Pam Dawling - The Year-Round Hoophouse: Polytunnels for All Seasons and All Climates

Advance praise for The Year-Round Hoophouse

The Year Round Hoophouse is a great resource for market farmers looking to extend the growing season. Pams depth of experience and insight are unsurpassed and this book fills a major gap. Im looking forward to adapting my planting plan and approach based on the knowledge I gained from this book.

Shawn Jadrnicek, author, The Bio-Integrated Farm

Pam has packed this readable and usable book with her 15 years of personal experience in tunnels and the experience and expertise of other growers and extension agents. Essential for the beginner, and as an experienced grower, it may become your first go-to for reference.

Steve Moore, farmer and educator

Once an optional tool for extending the growing season, the hoop house has rapidly become a crucial strategy for sustaining crop production as more variable weather and extremes challenge growers worldwide. The Year-Round Hoophouse offers growers of all kinds a clear, concise, complete, and above all, very wise guide to hoophouse design and construction, growing, and long-term management. Filled with detailed examples, planning worksheets, recommended resources, and many lessons learned from her long experience as a grower, this is a must read for anyone looking to enhance the resilience of their garden or farm.

Laura Lengnick, author, Resilient Agriculture

Pam Dawling once again excels in the detail she provides, step by step, crop by crop. This book is an incredible resource for anyone wishing to grow or improve their growing using protected culture. Her depth of experience and excellent record keeping allow the reader to benefit from her analysis and synthesis of the critical details for successful growing in the hoophouse year-round. Pam expertly tells the specifics from her farm while also noting the variations for different climates and markets. She has clearly devoted herself to gathering the particulars from her farm, researchers, and other growers to provide a comprehensive guide to hoophouse growing, from site selection to post-harvest, long term maintenance, and every step in between. We are fortunate to be the beneficiaries of her stellar work!

Janet Aardema, Broadfork Farm, Chesterfield, Virginia

I am so glad to find a book with well-structured material supported through years of experience and research to fully address high tunnel construction and production. A welcome and needed addition to agricultural literature, this book delivers the information farmers and gardeners need.

Gena Moore, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

The Year Round Hoophouse is your one-stop shop for everything you need to know for growing food year round. Whether youre new to hoophouses or seasoned and savvy, you will find this book a resource youll keep coming back to. Pam blends her seasoned expertise with a warm and easy-to-read style to empower anyone to plant and savor the harvest year round.

Lisa Kivirist, author, Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers and Homemade for Sale

This is a comprehensive, no-nonsense resource, packed with practical farmer know-how and illustrations. This is the design, construction, and growing information weve been waiting for to guide farmers and gardeners year-round in all climates.

Atina Diffley, organic farmer and author, Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works

Many fail to realize just how diverse a skill set is needed by someone who farms. Pam Dawlings new book addresses the needs of a new grower or a grower new to hoophouse production in such a way that is inclusive of that diversity of skills needed. The chapter on drip irrigation is alone extremely valuable. Hoophouses are here to stay and the comprehensive nature of this book will make it an enduring resource.

Robin Kohanowich, Lead Instructor, Sustainable Agriculture Program, Central Carolina Community College

This book does a great job of demystifying protected production of horticulture crops. The Year-Round Hoophouse is suitable for beginning and experienced growers alike with lots of specifics learned through years of growing. Pams experience in high tunnel growing really shows in her details on crop production. Overall, a great addition to any farm familys library.

Chris Mullins, Extension Specialist, Greenhouse and Specialty Crops, Virginia State University

Copyright 2019 by Pam Dawling. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover images: Main images top & bottom: Pam Dawling. 4 season graphic: iStock: chard 119653941; peas 496354406, tomatoes 502992102; squash flower Pam Dawling.

Interior images: All photos Pam Dawling unless otherwise noted.

Drawings : studiodr, FS-Stock, Pavel, sasapanchenko / Adobe Stock.

Printed in Canada. First printing October 2018.

This book is intended to be educational and informative.

It is not intended to serve as a guide. The author and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss or risk that may be associated with the application of any of the contents of this book.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The Year-Round Hoophouse should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America)

1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Dawling, Pam, author

The year-round hoophouse : polytunnels for all seasons and all climates / Pam Dawling.

Includes index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-863-0 (softcover). ISBN 978-1-55092-655-2 (PDF). ISBN 978-1-77142-250-5 (EPUB)

1. Garden structures Design and construction Amateurs manuals. 2. Greenhouse gardening. 3. Vegetable gardening. 4. Organic gardening. 5. Sustainable agriculture. I. Title.

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

by Andrew Mefferd

Pam Dawling has more bylines by far than any other writer in Growing for Market. For more than 15 years she has been sharing her wisdom on market gardening through the magazine, which is where I first became acquainted with her signature nitty-gritty style. She breaks market farming down to its smallest of components in order to make them understandable, informed by her over 30 years of experience as a grower.

Now shes bringing that experience and analysis to hoophouse growing at a time when its critically important. As the demand for locally produced food has swelled, The Year-Round Hoophouse is a crucial part of the supply catching up with the demand for good information on protected growing. This book is the hoophouse complement to her outstanding and exhaustive book