I tested out using a low tunnel last year to overwinter some tender perennials and have decided to add two more low tunnels to my garden. My old method of overwintering was to pile on dried leaves and then cover it with a tarp. This worked fairly well but I always lost some of the plants. And if I took the tarp off too late, then I risked losing even more to rot.
When I used the low tunnel to protect my billy ball flowers last year I had 100 percent of them survive! And not only did they live, they were blooming by the time it was safe to remove the plastic in the spring.
This year I will be creating a low tunnel for my artichokes and dahlias. The artichokes needed to be cut back first so I grabbed my pruners and gloves and got to work removing the leaves from my 5 artichokes plants.
I am moving my dahlias from the flowerbed into the garden this year so I trimmed them back and dug them up. Moving forward, I won’t have to dig them up every fall and store them inside. I can leave them in the ground under the low tunnel! Not only can I skip that fall chore, but I should get blooms earlier every year.
There are a lot of ways that you can construct a low tunnel. Since I garden directly in the ground VS raised beds, I pounded rebar directly into our clay soil. I left about 12 inches above ground for the pvc pipe to go over. We have found that pounding them in at an angle works best at keeping the pvc pipe tight and secure.
I ordered 6 mil greenhouse plastic to cover the pvc pipe. Make sure you get plastic that will be longer than your tunnel so you can tie it off on the ends.
Last year we stapled 4x4s to the ends of the plastic to weigh it down which worked really well until we got a crazy windstorm at the end of winter. We ended up adding rope in a criss cross pattern to keep that from happening again.
I am so excited to see how the artichokes, billy balls, and dahlias do in their low tunnels this winter, especially because it is supposed to be colder and snowier than last year.
Have you tried using a low tunnel to protect your perennials over the winter?
