Assembles in minutes – No tools required – Have a virtually year round garden
The perfect answer for the beginning or experienced gardener
Withstands high winds – Easy access to your plants!
- The Garden Clip Greenhouse™ is an economical bed cover for gardens.
- Our special Garden Clip® fasteners hold greenhouse film (plastic sheeting) and other coverings onto pipe hoops.
- This sturdy structure will stand up and protect plants in heavier winds, rain, hail, and snow than most bed covers.
- Durable components will last for many years of summer sun and winter freezes.
Planning a Garden Clip Greenhouse
- A Garden Clip Greenhouse works best 2′ to 4′ wide and up to 2 1/2′ high without reinforcment or up to 5′ tall with rebar inside the hoop up to where it curves. It is designed to cover your plants, not you.
- Example: If your garden is 9 feet by 10 feet, don’t try to make a greenhouse that will cover it all. Split it up into two beds 3 feet by 10 feet, with a 3 foot path in between. This will allow you easy access to your plants.
- How many clips? Multiply the bed length by width to get the number of square feet under cover. You will need a clip for every two square feet in normal conditions, or maybe up to a clip for every square foot in windy conditions or for a tall cover.
- What size clips? If a garden bed is no more than 3′ wide, we recommend you use 1/2″ pipe and
- Medium Garden Clips. For wider spans, use 3/4″ pipe and Large Garden Clips. For higher covers use 3/4″ pipe & Large clips, for widths from 30″ on up.
- Be careful to not design too tall. You want to keep the warmth you are creating down with our plants, not several feet above them. You can always create a taller cover later as your plants grow.
- Remember, the taller your structure is the more problems you will have with wind.
- If Clips blow off in the wind, use more Clips and place them closer together.
Pipes for Hoops and Frames
- Black “poly” pipe makes an excellent frame for a Garden Clip cover. Black poly pipe comes in rolls at plumbing and building supply stores. It is easy to cut with garden loppers, has a natural curve to it already, and is more durable than PVC. It’s a yard & farm pipe used for sprinklers, irrigations, and water supply—find it in plumbing and feed and farm stores.
- PVC can be used for a frame, but it will get brittle with age, and the Clips will have a very tight fit. PVC is most useful where
- you need a longer, stiffer span or desire the connectors available for PVC.
- Steel EMT electrical conduit is good for experimenting with larger spans.
Plastic Covers can be clear or preferably milky plastic—which diffuses light to get to more leaf surface area. Hardware store plastic works for a season or two, gets brittle and breaks. Greenhouse film is UV-protected for a 4-6 year life.
Rebar can be purchased from a building supply store in 20 ft lengths. It can be cut with a hack saw or a cut-off blade for an electric saw. 1/2″ rebar works well with both 1/2″ and 3/4″ pipes in most applications. For stakes less than 2′ long, 3/8″ rebar suffices. For 6′ or longer, use 5/8″ rebar in 3/4″ pipe.