“How is it that you’re growing outside right now?”
We are at 3500 feet of elevation where winter can be a little harsh, but not so harsh that we can’t grow in ground year-round.
How?
We use a series of season extension methods that are well-known in some parts of the world but aren’t as common here. (Yet!)
Primarily we are using low tunnels, which are basically small versions of a caterpillar tunnel.
We have 4 foot beds covered by a 4 foot hoop we bend out of EMT conduit, then we cover it with a frost blanket that allows some air flow and rain but keeps our plants just warm enough on cold nights.
Last weekends snow storm taught us that we needed to beef up our low tunnels because sometimes we get a super wet/heavy snow… where it’s 34-35 F but snowing, it’s a wet mess. So yesterday we removed all of the covers and added an extra ridge pole across the top to reinforce the hoops and hopefully survive the 4”-8” of snow we are expected to get Wednesday/Thursday!