Shannon Bennett
Well-known member
With all the gardeners here I thought this use would already have been covered. You can use bubble wrap to make a 3 or in many places a 4 season garden. It works incredibly well. You can go all out and make a bubble wrap greenhouse or, you can enclose a raised bed. If you have access to fresh manure from chickens or other farm animals, you can also heat the soil from the bottom. Instructions are easy but, I warn you if you heat the greenhouse/hoop house with animal litter you will have to burn a few human calories to do the job. The only people who cannot use this as a means to grow fresh greens in winter are those in the highest latitudes. You do need at least 5 hours of sunlight.
To heat a winter garden plot using fresh fertilizer, you will need to empty all the soil in a raised bed to a depth of 1 1/2 to 2 feet. Pile fresh litter into the now empty space making the litter at least one foot deep. Now put all the soil back mounding the extra amount. As the winter passes the bed will sink.
Next step is to sink 3-inch diameter PVC pipe (cut into one foot lengths), at three feet intervals along both sides of the bed. Leave about 2 to three inches of the pipe exposed. If you have heavy snow cover you will need to decrease the distance between the sunken pipes to two feet. Now use smaller diameter PVC pipes as hoops. Stick one end of a 6-8 foot piece of 1 1/2-inch diameter pipe into the holes made by the sunken 3-inch pipe, on either side of your bed. The lower the gap between the soil and the top of the curved piece of pipe the warmer the hoop house will be. However, you don't have a lot of space to grow food in a low hoop as you do in a high hoop. In colder climates you are better off with the lower bed. Cover with the bubble wrap making sure all sides are well weighted down with bricks or rocks. Do not use soil as some books suggest as you have to be able to easily replace the weight after tending your garden. Nearly everyone can grow salads, radishes, leeks, cabbage and kale, and over-winter most root crops. This is also a great way to start a very early pea crop. And, when you turn your soil in the spring you will have already fertilized the bed.
To heat a winter garden plot using fresh fertilizer, you will need to empty all the soil in a raised bed to a depth of 1 1/2 to 2 feet. Pile fresh litter into the now empty space making the litter at least one foot deep. Now put all the soil back mounding the extra amount. As the winter passes the bed will sink.
Next step is to sink 3-inch diameter PVC pipe (cut into one foot lengths), at three feet intervals along both sides of the bed. Leave about 2 to three inches of the pipe exposed. If you have heavy snow cover you will need to decrease the distance between the sunken pipes to two feet. Now use smaller diameter PVC pipes as hoops. Stick one end of a 6-8 foot piece of 1 1/2-inch diameter pipe into the holes made by the sunken 3-inch pipe, on either side of your bed. The lower the gap between the soil and the top of the curved piece of pipe the warmer the hoop house will be. However, you don't have a lot of space to grow food in a low hoop as you do in a high hoop. In colder climates you are better off with the lower bed. Cover with the bubble wrap making sure all sides are well weighted down with bricks or rocks. Do not use soil as some books suggest as you have to be able to easily replace the weight after tending your garden. Nearly everyone can grow salads, radishes, leeks, cabbage and kale, and over-winter most root crops. This is also a great way to start a very early pea crop. And, when you turn your soil in the spring you will have already fertilized the bed.