Edit: I have imported this from my The Black Thumb of Death Gardening Blog to my regular blog...  

We first bought a pipe bender to make the hoops for the garden beds. It was not the right arch, so we made one based on what others' have made. I was 7 pipes short to finish. We will get those tomorrow and finish getting them in, plus get the covering for the hoops. We used 10' long electrical pipe of some sort. It made high hoops. 1' is below ground of each hoop to secure them. We used a combo of lag bolts with nipples and 10-penny concrete nails. the lag bolts with the nipple-things were placed at intervals were there was the highest stress. At the top of the arch is two spaced just far enough apart to keep the pipe from going too far north as we bent the pipes. Note- for 3-ft. sq. boxes, go down to an 17" from bcenter arch, not 18". The span comes out a little wide with the latter measurement. No biggie.


Not perfect in any way in shape and all that. the hoops will hold the white fabric over the beds to keep them warm for earlier planting. I will remove it when it warms up and replace it in September when the temps start dipping to extend our growing period.


The garden beds in front of the kitchen area of our house. We ran short of pipes. The two long beds in the foreground of the photo to the right will get chicken wire over them also to protect them from pine cone bombs.



This small bed is behind the garage and craft room, in a corner. It gets enough sun. In winter, this is where the snow piles the deepest.
The bed to the right held pumpkins last year. this small area freezes last and first, a weird micro-climate in front of our carport. Adding the hoops and cover will help the area greatly.
This final area is the "outfield". Each area totals 18'. We can expand next year to more if needed. I put fishing line around the green poles to keep the deer out. It worked last year. There will be plastic on the left to break the wind that comes down the open slope, not pictured.

Well... That is it for now!