Extending your gardening season with high tunnels
Feb 7, 2025, 8:00 AM | Updated: 9:19 am
High tunnels can help extend your gardening season by giving you a head start on planting while the weather’s still cold. (Canva)
(Canva)
SALT LAKE CITY — You may have heard of a greenhouse, but what about a high tunnel? High tunnels can help extend your gardening season by giving you a head start on planting while the weather’s still cold.
Setting one up takes time and devotion, and it’s a completely different form of gardening.
Here are some things to know from JayDee Gunnell and Michael Caron with Utah State University Extension.
“The thing with a high tunnel is it’s different [from] a greenhouse in that there’s no heat or cool air,” said Gunnell. “It’s just you’re taking advantage of the solar radiation.”
What that does is allow you to start planting things a month early instead of waiting until mid-March or April to plant outside.
“The hard part is in the night when things freeze, there’s no insulation factor,” said Caron.
High tunnels vs. low tunnels
High tunnels should be tall enough that you can keep equipment such as a tractor in there.
“They’re kind of a farming tool that you could potentially get a small tractor in and work the soil and plant tomatoes early or whatever crop that you’re doing,” said Caron.
Low tunnels, on the other hand, aren’t as big.
“Low tunnels are more used for frost prevention when you put stuff out into the landscape, and it’s not going to grow long-term with those tunnels,” said Caron.
“A lot of times, growers will have the high tunnel, plant their crops, and when they pop up really early spring and it’s still freezing, then they’ll use a low tunnel to give that extra 2- to 3-degree protection below that,” said Gunnell.
For more information on setting up high tunnels, visit the Natural Resources Conservation Service website.
Read more from the KSL Greenhouse show:
- Beginner’s guide to growing cut flowers
- Winter gardening technique: Forcing bulbs to bloom indoors
- How to successfully care for an amaryllis
KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also find more gardening info at our linktr.ee.
