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Wintering Plants in Pots - Part 2 - Page 2

© Marge Talt

 I've had a frame like this for probably fifteen years and over wintered a lot of plants in it. Mine has a foot or two (30.48 - 60.96cm) of sand in it so I can bury pots to the rim, and I think it might have been about three blocks high - it's been a long time since I saw the bottom of it.

Totally Temporary

  Mini hoop houses are rather more temporary. Again, you can buy these from various gardening supply houses, but it's also really easy to make your own. This is especially true if you've already got some raised beds with wooden sides - in the vegetable garden, for instance. In that case, all you've got to do is get some PVC pipe, pipe connectors, PVC glue and metal two hole pipe straps, which you will screw to the sides of your raised bed to hold the PVC pipe in place. When you want to take the hoops down, just unscrew the strap. You will need to glue the curved joint in the PVC pipe because the pipe will be under tension, but you might be able to simply insert the ridge pipe without glue so that when you dismantle your frame, it will store flat. I haven't tried this, so you may need to experiment to see if it will hold without glue. Your curved pipe should be about two feet apart, on center; you can make it as long as you like. Cover it in plastic and secure the plastic with bricks or boards at ground level so winter winds don't whip it about.

 If you don't have a raised bed to attach the pipes to, simply build a wood frame the size you want. If you live in an area with high winds, you may find it necessary to drive stakes into the ground and nail or screw the frame to them so the whole thing doesn't go sailing away.

 With this kind of arrangement, you leave the ends open for ventilation during the day and close them at night if the weather is really cold. I would fill in the frame with sand or mulch and bury the pots to their rims to insulate the roots. If you build it over an existing raised bed, dig your pots into the bed.

 A variation on the hoop theme is the A-Frame. This sketch shows one covered in corrugated fiberglass panels, but you can also use plastic as a covering. The fiberglass is rigid, but leaks air rather severely. If you choose this material, you can throw a sheet of plastic over it when the weather turns bitter.

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