We took advantage of a beautiful February day to build our wee hoop house today! Here’s the materials list:
(3) 6 foot 2×4 pieces of construction lumber
(3) pieces conduit
(6) 8 inch galvanized carriage bolts
(6) nuts
(12) washers
Roll of plastic sheeting (we used 6mm)
(4) corner brackets
First, start with a plan:
Adam was not satisfied until we could come up with a plan for a hoop house that could be taken apart, so this was where we finally landed: a wooden frame with a lip that would fit snugly on top of the stock tank, with 6 bolts sticking up from it that the conduit pipes could slide on to. Plastic on top. So we will be able to disassemble it relatively easily and store it over the summer months.
We started by building the frame. The exact size depends on the raised bed/stock tank/whatever you want to cover. Ours was very specific: 5.5 feet x 2 feet, with curved edges. Kinda tough to fit, but we got it to work. Note the lip, this is so it fits securely over the edges. This was similar to making a picture frame. 45 degree angles, corner brackets, a bit of wood glue.
Next it was time to bend the conduit pipe into the hoop shape. This turned out to be surprisingly easy, since we had the stock tank right there to use as a template. The kids were amazed at Dad’s superhuman strength.
Cutting the conduit hoops down to size…
Measuring, marking, drilling holes…
Adding the carriage bolts…
Hoops in place!
Fitting it onto the stock tank (to be filled with more soil and compost later).
Plastic, stapled along the bottom of the long edges, main access/venting will be through either end of the tunnel and also by lifting off the entire hoop structure — it’s quite light weight. We simply tacked down each end with a thumbtack.
And there you have it — a mini hoop house-style green house for our little stock tank garden. We’re starting with one this year, and if it performs spectacularly, we will make two more for our smaller tanks. Next up: I will start seeds for lettuce and greens this week, to plant them out in late March or early April, depending on the weather. What a fun project!
Stacking Functions Garden 
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May 7, 2012 at 8:29 am
I think this is absolutely brilliant; thanks for sharing!
November 21, 2020 at 12:15 pm
How did it work out? I’m really wanting to do this for my 3 stock tanks after losing 3 big temp greenhouses last winter to the snow and wind here in colorado. Thinking smaller will be better and hopefully less dangerous than a 20 foot tall greenhouse crashing around the back yard :-O
November 21, 2020 at 6:04 pm
Hi Megan! It worked out great! We’ve been using it every spring for … quite a few years now. We disassemble it and put it away in May or so. We’ve replaced the plastic once or twice. I have some stock tanks that I moved to a new location and now I’m thinking about making some hoop houses for them–but I think I would update the design to make it a little more tight-fitting and/or airtight than this one. This one does have giant gaps around the framing that limit the amount of warming it provides. It’s still great though–every spring I start my lettuce seedlings in there really early (for Minnesota) and we’re eating lettuce by mid-May or so usually, which is great for here. 🙂
Please note I have no idea whether this could be used all winter as a true greenhouse. I use it as a “season extender” and it works great for that. But I don’t even know what hardiness zone Colorado is…
January 3, 2021 at 10:13 pm
I just made this but having a hard time with the plastic. How did you do the ends?
January 18, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Hi Anna! Sorry for the delay in response. I gather up the ends and pin them down with a thumbtack. It’s not a perfect solution, but works well enough for my purposes.
January 27, 2022 at 4:15 pm
A little late on the response to this but we do something similar to this except with PVC pipes, and use 3″ long plastic clamps to snap right over the plastic and onto the pipe.