Wednesday, December 9, 2015

How does my garden grow


We're having a whacky winter in Texas. It feels more like spring. My asparagus needs to go brown and dormant, so I'm crossing my fingers for consistent cold temperatures in the coming month.

I threw together some row covers last week for my broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and garlic.

Supplies needed:

  • thin-walled, flexible PVC
  • PVC cutting tool (my husband had one handy and I have no idea what it's actually called)
  • 2 ft rebar
  • frost covers
  • old t-shirts 
  • rudimentary sewing skills

I found 8-foot, flexible PVC in the plumbing section at Lowe's and cut it into 4-foot lengths. The PVC fits perfectly over the rebar stakes, shoved halfway into the ground. The resulting arches are surprisingly sturdy.


I cut 20 strips out of old t-shirts, and sewed 2 rows of 5 parallel loops into each frost cover.


I'm not sure how many seasons these will last... If I'd given this whole project more than 15 minutes of thought, I'd have made the strips out of an old shower-curtain instead of t-shirts.