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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (9736)	11/27/2009 11:11:24 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24211

Make yer own. Can cover with plastic to heat, shade netting to cool, bird netting to protect them. I use concrete wire for the frame, 3/4 inch PVC wired to each end to hold the bend. About 8 feet long, not quite half my bed, but you can still cover a whole bed with 2. 5 feet wide, cover entire width. Creating a Growing Tunnel Perhaps a more interesting (and challenging) means of extending the season for beds and rowsful of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, is to create tunnels or hoophouses. This typically entails putting semi-circular hoops over garden beds and covering them with plastic or garden fabric. You can use solid plastic (at least 3 mil), pre-slitted plastic row covers, or garden fabric. If you use solid plastic, you should pre-drill or slit aeration holes in the roll before unfurling it. If you're growing heat-loving crops in a cool climate, consider using a clear plastic growing tunnel over a bed mulched with black plastic. Here are instructions for creating a basic tunnel. Decide how long you'll want your growing tunnel. For each 2 to 3 feet of length you'll, need a 4- to 10-foot length of 1/2-inch PVC pipe, black polyethylene pipe, or 9-gauge galvanized wire to form a "rib." (The size of each depends on the width of your beds and height of the plants you'll be covering.) You'll also need enough row cover material for the length of your bed plus 4 to 8 feet on either end for ventilation. Bend the plastic or wire ribs over the bed at 2- to 3-foot intervals to form hoops and push them into the ground as far as possible. (It helps if you cut the ends on a diagonal.) If your ground is too hard, you can pound in small stakes or lengths of rebar at 2- to 3-foot intervals, and push the ends of the ribs onto them, or create a wooden perimeter frame with dowels spaced at the same intervals, and push and secure the hoops over them. Put your plastic or fabric over the hoops and bury the edges or anchor them with rocks or earth staples (available at garden supply and hardware stores). To keep the covers from flapping in strong winds, you can fashion or purchase clothespin-like clips to secure the fabric to the ribs. Have your garden sleuths keep track of temperatures in the tunnel and decide what they need to do to maintain an environment that helps plants thrive (see Some Like it Hot). You will probably want to leave at least one end open for ventilation most of the time, but if frost or cold temps threaten, you might close it up at night. Don't be limited by the types of bed coverups described here. Challenge students to invent their own means of providing shelter and extra warmth for garden beds. kidsgardening.com Or, rebar and PVC Rebar use in garden Posted by bcskye 5 Brn.Co., IN (My Page) on Sun, Mar 16, 08 at 23:54 New to this forum. You are really lucky to get all that rebar. I just read something yesterday about using rebar when you're making supports for row covers. You pound the rebar into the ground on either side of your row where you will have a pvc pipe arching across the row. I think they suggested 3' lengths driven into the ground, but you could use shorter since you are going to fit the pvc pipe over them. Keeps the pvc curved and immoveable. I'm going to try it. Also, check construction sites after they are pretty well done. A lot of time they will leave pvc pipe in various lengths that they don't use. My neice's husband told me about that. Of course, I would always ask if I could have it if they were still around to ask and only take it if they weren't around anymore if it was obvious they were leaving it as unusable. Also, I have rolls of row cover I bought several years ago, but if I need more I'm going to put feelers out to friends and family for donations of old sheer long curtains to use. If there's none there, there's always the thrift shops. forums2.gardenweb.com