The future site of the hoop house (Photo: Corey Grisson Jr., Patterson Press)

By Corey Grisson Jr.

Coming soon to Patterson High School is the Patterson Hoop House, which will be an addition to the Patterson School Garden. It will be built in back of our school, in the fenced- in area near the Garden. This is a nice little cool area which the students can see from Mr. Yates’ and Ms. Roberts’ classroom windows.

The hoop house will be paid for through a grant called the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant, which a group of staff members applied for:  Ms. Hope, Ms. Snyder, Ms. Diehl, Ms. Solomon, Ms. Githua, Ms. Wongus, Ms. Bridgeforth, Ms Heneson, and Ms. Holter. Our grant was awarded in January and a couple of estimates have been given to Ms. Diehl regarding hoop house construction.  It has been hard to find a pipe bender for rent locally. Ms. Diehl is currently reaching out to people like Arthur Morgan with Gather Baltimore, Greg Strella with Great Kids Farm, and Andreas Spiliadis with Baltimore Hoop Love for guidance about constructing the hoop house.

A hoop house  is designed to be used in colder months but ours needs to be built in the spring to comply with grant guidelines. Plastic will be put over the hoop house in late fall when we want to raise the ambient temperature in which plants can grow. In the meantime, we can still grow in the space it covers and use it as an outdoor education space. The hoop house will allow us to grow fruits and/or vegetables all year long.