Dorothy the Hoophouse

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year! I am delighted to introduce our new installation at the farm: Dorothy the Hoophouse! The hoophouse will allow us to have flowers much earlier in the spring, and also much later in the fall, than ever before. Here she is now:

And here she was before construction:

Dave Dowling, our friend and mentor, came out to the farm to lead the building team of farmers friends. I felt so loved and supported as our friends helped us all weekend in the cold, attaching hoops to the frame, drilling holes, making sure everything was level...

Josh of Forage and Field

There were two hitches in the process. First, Scott discovered a very large rock that was right where we needed a metal pole to be. He hacked away at it with a sledgehammer until it became clear that it wouldn't budge. We decided to just cut off part of the pole so that the rock could stay put. 

John McKeown of Locust Point Flowers (left) came out after a long day selling flowers at the Waverly Market. Scott (right) helped all day, both Saturday and Sunday!

Dennis of Greenstone Fields hopped up on the ladder right away. He knew what he was doing, too!

Then we discovered that the hoophouse company didn't give us all of the right parts. So we weren't able to finish building all in one weekend. It's okay though- we wouldn't have had time anyway.

The frame!

Jen (left) of Forage and Field Flowers came with her fiancee Josh all the way from Virginia to help out. They just moved to Maine to start their own farm. Hopefully we can help them build their hoophouse when they're ready!

My dad helped us put the end walls and doors on.

We were very, very, very tired after the weekend of building was over. Here's Jascha afterwards:

We still need put the plastic on the hoophouse so we can plant inside it, but the bulk of the work is done. Hurrah! I wish you all a very warm cup of ginger tea.

Laura Beth