Garden Know-how: Extend Your Growing Season

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Make Terrific Tunnels

Plastic-covered tunnels make perfect mini-greenhouses for early spring planting. You also can use one to harden off seedlings started indoors. Low tunnels stand firmer in wind than high ones, and tunnels that must hold up under heavy snow loads benefit from sturdy support. Supporting a tunnel is a great job for fence wire or concrete reinforcing wire. Or, you can go with simple hoops if you keep your tunnels low and tight. I make hoops from slender green saplings cut from the woods, or you can use stiff wire or small diameter plastic pipe. Got raised beds? Attach matching pairs of pipe brackets to the outside of the beds’ sides, and you have instant sleeves for support hoops.

My first tries with tunnels led to long tramps through the woods to retrieve windblown sheets of plastic, but not anymore. After trying edge-weights from bricks to warped landscaping timbers, I’ve settled on angular (rather than round) pieces of firewood, wrapped over twice with the plastic. When cutting plastic for a tunnel, allow a generous 2-foot overhang on both sides so you’ll have enough to wrap around whatever weights you decide to use to secure your tunnel’s edges.

Extra warmth in the daytime is often a plus, too, though it can become a problem if the enclosure lacks adequate ventilation. You can ventilate tunnels by using slitted plastic, which is a bit pricey and not widely available in small quantities, or by simply opening the ends of the tunnel and using clothespins or spring-clips to hold the bunched plastic open. Downward-facing vee-shaped vents cut in the sides of a tunnel and reinforced with duct tape improve ventilation, too. For extra insulation against cold, simply cover your tunnels with old blankets or bedspreads on frigid nights. During late-season winter storms, it won’t hurt the plants inside to leave the blankets on for up to four days.

Make Super-easy Mini-greenhouses

You can extend your growing season in spring and fall with these low-cost, easy-to-make plant protectors. Welded wire fencing with 2-by-4-inch openings works great for low tunnels that let you plant crops several weeks earlier than usual. Strips of 5-foot tall fencing can be bent (as shown here) to make a cover with 1-foot high sides that will protect a 30- to 36-inch wide bed of any length. Bend the wire to the shape you want, then lay it top-down onto a sheet of clear plastic. Fold the plastic up and over the long edges of the wire, then tape the edges down inside the tunnel with clear packaging tape. Leave a couple of feet of plastic at each end so you can fold it in to close the tunnel when the weather turns really cold. These lightweight tunnels are easy to lift off the bed so you can weed and water, and easy to stack when not in use. You can cover the wire frames with fabric row cover or bird netting and use them to protect crops from insect pests, birds or deer. If your site is windy, use “staples” made from wire coat hangers to stake down the tunnels.

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