6 April 2025 Secure 2 boards on the left to hold the start end, then add the clock arm. Bending the rod until it completes the hoop. GARDEN HOOPS ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY DAN KERR SFC MARCH-APRIL 2022 Our farm is located on a small band of land along the north shore of Lake Huron situated in plant hardiness zone 4B. Proximity to the Great Lakes gives us very temperate weather conditions that as a rule allows the growing season to linger longer than in other parts of our latitude. The Boss, being a very active gardener, wants to push the envelope farther each season. When the suggestion of a greenhouse came up, I suggested a hoop house instead. THE CRITERIA Not a new idea by any means but easy to design and build, I chose to come up with my own dimensions or build from what I had to build with. I wanted the inside height to be high enough that The Boss could pretty well stand up, with the width of the size of the current garden bed. The length could be variable depending on need and the garden. Another factor – a big one – was the cost of the building materials as everything has increased in cost to the point of ridiculous. THE DESIGN The inside overall height would be five feet and the bottom width four feet. At the five-foot mark the two sides are attached to a bottom cross member which sticks out about four inches. The sides extend 10 inches below this point allowing them to be pushed into the ground to secure the base. MATERIALS I considered aluminum but the cost was prohibitive, wood was doable but heavy to move and not the greatest for longevity, so I considered steel rebar (the textured steel rod used for reinforcing in concrete). I now had to find a supplier to price it out. I sourced out Northern Steel of Timmins, Ontario. At $10.00* per 20 foot piece, the project was becoming doable using rebar. The bonus part, it wasn’t tied up in a sea can off the shore of California. Delivery of a bundle of 20 foot rods to the end of the driveway in the next week made the supply chain easy and was a surprising change to just about everything today. The construction was next. (*Dan advises current price of 20’ rebar at $11.87 each.) THE BUILD With a 16 by four-foot mobile work bench left over from my airplane build, I laid out a pattern to follow to bend the arch. Wood dies from scrap wood were cut out along with an arm. The arm was screwed to the bench. It rotated inside the arch like a clock arm allowing me to bend the rod at that precise point. Starting with a single 20 foot rod, I clamped one end to the bench with a pair of vise grips leaving an eight-inch overhang (for the ground anchors). I then grabbed the other end pulled the rod against the arm bending it slightly, then I backed off on the rod tension, moved the arm about an inch and applied pressure, again bending it slightly. This action was continued over and over until the arch was made and the hoop was formed. I marked the remainder of rod with soap stone and with my hand grinder cut it off; this would become the bottom cross member. From here I took the two pieces to the dirty room and PRACTICAL
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