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Potting on Purple Coneflowers and Pacific Giant Delphiniums |
After all of my flowers were potted on, I went to work late Sunday afternoon setting out my flats and constructing a mini hoop house to house them all. I'd built my raised beds last fall with this eventually in mind so putting it all together was not very difficult at all. We'd picked up some PVC pipping earlier in the day along with some 2 mil plastic sheeting. The pipping was bent and pushed into the larger diameter PVC pipes, which I'd previously attached to the sides of my beds.
The plastic sheeting was laid on top and pulled taut against the hoops. To stabilize the plastic, I laid down some narrow wood planks on all sides and placed some heavy stones on top. This hoop house is rudimentary at best, but at this point, it's the best I can do. Sunday night, we experienced some extremely mighty winds. Fortunately, I was happy to find the hoop house in one piece and practically unscathed when I woke up.
Amazingly, our early spring temperatures have begun to stabilize (or so the weatherman says). Our daytime temperatures are expected to be in the high 40's and our nighttime temperatures are expected to be in the mid to low 30's according to our 10-day forecast. To be on the safe side, I will add an inner layer of fabric row cover if night-time temperatures creep down to near freezing. But for now, things look optimistic.