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Hi everyone, so I am pretty new at gardening (as in I have attempted, unsuccessfully to garden before but it has not worked out so well ). I recently moved and me and my boyfriend are renting a house from some friends with a decent sized yard. We can do whatever we want in the house/yard although out of respect for the people we are renting from I don't want to build a permanent greenhouse and ideally would like to be able to move all the gardening supplies somewhat easily to a different location if we choose to change jobs and move. I was thinking about mostly trying container gardening with some raised plant beds, I want to grow herbs, veggies, and fruit. I would ideally like to be able to garden year round and have been reading up on it, but would really like some advice specific to my situation and would like some opinions from more experienced people on if my expectations are practical.

I live in Northern Texas, the lows here in the winter are typically around 30 at night and every once in awhile we get some snow with an actual freeze, but for the most part the weather is mild in the winter and somewhat unpredictable with some days getting up to 70. So I was thinking that if I did some raised plant beds in a row I could cover them over the winter. I'm not sure if just covering each bed individually and trying to convince my boyfriend to have a little plant room in the house (and my cats not to eat them) would be best.

My other idea was to have the raised plant beds all covered by a single roof. So I could take poles over the beds and put plastic on top over the winter essentially creating a green house that would be taken down once the weather warmed up. In the aisles (of course if I made them big enough) I could bring in my container plants that would in the plan above have come inside (which would probably make my boyfriend much happier if they stayed out of the house). I have also been reading on here about heating greenhouses with drums of water. I could also place those in the aisles heating the greenhouse over winter for no cost (if that sounds reasonable?).

Now I should mention that I am on a budget and the row covers/green house would be used next winter, not this one. This winter I would like to plan for my garden and then start planting in the spring. I want to make sure before I start planting though that I don't really need to change everything around because I failed to plan for next winter.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Hello Whitney, and welcome to the forum!

I like you am just starting out on this grand adventure. After I get my garden in, I am also planning on at least 3 season if not 4. I'm in northern Indiana, so the zone is rather different, but some principles still apply.

Anyway, I expect to start out with some hoop row covers. 4' wide raised beds, with rebar stakes every 3' or so, then plastic pipe bent and set onto the rebar, covered with greenhouse plastic. Such a setup generally raises the inside temp around 10 degrees at night. Daytime temps can be higher if you don't ventilate! Keep an eye on that!!!!

Eventually I hope to graduate to a full fledged hoop greenhouse, but not right off the bat. I have some learning to do before I get that far.

Hoops are stronger than straight frames. That shouldn't be much of an issue in Texas unless you get wind. Even hoops can be blown down with wind if they aren't braced properly.

Welcome to the Forum! I think raised beds individually covered would be fine for your mild climate. It is easy to do, cheap, and will be all you need. Doesn't mean you will be eating ripe tomatoes in January. But if you learn the difference between cold season crops and warm season, you will easily be able to have something growing in your garden all year.

My impression from other Texas gardeners that post around here is that Texas has Big Wind, so you will need to keep that in mind.

Here's a little chart of cool season vs. warm season veggies:

https://www.growingvegetablegardens.com/ ... -warm.html

Jardin du Fort wrote:Hello Whitney, and welcome to the forum!

I like you am just starting out on this grand adventure. After I get my garden in, I am also planning on at least 3 season if not 4. I'm in northern Indiana, so the zone is rather different, but some principles still apply.

Anyway, I expect to start out with some hoop row covers. 4' wide raised beds, with rebar stakes every 3' or so, then plastic pipe bent and set onto the rebar, covered with greenhouse plastic. Such a setup generally raises the inside temp around 10 degrees at night. Daytime temps can be higher if you don't ventilate! Keep an eye on that!!!!

Eventually I hope to graduate to a full fledged hoop greenhouse, but not right off the bat. I have some learning to do before I get that far.

Hoops are stronger than straight frames. That shouldn't be much of an issue in Texas unless you get wind. Even hoops can be blown down with wind if they aren't braced properly.

Thanks for the information. 10 degrees should keep me above freezing in the raised beds over the winter. I am a little concerned on how to keep the temperature regular around here in the winter because we will get one day thats around 70 and the low is around 50 and then all the sudden the next day the high is 55 and the low is 30. How would you plan for ventilation on the warmer days? Roll up the sides to your hoop row covers?

Where I am from we get a lot of wind, were right in the middle of tornado alley so in the beginning the row covers may be a better solution since they will be lower to the ground and I can work on learning the best way to support them before trying to apply it to a larger green house.

Thanks for the information and good luck on your garden hopefully we will both have success!

rainbowgardener wrote:Welcome to the Forum! I think raised beds individually covered would be fine for your mild climate. It is easy to do, cheap, and will be all you need. Doesn't mean you will be eating ripe tomatoes in January. But if you learn the difference between cold season crops and warm season, you will easily be able to have something growing in your garden all year.

My impression from other Texas gardeners that post around here is that Texas has Big Wind, so you will need to keep that in mind.

Here's a little chart of cool season vs. warm season veggies:

https://www.growingvegetablegardens.com/ ... -warm.html

We do have big winds around here, right in tornado alley so I'm really going to have to support whatever I build although the garden does have buildings and a little line of trees that can act as a wind breaker on all sides. Thanks for the chart of veggies, that will be helpful when I start planning my garden and thanks for the warm welcome!

whitneym wrote

I am a little concerned on how to keep the temperature regular around here in the winter because we will get one day thats around 70 and the low is around 50 and then all the sudden the next day the high is 55 and the low is 30. How would you plan for ventilation on the warmer days? Roll up the sides to your hoop row covers?

Well... that on one hand is not hard to do, but on the other hand can be a real problem. Let me expound:

With row covers, you have a few options for ventilation:
1. One I have seen is simply to cut slits in the plastic. I have my doubts about this one, as I think that if it provides enough ventilation to prevent overheating, it also provides too much ventilation to contain the warmth at night.
2. Another one I have seen is to cover the row is short (10' or so) lengths of plastic that can be flipped off as needed, so you are not uncovering the whole row to access the area you are working on. With this sectional approach, gaps can be pulled at the overlaps to partially ventilate, or you can simply uncover the row. The plastic needs to be held in place with a "stick" on each side, whether the stick is also a weight (rebar) or not (furring stick held down by a weight bag) .
3. A third one I have seen is to merely use a one-piece plastic covering the whole row, and pull it up or off as needed.

If you do a google search for row covers you can find both different ways of doing them, as well as suppliers for the materials.

The biggest issue with any approach is the need to monitor the temperature, and have someone there to provide needed ventilation. If nobody is home during the day, because you both work, the inside temp can easily zoom too high and fry the plants before you get home from work and monitor the garden. At a bare minimum, you need to be aware of what the day's weather is going to be like for the day, so that you can make preventative adjustments before going to work. And that may mean an added half-hour or so to the morning routine that you will have to fit in.

A more sophisticated approach is most frequently used on hoop houses and greenhouses. A thermostatically controlled vent can be set to open at a certain temperature, providing the needed ventilation automatically. I have yet to see one of these used on row covers, but I suppose they could be.

As they say, the devil is in the details.

I was surfing YouTube videos and came across a low hoop tunnel style "cold frame" with solid plywood end panel fitted with one of these, available for under $20

Brown Auto Foundation Ventilator
Replaces old-style manual vents. Fits standard 8" x 16" vent openings. Automatically opens at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and closes at 40 (approximately). The key mechanism, bi-metal coil, fully enclosed in protective cover. Stainless steel compression springwith 1 adjustable screw for easy installation. 65 square inch net free area. High-density thermo-plastic construction. Stainless steel and corrosion resistant metal parts. Heavy-duty aluminum mesh screen, front and back. No electrical hook-up required.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000DZ ... 01_s00_i00

I was immediately caught up with the idea and went ahead and bought one even though I have zero handy bone in my body. But the ventilation issue has been a deal breaker for me all along since auto-vent/window/cold frame lid opening/closing devices cost so much. So hopefully, this will be the year I will build a season extending structure of some kind.

I'm also getting one of those cold thermo-cube outlets that will turn on at 35°F, off at 45°F -- what I havent decided yet -- to prevent freezing. Planning to get a warm thermo-cube later to run a fan.

Way cool, applestar!