When frost threatened, I stretched the top over the hoop house, and yesterday when Jeff got home from work he helped me put the ends on as the nights are getting really cold. I had put the window-frame-lids on the cold frames inside, but it was still looking pretty frigid out there in the early mornings.

The ends are just fastened loosely with cable ties, and then the top is pulled over each end and a drawstring is pulled to overlap the ends — like the od covered wagons. Very clever design, especially for the price.

My old homemade hoop house was made of PVC and a heavy duty plastic tarp left over from a university art installation, but when it finally succumbed to a windstorm, I discovered that I couldn’t rebuild it very cheaply if I had to buy the plastic myself. This clearance sale one was a better deal. The old screen door from the former hoop house is now on my chicken coop.