Protective Growing (simple/easy)

[meadow]

I've been thinking of doing something similar, Steve.

My husband mounded beds so that I could get an earlier start next season. This youtuber and garden columnist in Spokane is using a hoop house that spans 2 of her boxed beds + the walkway between them (and she can move it to other beds if she wants). My beds are not framed, but I really like the idea of being able to walk right in. Here is a link to her project page.

Your pictures have me thinking! @Phaedra Geiermann too. I like that last picture you posted. hmmm.

 

[so lucky]

Didn't someone on here do a hoop house with cattle panels? I don't even know if they come in a length that would work. 20 feet or so?

 

[Branching Out]

You may be thinking of Baymule's February 2020 post, on page 3 of Best Composting Tips. I just came across it, and noted that it could be a good design for our wet climate where everything tends to rot. I believe it was built to be a chicken coop, but it is sort of what I am looking for as a jumping off point for protected growing.

Baymule's cattle panels are covered with what I believe is hardware cloth, and then secured to sturdy planks that rest well above the soil on cinder blocks. There is lots of air flow with this design, which would be a plus. Shade cloth could be added in summer, and some kind of plastic cover could be installed for the winter. My goal- blue sky thinking here-- is to have a portable structure of some sort, so that it could be moved from one area of the garden to another. Not sure how heavy this set up is, but I suspect that it could be lifted and moved if you had a few helpers. Or disassembled and then moved.