Current Status

There is so much to write about regarding my "winter" plantings. I will start with just an update of the greenhouse and garden area. I have several plants trying to grow despite the unseasonably warm weather. Yesterday, we hit a high of 75 which resulted in the greenhouse heating up even though I had the venting window and door pretty much wide open. The temps inside went into the 90's which is not good for the cool season crops I have growing. Here is the temp at 3 yesterday afternoon.

Despite that, the seedlings appear to be working hard to grow. Here are my spinach (round containers) and lettuce (rectangular) plants. The lettuce seedlings are quite small as they were delayed in sprouting. Not too bad as they struggled early due to our warm weather in the middle of October. I plan on working in some slow release fertilizer this week once the temps drop a bit. That should spur their growth as I water them.
 
I also have leaf lettuce growing well in the one of the grow boxes alog with carrots continuing to progress. I will need to cut the leaf lettuce soon. I will add them to the salad lettuce I recently bought. Then I plan on planting both of the grow boxes with lettuce as I now have a feel for how to manage them.

 
Additionally, I have Giant Ceasar and Swiss Chard growing along with a small planting of radishes. My wife mentioned she had a white onion with top growth that she was using in a roast. She cut off the top and gave it to me. After researching onions, it was apparent that you could plant that and there was a decent chance it would grow another onion. Always open to experimentation, I decided to give it a try as I had nothing to lose. Here are a couple snaps of the plantinng.
 
And heres how it looked this morning. Seems the plant has responded enough to give me hope. As I say, only time will tell.

Once the weather eventually turns, the plants should begin to grow in earnest and the greenhouse will become more productive. One thing I learned last year is that the plants grow at a much different rate than they normally do. But, grow they will.
Speaking of growth, the Winter Rye I planted in my garden beds is probably the best I have ever seen. It is not only taller for this time of year, but it is much thicker and more dense. I am truly excited as this will be a huge step for my garden soil health. Here are a couple pictures of the beds.
  
On another note, I have been collecting various compostable items to place in one or maybe two of my composters. Besides my neighbors contribution, I decided to strip the leaves off of a bunch of branches I was going to cut up. I piled them up on a tarp to begin drying them out. Then I collected my front lawns clippings when I cut the grass on Monday and piled them over the leaves. I did the same thing with the clippings from my back yard and added them to the pile. This is the result that followed all that work.

I also have been collecting cardboard from the various packages that we get. I cut them up and put them into my one cart. I'm letting them sit there to soak up the rain and my periodic watering from my rainbarrow I have to empty before it freezes. Here is the cardboard and a picture showing the current state of the cuttings as of this morning.
 
The weather here in the last few days has been wierd. Mornings have been misty/foggy then the sun breaks through in the afternoon and we have summer. Here are a few pictures to what we woke up to this morning.
 
It was warm with a light rain and pretty dense fog.
So, as can be seen, there has been alot going on in the greenhouse/gardens. I have also been trying to finish all the outside tasks that need to be completed before the cold weather sets in along with maintaining the growing. It's been a little hectic at times but progress is happening. From what I can tell, next week is going to be appreciably cooler than this week.
Well, that's all I have for now. I will write soon about my indoor gardening attempts that I am just setting up and all that entails. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!

Continuing preparations

Well, we received another reminder this past Friday that winter is not yet through with us.  It was more of a nuisance than anything else but, nonetheless, it was a snow event.  Today, as I sit out in my back porch, the sun is shining very brightly and its in the mid 40's.  I have been able to get the garden moving in several respects this weekend due to two beautiful days.
In my last post, I mentioned that I planted winter rye and the reasons for doing so.  Last fall (September) I sowed the seed and then covered one of my beds with greenhouse plastic and the other I left to the elements to see if covering it would make a difference.  As shown, the answer is a definite yes as seen by the two photos below.  The top one is of the uncovered bed and the bottom one is of the bed that was under a plastic tunnel all winter.

It was worth the effort to cover them as there is certainly more volume of rye to work into the soil.  I cut the first bed by using my weed trimmer.  I cleaned the trimmer and used new line on the trimmer to prevent any weed transference to my beds from the trimmer.  The picture below shows the bed after this cutting.

I will let this lay for a couple of days as seen and then I work it into the ground through shallow cultivation.  This process allows for the break down of the rye and also leaves the roots system somewhat in tact below. This adds structure and concurrent moisture retention with the gradual breakdown of the roots into the soil.  One other advantage is that this is organic which is what I strive for in my garden.
I can't overemphasize that your soil is the single most important part of your gardening experience. My wife and I visited Monticello - the beautiful Virginia estate of Thomas Jefferson several years ago.  The mansion was gorgeous as expected.  Mr. Jefferson was perhaps the first vegetable gardener of the United States and introduced a multitude of plants to the fledgling US.  His garden is nicknamed the revolutionary garden.  He had a garden built of enormous proportions on the side of the mountain on the property.  It is over 1000 feet long and takes your breath away when you see it.  His whole focus of the garden was his unbending belief that a healthy soil grows healthy plants.   From my experience, I couldn't agree more.