The Greenhouse Garden - One Month Later

The greenhouse from the outside

 A Greenhouse Update

     The greenhouse has now been covered for just over one month, so it is time for an update on the progress so far.  I began planting inside the hoophouse on February 20th, and planted lettuce spinach, radish and turnip.



 Some lettuce and spinach survived the winter, and began growing as     soon as the greenhouse was covered.  The locations of the raised beds to be built were marked with string before serious planting began.  To   the right you can see plywood walkway placed to avoid compressing    soil around the overwintered greens.  Deeper into the greenhouse          hardwood mulch was added to the future walkways, as this breaks       down it will be added to the growing beds as compost, and the mulch    replaced                                                                                              

    Soon after the greenhouse was covered plants were started inside the lean-to greenhouse so that they would be ready to plant in the              greenhouse as soon as the weather warmed.  These plants are tomatos, of which I am trying three different varieties; siberian, better boy hybrid, and opalka.  I am trying the sibeians as they are supposed to be cold     hardy, and able to set fruit in temperatures as low as 38F, and survive a light frost.  This is important as the greenhouse often gets this cool as late as mid-May.                                                                                         


These are pepper plants.  I generally grow both a jalapeno, and a sweet bell variety of pepper.                                                                          
                                                     
 

     Here are some sweet potato slips that I began growing in late January in the living room.  Needless to say my wife is very tolerant of my gardening hobby, partially because both of our boys like to eat sweet potatoes.  These sweet potatoes are of the Beauregard, and Georgia Jet varieties, and were both held over from harvest late last summer.  I have learned that proper temperature is the key to sweet potatoes, they must be kept above 70F, and 80-90F is more ideal in order to sprout.  I accomplished the extra heat using a seedling heating mat, and wrapping the jars in a towel to keep the water warm.  It is also important to orient the sweet potato "point up" which can be hard to determine.  If they are upside down you may end up with the majority of the eyes under water which will keep them from growing.  Once a slip grows 6-9" tall break it off of the tuber, and begin soil rooting it by inserting it in a pot.  Keep the pots very well watered for the first several days.  Some people root the slips in water, but this is actually useless as the "water roots" are no good when planted in soil.  Sweet potatoes may also be propagated from a growing plant by clipping the end of a running vine, stripping all the leaves but the one at the tip of the vine, and inserting in a hole you have poked.....just add water.

     Just some quick bragging, this is the first bowl of overwintered salad greens that were cut for dinner tonight.  This beats the first greens out of greenhouse #1 from last spring by about 1 1/2 months.

     Some other commentary about planting goes as such; seed potatoes may be gotten by buying some spuds at the grocery store and placing them on top of the fridge (or anywhere consistently warm) to eye out.  Check the bag to see if the potatoes have been irradiated, as they may not eye out properly (the process is meant to lengthen shelf life and sometimes it does this all too well) or grow as well due to the process.  A sale at a low cost grocer is usually a good start as the seed is cheap, and the potatoes are usually on sale because they are close to the end of their shelf life i.e. about to begin sprouting. If you grow a fall crop of potatoes these will generally be eyeing out by planting time in the spring. Onion sets are not usually available out of season, I buy mine for the next spring when they are on closeout sale in the summer.  Keep them cool and dry and they will still grow the following spring.  Finally, I like to start a few trays of carrot seed just like a broccolli or cabbage seed, as I find carrot very slow to sprout in cool spring soil (though it grows well in cooler spring conditions) and able to transplant very well in a humid greenhouse in the spring.  This is particularly effective if you plan on planting using the square foot method, and plan on careful spacing of your plants. 

     You may notice that in addition to trying to keep construction costs low I also use "alternate" sources of seed to keep costs down.  Often seed from a seed catalog is ten times the cost of a local bulk seed seller.  Even a good local nursery will sell seed potato at $1 per pound, when it can be had for 10 cent
s a pound when bought as grocery potatoes when on sale.  Similarly sweet potato slips often run 25-50 cents each (if you can even find them) and even more when sold as a rooted plant.  You can grow all you could ever want from one or two tubers left over in the pantry.  I prefer to grow or save as many of my own bedding plants as possible as most will cost between 50 cents and a dollar or more each.  fifty cents worth of bulk seed will seed many hundred plants.  Also as a practical matter this allows you to buy your seed out of season at a great savings, especially since many retailers will not even have their more affordable seed (many keep a single higher cost brand displayed year round in the outdoor department) out in time for a greenhouse gardener.   Finally, if you are the self sufficiency/ apocalyptic type gardener you'll like knowing you have your seed saved ahead of time where nothing can affect your future garden.