March came in like a lion that didn’t want to leave.  Its paws, wet and heavy with snow, pushed over trees to High Rocks, knocked out power (again), and worst of all, crushed our hoop house—just when we needed it for our starts. 

Broken.HH-4

However, our intrepid team of High Rocks staff got industrious with power tools and pvc pipes.  In a few days, the hoops were curving gracefully skyward again—just in time for another foot of heavy snow to fall.  Thankfully, we upgraded from ¾” to 1.5” pvc and our structure survived.  Inside, we have seeded all of our tomatoes and peppers, and are starting several other crops for our middle school gardens.   We’ve also harvested bags of hoop house greens for youth in our after school programs.  Take that, lion.

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We continue the process of decoding soil test results with our participants and assessing what amendments they need to optimize their sites.    Many of our garden sites are still covered in snow, so it will be at least a week before we can fire up el Grillo and incorporate soil amendments where needed.  

In the meantime, we are also collecting requests for trellises, tools, and fencing so we can hit the ground running (like newborn lambs?)…once we can actually see the ground.Marlyn.Karline.Harvest.HoopHouse