The field house is up …

… and we love it, love it, love it! For those of you who have been following our story from the beginning (seemingly years ago, but really just in March), you’ll remember our Haygrove saga—the poor doomed hoop house that was and then wasn’t. You’ll also remember that when we returned the parts, we kept some to use in building a much shorter, more manageable field house for our tomatoes and peppers (very similar to our lovely little hot house). (For those of you unfamiliar with growing tomatoes in a field house, the goal is to extend the season by getting earlier tomatoes but also by continuing to grow them past the first few frosts. Tomatoes are super sensitive, and yet, when protected by a greenhouse, indeterminate varieties can produce as late as early November! We’re aiming to have at least 15 strong weeks of tomatoes this season.)

Well, as of this morning, that field house is up and it is truly awesome. We get giddy just thinking about it. Even though our misadventures with the Haygrove were mostly unpleasant (except for working with OBC Northwest—amazing company), it was 100% worth it because we could never have come up with a better, simpler, more inexpensive design than the house we now have. Again, to recap from before, we’re basically using the brilliant Haygrove design; except, rather than mounting the hoops on tall risers, we slip them over metal anchors pounded into the ground. I cannot overestimate how simple this is. Here are some photos of the process:

Here is the beginning of the house-raising. We prepped the beds, laid t-tape and covered them with landscape cloth before beginning to put up the hoops (all much easier to do before than after in a cramped—and hot—space). In this picture, you can see the first few hoops.

Just a little bit later, you can see we’ve raised all 32 hoops.

After getting the hoops up last night, we also pounded in our t-posts and hung our trellis wire, since these were also things we thought would be easier before the plastic was in the way.

This morning we woke up early to catch the calm dawn and raised the plastic, left over from the original Haygrove (raising the plastic is challenging enough in no wind, but impossible with even the lightest breeze).

Here Casey is putting the finishing trim on the front plastic (which is attached with snap-on clamps over green quick release tape—all Haygrove supplies and very easy to work with).

A side view of the plastic and the Haygrove roping system. You can see here how the ropes cross on the top to create ‘gutters’ for rain. This is part of why the plastic doesn’t need to be pulled as tight as on traditional hoop houses. Again, very simple. Casey and I were able to rope it up in almost no time, even though we were pretty awkward and inefficient in some moments (for example, when we spent 20 minutes untying a big bad knot in the rope).

Me in front of the finished house! This gives you an idea of scale …

And, two detail shots (for the farm nerds out there):

The photo on the left is a close-up on our new, improved rope attachment system. On the hothouse, we actually drilled holes in the hoops and then put eye-bolts through them. Good system, except it takes forever to drill all the holes. This new method is much simpler: we made some S-hooks out of leftover bits of wire and slipped them under the bottom of the hoop. Works just as well and takes a fraction of the time. (You can also see the fabulously simple Haygrove venting clips—these will allow us to raise and lower the plastic on the sides as needed to regulate the temperature of the house.) The photo on the right is a close-up of our tomato training twine, all tied and ready to go later in the season. That wire is about nine feet above the ground—we’re being ambitious perhaps, but that particular line is where the cherry tomatoes will be planting, and those plants can get enormous!!!!!

And, if you’re not yet on board with our excitement about this project, perhaps the numbers will illustrate the beauty and potential of this house: