-grows in the spring.

The entire hoophouse cost was around $350, not including the tubing bender from http://www.johnnyseeds.com. The lumber for the raised beds is left over from other projects around the house and I get the manure for free.

I initially had 1 drip style sprinkler head per bed, which was fine until the plants grew and began to block the spray pattern. I tried the overhead sprinkler system as an experiment, and it works well. It uses a bit more water, but it's not as expensive as installing a separate dripper for each plant.
The 30% shade cloth will stay over the hoophouse for the entire year since it helps keep birds out in the cooler seasons. It can easily be taken down and re-hung though.

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