How To Winterize Your Tomato Garden

How To Winterize Your Tomato Garden
October 26nd, 2009

Utah Stories publisher Rich Markosian shares how to extend your garden's growing season by building a poor-man's greenhouse.

If you are as crazy about home grown tomatoes as I am, this time of year can be very depressing. The plants that you have worked all year on are getting droopy and dying a slow, sad death. But there is hope. For a trip to Home Depot and $40 worth of plastic PVC pipe and 1x1 pine and plastic sheeting, you can lenghthen the growing season of your plants for as long as you don't mind paying a little extra on your power bill. Here is how you do it:

Buy 6 1/2" 8 foot PVC pipes

Buy 2 8' 1x1s

Buy 3 45 degree 1/2" connectors

Buy a roll of 6 mill plastic 30'

Tools required:

staple gun

a drill with a 5/8 inch drill bit

a circular saw

Three easy steps:

Cut the 1x1s at a lengh of 8" (make 6)

Cut one end of these to a point

Drill a 5/8 inch hole in the other end You will pound these stakes into the ground and put the PVC pipe into the holes.

Connect two pieces of PVC using the 45 degree connectors (these will act as the frame of the greenhouse). Secure the ends of the PVC into the stakes, (six stakes and six ends). Next, cut your plastic sheeting to size and drape it over the entire length of the framing, leaving at least 3' of slack on either end. Heat your green house with a string of lightbulbs or a cheap heater.

Video coming soon!