Build This Easy Hoop House to Grow More Food

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Matt Moody and Paula Davidson’s hoop house in Cabot, Vt., is 12 feet wide by 16 feet long. PHOTO: SYLVIA SMITH

Gardening inside a hoop house is like moving part of your land hundreds of miles south, all for a modest investment in materials and time. It’s proof that a bit of simple technology can definitely go a long way.

Hoop houses are greenhouses made by covering a plastic or metal hoop structure with one layer (or sometimes two) of clear plastic. They are low-tech and low-cost compared with glass greenhouses.

Hoop houses give benefits throughout your growing season — far more than just the obvious advantage of protection from frost. Decreased wind pressure on seedlings, more humid growing conditions and higher internal concentrations of carbon dioxide during the main part of the season are reasons why they deliver better food, and more of it. For northern gardeners, hoop houses also bring the reality of spring planting and nurturing closer to the actual time the late-winter gardening enthusiasm naturally kicks in. The warmth and serenity of a hoop house offers a pleasant space to work, rest and recharge yourself, too. Hoop houses with roll-up sides and shade cloths even deliver benefits in hot climates by providing variable amounts of protection from blistering sun.

Although hoop houses are structurally simpler than greenhouses, a successful layout still requires planning and care. Building a hoop house that ages gracefully demands construction details that aren’t immediately obvious. The tried-and-true design outlined here will ensure you enjoy the perks of your hoop house for years to come.

Before you begin, get specific about what you want to accomplish. Are you just looking for a small space to nurture seedlings? Do you envision a hoop house you can walk into? Do you plan to make roll-up sides to regulate heat? You can incorporate all of these features into the build-it-yourself design here.

Location and Orientation

Any hoop house requires a flat, level and well-drained site. Even moderate winds exert a lot of force on a hoop house, so choose a location sheltered by tree cover or other buildings if possible. Because excess heat within the hoop house during summer will be an issue even in northern regions, orient your hoop house so the ends align with prevailing winds for maximum ventilation. Choose a location with deep, stone-free soil to make anchoring the structure much easier.

Build Your Own Hoop House

PVC plastic pipes arched over a wooden ground frame and then covered in polyethylene plastic — that’s our DIY hoop house recipe in a nutshell, and it works for structures up to about 18 feet wide. You can also make hoop houses smaller, too — See Eliot Coleman’s Use Low Tunnels to Grow Veggies in Winter: Quick Hoops. Study all of the instructions and plans until you fully understand the construction steps before buying materials.