Hello and happy holidays!
I'm in the research and planning stage of raising a large green/hoop house at my parents' house. They live in the outskirt of Houston where they homestead raising chicken, ducks, quails and plant a good assortment of veggies. My siblings and I regularly visit them on the weekends (almost every weekend). My parents are older (70) but still stay active and love to work in the garden. As the cold comes, my siblings and I have to carry a bunch of plants to group them together to cover them with tarps, plastic, ect. to protect them. I'm tired of doing this and my parents don't have much to do since they can't grow anything in this cold season. They would also like to try their hands at other plants that would regularly not survive in our zone. this whole project will be a DIY project so that I may save $$. I'm not cheap per say but saving $ is good. I don't mind spending $ if I think it's worth it. I'm setting my budget at $2500 for this whole project. Again, I plan to build and DIY everything that I can so save $. Luckily I consider myself very handy and have a good amount of handyman skills/tools.
The plan:
-20'w x 50'l x 12' peak hoophouse (I would like to have more of a strait side so There would be more usable vertigo space). I just have to figure out where to raise the GH on the 2 acres property
-hand cranked roll up sides and auto open vent at top of end walls
-water from well and rain gutters (gutters later on)
-a small door at each end to go in and out
-a second door at the end large enough to drive a 1500 series through in case we ever need to do something in the off season.
-till up the greenhouse grass/dirt to make it softer/add a few truckloads of topsoil to add nutrients and make it easier for roots to grow down.
-dig a small trench near the greenhouse to control water drainage away during rain storms.
I plan to reserve about 15' of the last portion of the hoophouse to plant some trees (mango, avocado, lychee, logan, pineapples, passion fruit, dragon fruit and whatever else I see interesting).
The questions:
-Once the greenhouse is up and growing veggies, how are you transporting dirt/mulch ect. into the greenhouse? Remember, my parent are old so I'm trying to have it so that they can do things on their own.
-Flooring? This is a complex question I think. I plan to have some kind of solid flooring in 1 transporting lane. I think I'll lay bricks of maybe pour some concrete. What I mean by the transport lane is I plan to have a designated lane that will run down the length of the GH for the above question. I'm thinking a sturdy and solid base for this one lane will make it easier for my parents to roll and cart things around. The real question if what so I use for flooring for other areas of the GH that is not growing something?
-Shade cloth? Where to buy? What type?
-Poly sheet? Where and what kind did you buy? (I was thinking 6mil GH poly but unsure)
-For you windy people, how deep did you dig and anchor your poles? I planned to cement every other post and erecting the hoops 3' apart instead of 4' just to add strength but IDK.
-Pest control? We occasionally see wile animals such as birds, rabbits, snakes, foxes, and occasionally an escaped farm animal (horse, donkey, cow). How are you keeping these animals out of the GH when you open the doors or skirts? What about bugs inside the GH such as grasshoppers and such? I was thinking maybe getting some guinea hens to live int he GH to eat bugs?
Thangbom