Sustainable garden tour announced

Following the theme of becoming more sustainable in Jefferson County, the Backyard Conservation Series is sponsoring the Fairfield Garden Tour and Farm Crawl from 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

Starting from the Fairfield Public Library, the tour will begin with a panel of high tunnel-type ?greenhouse? owners discussing their experiences building and using high tunnels. The tour is an opportunity to hear just what high tunnels are and why they are growing in popularity.

All sites on the tour are examples of high tunnels, also known as hoop houses. These houses are often made by bending pipes or wire into curved shapes and are unheated enclosed spaces used for food production.

Growing cold, hardy plants under the tunnels? covers allows for fresh food all winter long, even in severely cold weather with little or no heat. They also allow a head start for heat-loving crops and extend the season for fall production. They can be large or just a few feet long, simple to very elegant.

The tour will include a range of types of tunnels. One homeowner made her tunnel out of an old trampoline, and another is up against the south side of a garage with plastic stretched over cattle gate fence. One of the tunnels is very large and for commercial production. Some of the sites also have low tunnels, which are simple beds covered with plastic but too low to walk under.

Tour maps will be available at the actual sites and online at http://www.fairfieldgogreen.com/backyard-conservation/.

The tour is free and open to the public. For information, call Kim at 472-4166.