Hoops House Wishes

What's cool about gardening is that you can take a kitchen fork and scratch up a bit of dirt to plant free squash seeds you scam from a neighbor and end up with a pretty plant and abundant free food.

Or you can spend lots of money on cool tools and gardening accessories.

On my current top ten list of cool tools and gardening accessories is a Hoop House.



According to the web site, Why a Hoop House?

More growing time.
With a Hoop House you can pretend you’ve moved two growing zones south without ever packing a box. Your season will be longer and your garden will produce more. Imagine eating homegrown cherry tomatoes in October or November. Crisp, baby lettuce in February.

More protection from the elements and hungry animals.
Put an end to flatten, frozen and feasted upon plants. With a Hoop House’s protection from forceful weather and hungry wildlife, your garden will be yours to enjoy. This year savor your own homegrown sweet strawberries, fresh green peas and dazzling daylilies.

More opportunities to grow a wide variety of plants.
With a Hoop House, your longer growing seasons will allow you to try varieties you couldn’t grow before. Sun ripened melons, intoxicating jasmine - you have your own wish list, right?

More control over income and schedules.
Hoop Houses have helped growers across the country supplement their incomes, create part and full time employment, and gain control over their lives. Ever thought about starting your own business? A Hoop House is an inexpensive way to begin that dream.

More fun.
With a Hoop House in your backyard you can spend late winter days outside, in a delightfully warm, bright, fragrant space. Lay some patio stones at one end of your greenhouse. Bring in a garden chair and add a blooming plant. Read your seed catalogs in the warm sunshine - in February.

I'm convinced! Prices range from the $300's to the $1,000's for lengths from 8 feet to 48 feet. All of their Hoop Houses are 10 feet wide and 7 feet tall.

Dirt. Cheap.

Gene fetched me a whole truck load of garden soil last weekend. Minick Materials on Council, half mile north of I-40 has everything you need in dirt and rocks. Awesome selection. Of dirt. And rocks.




Gene paused on the Minick scale with the Dodge, then rolled on out to the yard for the guys to drop a bucket-o-dirt onto his (squeaky clean) truck bed. Then back to the scale.


We spent $40 on a ton of "Rich Mix Soil" which is 47% topsoil, 30% clean sand, 20% composted cattle manure, 3% gypsum.

They also offer "Garden Ready" which is 47% Topsoil, 25% clean sand, 12.5% Composted Cattle Manure, 12.5% Back to Nature(composted cotton burrs), 3% Gypsum, for $45 a ton.

You have to buy a minimum of a ton, so bring the pickup.

'Cause I'm Cheap Like That

The budget isn't quite so lean these days, but the habit of looking for cheap stuff lingers. Actually, it's become an interesting game of sorts! How little CAN I spend to create that garden fence?

Here are some of my latest (cheap) acquisitions:

1. $5 Shoes. Great for garden mud and schlepping around the wet yard. Also make a great dog chew toy, which is what happened to the last pair. Or at least that's what Alli told me happened to them... Big Lots

2. $1.50 Kneeling pad. Cute Ladybug shape. Big Lots.

3. $2.50 Set of three clippers. If you're looking for quality, Big Lots is not for you. If you're looking for clippers that you can lose and find again without stressing over how much you paid for the clippers you just lost, then you'll love these. I have several places for everything, and everything might be found in several places. So having multiple clippers is helpful.

4. $6 each. Garden Lights; three styles. The Basket Market on Meridian towards the airport is the place to be for garden kitsch. Cheap garden kitsch. It's basically a Hobby Lobby overstock/sample store. Yum.

5. $1.50 Flower Clippers (See item # 3) Big Lots

6. $1.95 Centerpiece bucket. I'm collecting for a "garden" theme wedding in May that I'll arrange the flowers for, and these cute glossy buckets will look great with the cornflower blue and other bright summer flower colors the bride is planning. Basket Market

Not pictured are the $5 trellis's that Gene and I picked up at Renovation Station a couple of weeks ago.

If cheap is good, then free is better! I've been "freecycling" a bunch of landscaping stones that Ryan and Amanda dug out of their yard last year. Gene and I and Alli showed up to relieve them of their rocky burden. We stacked the heavy stones at the end of the barn driveway where they stayed all year, until this week, when I've moved them all to the garden by the old shed. I'm attempting to build a raised bed with them.

Last night after a fun Zumba class at the Y (with Angela and Tessa!) I trolled the old neighborhood where Mark and Cari used to live in Bethany. Their neighbor across the street had old picket fencing stacked in their yard for months which I was always tempted to ask for to finish my garden wall. Contrary to Cari's belief (based on years in Bethany) that the stuff would still be stacked there, the area was pretty tidy. So I'll have to free-cycle outside of Bethany now. When exactly is Big Trash Day?

Princess Ry Commands the Garden Wagon

In an effort to make a little forward motion on my raised bed I'm building from the stone we hauled out of Amanda's yard last year, I decided to load up the grandbaby and wheel a few stones across the yard with her assistance. She was in cranky mode anyway, so I was attempting a little junior gardening therapy. It always works for me!



The accomodations were pretty cozy, but I'm not sure she was impressed.



She did eventually sit up and take some interest in the rose pruning.

I Hold These (Gardening Season) Truths to be Self Evident

I had a plan to take down that old wooden garden fencing and tear off the rotting shed walls and dig up the sagging chain link fences all over the property. The plan was to do it on those 40 degree winter days when the wind wouldn't blow me over into the cow pasture with the rest of the heifers. But somehow that day never came this winter. According to the National Climactic Data Center, it was just a bit below average for temps, and definitely below average in precip, so I don't know what my excuse was, but I'm pretty sure I was too busy trying to stay warm and dry to notice.

So I tore down stuff this afternoon instead.

I'm the demolition queen, by the way. Bet you didn't know that about me, unless, of course, you're my immediate family, and have lived through:

1. The week I decided to tear down the entire enclosed add-on back porch in Cal City, Cali since it wouldn't pass inspection, and we wanted to move.

2. The week, in the middle of a cool Okie Thanksgiving break, when I decided to tear out the smelly old carpet in most of the house and stain and seal the floors.

3. The weeks when we first moved into this house when it was my bright idea to strip the shiny silver and teal and pink wallpaper (5 varieties) off the 12 foot walls in the living room. And master bath. And master bedroom.

Consider this fair warning: Lately, I've been eyeing those old master bathroom cabinets and 90's round light bulb stips...

But today I did manage to get the posts out of the ground and all of the plywood off the south side of the shed. Karate kicking rotted plywood is refreshingly therapeutic.

So here we go for the truths of the growing season:

Outside trumps inside.

Gardening trumps dish washing, cooking, vacuuming, laundry, (You get the idea. Come on over, just don't expect a tidy house. But then, if you've BEEN to my house, you probably don't expect tidy anyway!Who am I fooling?)

Playing in the yard trumps TV watching (unless it's KU basketball or American Idol), reading (unless it's about gardening)and anything crafty (unless it embellishes a pot of something growing)

Gene's old boots (on my bare feet)trump any of my cute shoes.

That plaid orange shirt with the pocket for my iPod trumps anything that Alli will let me wear in public. It's not exactly public when I'm in my own yard, is it?

I just found a pair of these for $21 on Amazon.



They would definitely upgrade my outdoor wardrobe! But they're $30 with shipping, so I may as well go pick a pair from Ross Seed Co. in El Reno. They had a nice selection.