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THE GARDEN GIRL

Create a micro climate for cold-hardy greens

A do-it-yourself hoop house or cold frame will help your fall and winter vegetables survive harsh overnight freezes. A do-it-yourself hoop house or cold frame will help your fall and winter vegetables survive harsh overnight freezes. (Patti Moreno
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By Patti Moreno
Globe Correspondent / October 8, 2009

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There’s no better cure for the end-of-summer blues than extending your growing season. It’s as simple as planting cold-weather crops.

For me, that means a variety of Asian greens, which are great in stir fry and soup. (I have literally knocked snow off of my bok choy for beef stir fry.) Chinese kale and most kale varieties also do extremely well - if covered - and can add hearty crunch to soups. Bok choy and pok choy are quick to germinate and grow, so I can get a full crop in before the ground freezes. Same goes for many lettuces. Learn how to prep your bed and sow seeds in my video on Boston.com’s Gardening blog.

For those of us in the Northeast, installing a hoop house or cold frame over your garden means you can create a micro climate around your plants that will bring the temperature inside up by almost 20 degrees on a sunny day. A hoop house will give your fall and winter veggies an extra lift to get through overnight freezes.

A hoop house, also known as a high tunnel, is easy to make. All you need is: some half-inch PVC electrical conduit; quarter-inch wing nuts and bolts; and thick clear plastic sheeting - all readily available at your local home improvement center. For my 4-by-8-foot raised beds, I cut four 4-foot lengths of the conduit and drilled a quarter-inch hole through the PVC in the center of each. I also cut an 8-foot length of PVC and drilled a quarter-inch hole, 1 inch from each end and two more quarter-inch holes at equal intervals along the pipe. Then I attached the 4-foot pipes with the wing nuts and bolts.

I popped my new hoop house into the bed, bending the pipes to create a hoop or tunnel. I covered it with the plastic and weighed the ends down with bricks so it stays in place. I lift the plastic daily to water. Start your cool weather crops now and you can have a fresh, home-grown salad on your Thanksgiving dinner table.

Some cold-hardy vegetable varieties include Four Seasons Lettuce (Merveille Des Quatre Saisons), romaine, Swiss chard, French breakfast radishes, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, Brussels sprouts, corn salad (mâche), and spinach.

Patti Moreno lives in Roxbury and is host of GardenGirlTV.com. See her videos at www.boston.com/lifestyle/house.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.