So I have been brewing now for almost two years and have for the past six months been super busy and not had a lot of time to brew. I decided to get another batch going a little over a month ago. With that said I have a batch already bottled and waiting. I wanted a way to keep brewing and not get into the slump of not having a batch in the works. I decided to plant some hops. I did some research, found this forum and have become addicted.
To the hop yard I decided to build. There was really only one place at my house that hops will thrive (hopefully). We live on a hill and the best place for the yard is in the top right corner. The area receives a ton of sun during the summer months, has 3-4 feet of pretty good soil on top of sandstone. The sandstone and the hill provides for quality draining of water. As you can see by some of the following pics, there is already water, additional drainage, and it's fairly open. My original plan was to only start with a couple of plants and see what happens. But my father, who is helping me out with my little project is somewhat of a construction and gardening overachiever. So we went bigger.
The plan is to have two rows of plants which will be 3-4 feet apart. The planter will be about 20 feet long and maybe 8 feet wide. We will build up a planter so we can add some better soil, using a small rotetillereeee to mix in planting soil and compost. The main structure will be made out of strut which we had laying out around the house.
The best thing about this project is that we are using up a bunch of material we have had lying out around the house. We have only had to buy some concrete, a Samson tie, some strut nuts, some spray paint, and the tube for the concrete (so far) roughly $50.
I will try and post pics and update as we go. It's currently raining, which is making the concrete take a little longer to dry. A few more days and we can continue.
Here is the pic of the are before we started
View attachment 50396
Day 1: which was really only an hour or two of work, mostly planning and cleaning up the corner. Sorry there is no pic, nothing much looked different.
Day 2: We then trimmed about 4 feet from the deck to make more room for the hops!
Day 3: We finished cleaning off the deck and the planter is starting to take form. The front side is old redwood deck support beams that we tore out a few years ago when replacing a deck. The back will be old cinder blocks that we had as extra. You can see the extension of the fencing which will be one part of the trellis' supports.
Day 4: the biggest change from the days work is the addition of the concrete support for the other half of the trellis. In total, the trellis will be a little over 15 feet high. As you can see, we had to tear down the mock up planter (backside) to use as supports for the tube of concrete we poured. We also continued to get the rest of the strut cleaned, painted, and clear coated. Since the concrete will take a few days to dry we were kind of out of things to do for the moment.
To the hop yard I decided to build. There was really only one place at my house that hops will thrive (hopefully). We live on a hill and the best place for the yard is in the top right corner. The area receives a ton of sun during the summer months, has 3-4 feet of pretty good soil on top of sandstone. The sandstone and the hill provides for quality draining of water. As you can see by some of the following pics, there is already water, additional drainage, and it's fairly open. My original plan was to only start with a couple of plants and see what happens. But my father, who is helping me out with my little project is somewhat of a construction and gardening overachiever. So we went bigger.
The plan is to have two rows of plants which will be 3-4 feet apart. The planter will be about 20 feet long and maybe 8 feet wide. We will build up a planter so we can add some better soil, using a small rotetillereeee to mix in planting soil and compost. The main structure will be made out of strut which we had laying out around the house.
The best thing about this project is that we are using up a bunch of material we have had lying out around the house. We have only had to buy some concrete, a Samson tie, some strut nuts, some spray paint, and the tube for the concrete (so far) roughly $50.
I will try and post pics and update as we go. It's currently raining, which is making the concrete take a little longer to dry. A few more days and we can continue.
Here is the pic of the are before we started
View attachment 50396
Day 1: which was really only an hour or two of work, mostly planning and cleaning up the corner. Sorry there is no pic, nothing much looked different.
Day 2: We then trimmed about 4 feet from the deck to make more room for the hops!
Day 3: We finished cleaning off the deck and the planter is starting to take form. The front side is old redwood deck support beams that we tore out a few years ago when replacing a deck. The back will be old cinder blocks that we had as extra. You can see the extension of the fencing which will be one part of the trellis' supports.
Day 4: the biggest change from the days work is the addition of the concrete support for the other half of the trellis. In total, the trellis will be a little over 15 feet high. As you can see, we had to tear down the mock up planter (backside) to use as supports for the tube of concrete we poured. We also continued to get the rest of the strut cleaned, painted, and clear coated. Since the concrete will take a few days to dry we were kind of out of things to do for the moment.