In My Alaska Garden – Memorial Weekend Planting and Hoop House Lessons

Inside Linda's Hoop House

I’ve been a very busy girl in the hoop house, though not as busy as I would like. Life has interefered but I plan on spending the rest of the evening and most of tomorrow getting things together.

This is my Memorial Day tradition, as it is for most gardeners.

I can take you on a little tour…

First, we look left to the “herb garden,” as yet incomplete…

Thyme, Chives, Basil (two tubs) and Alpine, "Mignonette" Strawberries

Missing from the photo (on the far left) is the bin containing Sage and Dill. The Basil is the “Aromatic Trio” from Renee’s Garden…I believe this one is the “Red Rubin” but I haven’t seen any with green leaves and purple veins (Cinnamon Basil) so I’m not sure which one it is for sure.

It will probably be more obvious as they get bigger.

The Thyme is still tiny because there were too many seeds in the same little seed-starting container.

I’m lumping the Strawberries in with the herbs because, well, Renee’s seeds does the same. Though for them, it’s probably for a lack of other “fruit seeds” in their catalogue.

Alpine "Mignonette" Strawberries

I also have a longer table in there for seed starting. I want to have rotating crops, so to speak, so while I’m growing some of the brassicas outside (the Kale, Pak Choi and “Little Jade” Cabbage seeds are coming up in the veggie bed and I bought some broccoli starts to add to them) I’ll start more seeds for the next crop. Currently, I have oregano, melon and tri-color bell pepper seeds starting for inside the hoop house.

I’ll take pictures of the outside garden for next week after I’ve done some…errr…work. Starting things from seed in the beds seems to attract more weeds and it’s hard to differentiate which is which on some of them.

Regarding the hoop house itself…we are definitely in a bit of a learning curve.

Our biggest challenge by far is the wind. All of the binder clips we used to clip the sheeting to the top PVC pipe “spine” were blown off the first night. Since then, we’ve noticed that, while the clips have held on the bottom, there’s been a bit of a “creep” up as the wind catches the sheeting at the top and billows it up. This creates a cycle as more wind can get under the sheeting from the bottom, billowing it up more.

My solution, which we will try on the next dry day, is to unclip the “creeping” side (the north side of the hoop house — HH from now on) and use industrial strength velcro. We’ll stick half to the top of the “spine” and the other half to the sheeting. Since that seems to be the only thing that has held firm so far regarding the doors, I figure we’ll see if it can hold the sheeting to the frame.

The second wind challenge is with the doors. I keep the one door facing the house open at all times, rolled up and held with velcro (it’s worked like a trooper, even when the rolled-up portion fills with rain). The other door facing the road I’ve been trying to keep closed with little success.

"Sophisticated" door-closing system

We’ve been trying to use rocks, but the wind is so strong it just pulls the sheeting and rolls them right off.

My solution — splitting it down the middle then pulling it tight, overlapping the two sides and fastening with two long strips of industrial velcro. The bottom I’ll either just use bricks (won’t roll as easily) or try to roll up pieces of metal EMT conduit inside the bottom of the “door” sheeting and hold them there with velcro. I’ll use a wider, heavier size of EMT than the 1/2 inch variety making up the frame of the HH.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I’m all ears!!!

I’ll take more pictures when it’s not raining so hard and will share next week.

Please share any garden info you have for the week.

And In the Tradition of Memorial Day:

I still miss you Mo Bailey…you were a hero and a warrior with a heart the size of Alaska. I’ll be forever proud that you called me your friend.

Maurice "Mo" Bailey

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