Locally grown, organic foods are in demand year round, not just the spring and summer months. Depending on the climate that you live in, temperatures can soar into the 100s or dip low into the negatives. Our desire for fresh from the garden produce is stronger than ever, so how do you grow foods when temperatures get bitterly cold?
Barbara and Eliot on chicken duty in the winter “Hoop Coop”
Well, with some simple techniques, you can grow organically, even in the dead of winter. Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosh of Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine, found a way to do just that. Harborside, Maine, further north than Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and even Toronto becomes bitterly cold during the winter months, but Eliot and Barbara are able to grow foods, commercially, all year round. In their quest for four seasons of harvest, they have tested and perfected many techniques.
One of the techniques that Eliot and Barbara have perfected is a hoop house. Joe shows us how to make this special low tunnel anyone can use in the garden, during every season. With the help of a friend, growing year round produce is never easier.
Additional Links for this Episode:
Where to purchase the “Quick Hoops Bender” seen in this episode
*Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition
Chef Nathan’s Recipe: Pan-Roasted Broccolette with Garlic
*Links related to books & merchandise are affiliate links
About GGWTV
Growing A Greener World is a national gardening series on Public Television that features organic gardening, green living and farm to table cooking. Each episode focuses on compelling and inspirational people making a difference through gardening. This gardening series covers everything from edible gardening and sustainable agriculture to seasonal cooking and preserving the harvest.
Hi there,
I loved this episode! I live around 9,000 feet in the Colorado mountains so I was very interested in learning how to garden during the winter and the information about each layer of plastic was very fascinating to me! I’m looking to start gardening this spring now that we own a home. I had some questions though…
What kind of plastic was being used? Since there were specific specs like 10% of the light being cut out per sheet of plastic, and moving 1-1/2 zones to the south per sheet of plastic, I’m assuming that would vary if you used different plastic than they were using.
I’m looking at our local Lowe’s store and found “##-mil Clear Consumer Sheeting”. I’m wondering if that kind of clear plastic will work for this and also what thickness would be best/equal to what they were using for those specs. I’m sure it would be easy to find a greenhouse specific material with all of that information, but we don’t have many stores like that here and I’m sure it would be much more expensive than something at the hardware store also.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thank you!
Hi Emily. Glad you liked the show. I don’t have the details as to what Eliot is using unfortunately. But he has a lot of that information in his books about this. You should check them out online or see if the library offers them. Or, his website may provide some detail or you can contact him to ask that question. Another idea is to contact Johnny’s Seeds. I know Eliot uses them a lot and likely gets much of his equipment from them. Eliot Coleman and Johnny’s Seeds are easy to find in an online search. Good luck!
I saw a pipe trenches on your show but I cannot find it on your website. Great show just found it, . Love it
What a fabulous and inspiring program. We have recently cleared our backyard and I now know what I will aspire to! Four season gardens! Thank you from Massachusetts!
I’d like to respond to John Ingram.
Chill out John. It’s a 30 min. program meant to inspire by introducing new ideas. Ideas that others have shown success with. If have a real question and want more info. Google it! Don’t just be a wiiiiner. I’m in Albuquerque, NM and intend to try that weaved cloth around some of my balcony veggies this winter. Because of the high altitude here, it gets quite cold at night If this works I won’t need to bring them into my living room. It makes a mess.
Thank you Joe Lamp’l for another great episode!
Great show. While their ideas may not work for everyone it was quite interesting to see what has worked for them, especially in such harsh conditions. Every show offers such nice little take aways, no matter where you garden.
Thank you Rachel. Glad you appreciate the fact that it’s impossible to feature one location with a catch-all solution for no matter where you live. That’s one of the ongoing challenges of producing a national television show on gardening. But we recognize the fact that we still want those little take aways in every show so that viewers are getting something they can apply wherever they live. Thanks for taking the time to share you kind words with us here.
Great show and lots of good ideas. But Four Season Farm works for them and not necessarily for others. Being near the coast always modifies the climate and there are so many questions about how the farm would function there and much farther inland when there is 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground, for example, how do you drag the chicken coupe when it is surrounded by snow that is frozen like concrete? My experience with portable car ports and firewood covering structures is that the roof angle of their chicken coupe will not withstand the snow load in northern New England. Also, how do you get water to the plants and animals when it is well below zero degrees F? especially to those buildings that are a long ways away from the main farm house?
Not to be too critical but there are some good ideas presented here but they might need to be modified to work elsewhere.
Valid questions John. Being a southerner myself, I’m not qualified to answer these from personal experience. Hopefully others will chime in here as well with some practical solutions. Thanks for your comment.
Thankfully, my location doesn’t have a lot of snow and cold, but we have crazy wind that destroys plastic! So, we have to research and try different things to find what works for our area. Nothing will ever work for every location. In Tx, a few hours in any direction is a different weather struggle. I LOVED this episode. I watched it several times! Thanks Joe for what you do!!
@ JOHN INGRAM,
Elliot and Babara are located in Maine near the East Coast. They are Pioneer’s at what they do. Hoophouses “High Tunnels, Low Tunnels are in fact used all over the World. Which allow Farmers to extend the Season. For some, Four Seasons. But it is a selection best suited for colder hardier plants. As for the Chicken High Tunnels. They are not moved during the colder months when the ground is frozen. They are kept in warmer greenhouses. As for growing plants in greenhouses during the winter. You would use a double layer of greenhouse film 6mil plastic with an air barrier. Air Inflation Fan/Pump. Only if this is economical. As fo the watering. Driplines are used in the Tunnels. Buy this Book. Elliot Coleman – The New Organic Grower. Revised, Expanded 2nd Edition.
@ JOHN INGRAM,
Elliot and Babara are located in Maine near the East Coast. They are Pioneer’s at what they do. Hoophouses “High Tunnels, Low Tunnels are in fact used all over the World. Which allow Farmers to extend the Season. For some, Four Seasons. But it is a selection best suited for colder hardier plants. As for the Chicken High Tunnels. They are not moved during the colder months when the ground is frozen. They are kept in warmer greenhouses. As for growing plants in greenhouses during the winter. You would use a double layer of greenhouse film 6mil plastic with an air barrier. Air Inflation Fan/Pump. Only if this is economical. As for the watering. Driplines are used in the Tunnels. Buy this Book. Elliot Coleman – The New Organic Grower. Revised, Expanded 2nd Edition.
Where can I find out about plant families, so I know what to plant after what?
Muriel, you will want to google “succession planting” so you can see how to make the most of your planting space throughout the year. Also google “crop rotation” so you understand why you should try and avoid planting crops from the same family in the same place year after year. More specifically, try searching for “crop rotation in the home garden” since much of the subject is geared towards organic farming. Mother Earth News has some good information and even a free program called Vegetable Garden Planner that does a very nice job of helping you identify crops of the same family and rotate your garden crops from year to year. Here’s the link to learn more: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/gardenplanner/gardenplanner.html#