Raising Seedlings in the Cold

     A few weeks ago, Just as my wife was getting into house organizing in a serious way I decided to throw a serious wrench in the works.  I had been spying on several apple trees in out neighborhood for several weeks.  Ever since we finished canning peaches actually.  It turns out you really don't need to go to all the trouble to grow fruit trees in order to generally end up with all the fruit you could wish for.  Simply keep your eyes open as you go about your daily activities, and you are sure to notice fruit trees burdened with fruit which the owner of said tree curses as the bane of their yard.  That's right, fruit is generally free for the asking, all you need do is be forthright and courteous...oh, and a promise of a little finished product never hurts either.      So, the tree in question is an apple tree located on the property of a local circle K gas station.  Somehow I don't think the sign posted by the ...

 amount  OK, time for an update.  To the left is a photo of the greenhouse currently.  Due to the warm early weather I did a lot of planting of summer crops early in March.  On account of this we are about 45 days into the growing season.  I have begun constructing raised beds according to the grand plan, and filling them with soil removed from an area of my basement.  Below is a string of close up photos of a few of the crop beds; they are looking pretty good considering without a hoophouse most of these crops would barely even be planted yet.  First Planting of sweet corn, green beans, and sweet potatoes.  The green beans are beginning to bloom, and the corn is about waist high. This bed contains the second planting of green beans, sweet corn, and sweet potatoes which have been planted as sister crops.  Visible in this photo are tomatos, and sweet bell peppers.  Note the heavy bloom set on the tomatos. Thi...

Building an Economical Greenhouse. March 01 2012        First, I think it would be valuable to have a little background on just how it is that I became interested in greenhouse gardening.  Going way back to the beginning briefly may provide some interesting perspective.  So, childhood; I grew up in a large, thrifty family and gardening was a large part of my childhood.  All of my siblings helped out in the garden which was roughly one-half of an acre in size, but somewhere along the line I took a special shine to it.  During high school I even did a little truck crop gardening.  I grew roughly one acre of crops, mostly your average Midwestern garden fare, which I sold at a weekly farmers market in town.  In hindsight my methods were pretty crude, and the amount of work I put in was pretty huge for the amount of rewards I reaped.  After college I moved here to Rock Island, Illinois, and bought a small house on a small ...