Now, back to October—when I left you on a cliffhanger with the greenhouse. To recap (because that feels like a very long time ago in my mind), we had just finished assembling the 30-foot hoops and had the ground rocked and leveled. It was finally time for the hard part. I do have to admit, after rereading that last email about the greenhouse build, I would love to have some of that fall heat I was talking about back again.
Now, back to the build.
Each hoop had to be slid into these Y-shaped pieces that fit over the tops of the poles that make up the side walls. The gutter itself then slid into the top part of the Y. With Brian up against Greenhouse 2, my dad in the middle on the lift, and me on the outside wall of Greenhouse 3, we started the slow, steady process of moving and lifting each 30-foot-wide hoop.
The hoop would first slide into the Y on Brian’s side. Then it was lifted higher so I could attach the Y piece to the hoop and slide the Y down onto the side pole. Don’t worry—there were only 24 of them, and I had to pull with all my might to get them to bend. No big deal!
After six hoops were up in the air, we added a pole down the center that acted like a backbone for the greenhouse, tying everything together and adding strength as we went.
Once the hoop was in place, all the supports—which look like a big “W”—had to be tightened down to strengthen the hoop itself. It doesn’t sound like much when I write it out like this, but it was three days of very intense work, done in the dry heat of October.
It took us about three days to get all the hoops up and secured, but as soon as they were in place, the greenhouse finally looked like a greenhouse. Before that, it was just pieces scattered around a field and a few poles sticking out of the ground. After day three, though, it looked like one of my greenhouses standing tall behind the house—and I was in love.
