Adding a row cover before the freeze!

The idea:
I didn't want to loose a nice bed of fall lettuce to the forecast deep freeze! I hadn't built a row cover before, so I went and got a few things at the hardware store:

• A roll of 1/2" flexible sprinkler-system hose.
  
• Three 4' dowels, 7/16" diameter, so they fit snugly into the end of the hose.
  
• A 3-mil plastic sheet 10' x 25'

Total cost: About $28, with enough material to do this 3-4 more times.

Step 1:   
  a. Cut the dowels into 12" pieces.
  b. Calculate length of hoops: Bed is not quite 2 feet
        wide, so the hoop is half of the circumference
        of a circle of diameter 22" = pi x 22" = 3.14 x 22"
        = 70", so half of that is 35", call it 3 feet.
  c. Cut five 3' lengths of hose for a 10' bed,

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Step 2:
  a. Pound the dowels in about every 3 feet,
        leaving about 4" showing.
  b. Push end of hose onto dowels, forming arch.

Photo to the right shows the peg and the hose ready to be pushed down.

I had thought the hoops might flop over, but they didn't. If you make the hoops much larger, they might. You could use big hose, perhaps 3/4" and/or leave more of the peg sticking up.

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Step 3:
  a. Cut the covering about 2' wider than your hoops;
        my hoops are 3' long, so I cut it 5' wide.
  b.  Cut it about 1.5' longer than bed on each end.
  c.  Put it over the hoops. Secure it with binder clips or
        clothes pins.
  d.  Wind up the excess along the sides around a dowel;
        I used a spare rake handle plus some 1"x2" lengths
        of wood I happened to have handy.
  e. Tuck the wrapped sides tight against the bottom
        of the hoops.

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Step 4:
  a. At each end, fold up the excess plastic and hold it
        in place with a rock.
  b. When the weather is warm, you'll want to open up
        one or both ends, so that tasty lettuce doesn't
        cook inside!


Will this protect lettuce from the effects of the coming week of nights in the teens? I don't know -- so stay tuned and we'll find out!

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