Growing in hoophouses reduces the impact of increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends growing seasons, and strengthens regional food supply. The Year-Round Hoophouse teaches how to site, design, and build a hoophouse and successfully grow abundant produce all year in a range of climates.
Design and build a hoophouse or polytunnel, and grow abundant produce year-round in any climate.
Growing in hoophouses – also known as high tunnels or polytunnels – reduces the impact of an increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends the growing season and keeps leafy greens alive through the winter, and enables growers to supply more regional food needs.
The Year-Round Hoophouse is a comprehensive guide to to designing and building a hoophouse and making a success of growing abundant, delicious fresh produce all year, whatever your climate and land size. Chapters include:
Hoophouse siting, size, style, frame construction, and tools
Bed layout, soil, crop rotations, and extensive coverage of various crops for all seasons
Organic solutions to pests and diseases
Disaster preparation
Tested resources for each chapter.
The Year-Round Hoophouse is ideal for farmers who wish to move into protected growing, as well as beginning farmers in rural and urban spaces. It is an essential reference resource for professors and students of courses in sustainable agriculture, as well as interns and apprentices learning on the job.
Author has been the garden manager at Twin Oaks Community, a 3.5 acre vegetable garden that grows food for a community of 100 people, for over 20 years
She has been gardening and managing gardens for 43 years
This is the comprehensive guide to growing in hoophouses, also widely known as polytunnels
Includes design and construction as well as all of the details needed for successful hoophouse vegetable production
Based on 15 years research and development of growing in hoophouses including crop trials
Tried and tested methods for achieving high yields