Grnhouse It's March 21st and I'm eating out of my greenhouse

[Vicki]

I just wanted to share that being I'm in upstate NY, it's in the low 20's tonight and it's March 21st yet I was harvesting food from the greenhouse. Yes! I had dinner with kale in a really nice stirfry with broccoli and spinach, olive oil and butter. Yum! The kale wasn't small either. The same size or bigger then what I would of bought at a grocery store. I have about a dozen heads of kale that are ready or close to ready to eat.

I also have onion, lettuce, potatoes and numerous herbs I can eat now. My lemon tree made it as did the carob and all with no heat all winter. I'm very impressed with how that went despite me losing the second layer of plastic on the north side this year. The winter was long and bitter cold so the new plastic on the top did a fantastic job. I think I'll look into replacing the side panels this year.

This has been an ongoing experiment for me and each year it gets better and better. With experience and knowledge comes success. I wanna learn more!

 

[lisa]

Cool! Such a useful tool...especially in the northern climates that have such short growing seasons!
My Minnesota grandfather was an organic farmer before that was a "thing" in the 30's thru 70's. I remember well loving his greenhouse ...it was all glass and warm inside and smelled good of plants and dirt. He refused to use any chemicals on his plants but he would special order lady bugs to eat aphids etc.
On a side note, my mother has a nasty scar on her arm from when she ran through one of the greenhouse windows when she was a little girl.

 

[Vicki]

Cool! Such a useful tool...especially in the northern climates that have such short growing seasons!
My Minnesota grandfather was an organic farmer before that was a "thing" in the 30's thru 70's. I remember well loving his greenhouse ...it was all glass and warm inside and smelled good of plants and dirt. He refused to use any chemicals on his plants but he would special order lady bugs to eat aphids etc.
On a side note, my mother has a nasty scar on her arm from when she ran through one of the greenhouse windows when she was a little girl.

You had a very smart Grandfather Lisa. Good for him. Bummer on the scar though, Traumatic for a kid to experience that. The smell always hits me too when I open the door and it always makes me feel good just walking in there. I don't use chemicals either. Been all organic from the begining when I started gardening in the late 90's. I wish I would of started before that but running a business and having kids with a hubby on the road wasn't the time to do so. I'm so glad I got into it. Thanks!

 

[Bubble Head]

Vicki that is so cool to be eating the fresh greens. I haven't been able to make my hoop house (8'X20') work very well. I will be doing some improvements and I do have a very good pit for the future.

 

[Vicki]

Vicki that is so cool to be eating the fresh greens. I haven't been able to make my hoop house (8'X20') work very well. I will be doing some improvements and I do have a very good pit for the future.

It takes time to figure out what works for your location in my experience. I insulated the north side of my greenhouse with polyboard. The aluminum backed foam board used for insulation. It works very well. I've also dumped wood chips throughout the walkways and did the layered back to eden style of filling the beds. This year would of been even better if I would of taken the time to replace the side films again which I didn't but will this summer. That 10 year megastore film is the best. I bought the anti condensation kind and what a difference it made.

Good luck BubbleHead. I know you'll enjoy the heck out of it when you get it working properly for your area. This is my 5th year I believe. Each year I learned something more and improved what I could. It's really a learning experience. A fun and rewarding one at that.

 

[Bubble Head]

Vicki I think a lot of my problem is the film I put over the hoops. What is 10 year megastore film? I am plugging holes and going to do wood chips a whole lot more than in the past. Seems to be a real necessity. This is only my second year so I am on the learning curve. The storms that come through along with Colorado Mountain Hail make a mess out of the cover.

 

[Vicki]

Vicki I think a lot of my problem is the film I put over the hoops. What is 10 year megastore film? I am plugging holes and going to do wood chips a whole lot more than in the past. Seems to be a real necessity. This is only my second year so I am on the learning curve. The storms that come through along with Colorado Mountain Hail make a mess out of the cover.

Here's a link to the film I bought. http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/thermal-ac-greenhouse-film/plastic-film

I had to get 20 by 25 ft times two. I have a double layer with a small fan inserted between the layers. It's supposed to give me approximately a four inch air space and I think that's about right. That plastic seemed heavier but more pliable then the other films I tried. The other films would last two to three years but this one should last much longer. Funny because years back I wrapped my lean to wood shed with plastic and it's got 4 by 4's all along the front holding up the roof. When I wrapped it I had such a long piece of plastic that I wrapped it inside and out before securing it. My kids laughed at me when I did it but it stayed on much longer then I thought it would and it also gave a 4 inch air space between the plastic. It definitely helped keep out the bitter cold.

I'm on Lake Ontario and get lake effect snow quite often and sometimes pretty intense winds so I hear ya! We do what we can.

 

[20Gauge]

Vicki I think a lot of my problem is the film I put over the hoops. What is 10 year megastore film? I am plugging holes and going to do wood chips a whole lot more than in the past. Seems to be a real necessity. This is only my second year so I am on the learning curve. The storms that come through along with Colorado Mountain Hail make a mess out of the cover.

Yeah the learning curve is a bugger. We lost all of the plants this winter when it snowed here. I wasn't ready for such a deep cold. Will do better next year.