garden planning, garden planning tra-la-la-la.
maybe it is because the weather has been especially mild lately and feigning the end of winter. or, maybe it is because it has been soooo long since i have had omelay fresh vegetables. or, maybe it is because our garden all but failed last year.
i don't know. but, i have been eying the compost bins while salivating again. strange behavior you might ask? i admit it i'm weird. that compost bin is pavlovian trigger for food this summer. i lovingly add manure and discarded hay and in few months poof beautiful loamy black gold.
we just bought seed and have some saved-seed from two years ago. i hope they all germinate. if not we'll be fine either way. when the seeds arrive the gardening excitement will heighten.
i have been planning a mini green house for the past few days. it will be made from two cattle panel arches and some cement block. the block will be the perimeter and raise the panels eight inches on each side. it will be six feet by eight feet long. i scavenged some thick plastic from bobs greenhouse. the whole thing should cost next to nothing. of course we already have the cattle panels, plastic and cement block.
the greenhouse will be where we start seeds this year. in years past it has been a tedious task in an inferior place. this will hopefully save lots of work and produce better results. we'll start tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and some flats of greens. the flats of greens are because we'd like to enjoy spring greens as early as possible.
the greenhouse will hopefully double as a chicken brooder on the floor below the shelves of plants. we'd also like to start our chickens as soon as possible in the spring. as long as we are heating the greenhouse why not get some chickens in that heat too?
i'll document my greenhouse construction. hopefully it won't take as long as the root cellar. look there is even a new label "greenhouse"
9 comments:
cool! can't wait to see this project as it happens...
I know the excitement. My wife and I have started planning our garden as well. Last year was our first one and his was not planned all all. Cant wait to see the green house.
just stopping by to wish you a late merry christmas and an on time happy new year!
The compost pile makes you salivate?
I'm going a little nutso with the seed catalogs! How to decide, how to decide??
Oooh, I'll be waiting for the greenhouse project to take off... that's the next thing I want my hubby to build. I want my tomatoes, darnit.
we raised our chicks in the greenhouse with great results!
i look forward to seeing your greenhouse!
We've been using stock panel greenhouses for a while and they have been a great addition to our garden. We're in VT, but we don't heat the greenhouse, just too much energy. Our unheated greenhouse adds an extra month on either end of the growing season. And it allows us to over winter hardy greens. They burst to life early in the spring and we have greens at least a month early.
Our greenhouse is right on top of our raised beds (12 - 18 inch raised beds with wooden sides). There is a bed on either side and a path down the middle. The path is lowered by the soil that was taken out to raise the beds. That adds an extra 18 inches to the headroom in the greenhouse making it a comfortable height.
To keep the greenhouse up during our winter snow load, we using bailing twine to tie cords to help keep the arch in shape. There are 3 - 5 46" cords per panel. Use about six inches of the headroom but make the structure able to handle a lot of snow (I've had three feet without crushing the greenhouse).
I am working on a post about building a greenhouse with cattle panels. I had a reader request. If you tune in to my blog you can catch it when I get it done.
debbieo
Post a Comment