Progress - Albeit slow!

Given the recent run of above normal temps in our area for the past week, I decided to dive in and begin my garden reconfiguration. It's not often the we have 60 degrees to approaching 70 anytime in January. My garden area is 19 ft. wide and about 34 ft. long including the 48 square ft. footprint of my greenhouse. The current garden was compose of 2-4ft wide paths that ran 21 ft. long before the greenhouse was erected. That means I had 168 sq. ft. plus an additional 48 sq. ft. area in a small area next to my garage. That gave me 216 sq. ft. of planting area. Here are some pictures of what it looked like before reconfiguration.

These pictures show the entrance walkway, the walkway at the bottom of the garden, the first bed, the second walkway with the second bed to it's left, the walkway at the top of the garden that leads to the greenhouse and finally, the 6X8 bed to that is to the right of the entrance walkway. The garden looks pretty unorganized and cluttered. Around October I decided that I needed to get rid of the pavers and cement bricks that I had accumulated over the years. So, I had begun to do that but then decided to stop everything until I had an actual plan in mind.
I have decided to repurpose the pavers to build a pathway in the main entrance all the way to the neighbors fence. If I have enough, I will then use them in the various walkways to cut down on mud and the need to cut grass. If I don't have enough pavers, my next option would be wood chips or some kind of mulch as I really don't want to cut grass. 
o, after analysis and investigation, I have discovered that most gardening "experts" advocate for 3ft. wide beds instead of 4. According to their studies, it allows more of the area you have to be put into production. It also makes for easier maintenance of the plants and allows you to better space the plants which increases the production. After putting this to the test, it turns out that I will have approximately 309 sq. ft. of planting space without expanding the area required and not including the 48 sq. ft. of the greenhouse. I lose about 200 sq. ft with the main entrance path and the 4 paths along the garden beds. I could reduce the main entrance width but I really want that path to carry the width of the 2 fence posts back to the neighbors fence for symmetry. I will now have 5 planting rows along with 2 in the area next to my garage. So, where I had 2, I now have will have 7. I must say I was a little shocked at this. 
On my first attempt to remove the pavers Saturday, I decided to tackle the hardest ones. Those would be the ones shown in the picture to the left below. The other two show where I stopped and the pile I created. They consisted of the pile against the shed and fence and the ones buried in the ground. Not an easy task by any means. It was a rather surprisingly back breaking job. I was able to get about 90 pavers moved so that wasn't a bad days work.

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In order to extract the pavers, I relied on 3 very old friends as seen in the picture. Some people would call them antiques though. They are a 5 tine pan head hoe, a 4 tine wooden handled spade and an old fashion ice scraper The dog in the back round is my neighbors very nosey but friendly dog. He just can't help himself.

I will have more work to report on in my next post in the very near future. So much is going on but I am determined to keep this up to date. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Challenges of winter

Having never attempted to grow plants through the winter, I just really had no idea what to expect. I did have some preconceived notions but those were just coming from what I have read in the past. At first, there was success and admittedly, a real uptick in hope. So I expanded the experiment to see if I cold replicate the nascent results of my initial foray into winter/greenhouse gardening.
Sadly, at this point, the newly planted seeds have yet to show themselves. I am not yet ready to throw in the towel as I believe there still is a good chance that they will come to fruition. I say that because, when it comes to vegetable gardening, I have developed a strong understanding that not everything works on our timetables. Additionally, the recent weather is much more wintery than when I planted the first crops. Our lows have been into the mid 20's the last few nights as has been the temperature in the greenhouse given it is unheated. I am relying on the fact that the seeds "know" what to do and are usually pretty resilient.
The established plants seem to be pretty hardy and are making progress albeit at a slower pace. I believe this is the pace they set during winter. As can be seen below, the lettuce plants seem the most vibrant as the spinach plants are just really struggling. The spinach seems to have started to grow again in the last couple of days so I will just hope they have rebounded.
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Additionally, even though the temps are lower now, the newly planted pots are continuing to dry out so I am having to water them frequently(as seen below). And, the pots that are in the northwest corner of the greenhouse seem to dry out much faster than even the ones right next to them. I can rule out a soil difference as they all had the same soil mix. It most likely has something to do with the amount of sun they receive as these pots would get a little more sun on a clear day. It's just something I have to deal with and keep an eye on. 

As spring approaches, I have been looking for ways to make the most of what areas I have. I have the greenhouse, the 226 sq. ft. of garden plots and the structure I have left unplanted. As I grow most of my own seedlings and augment with heirloom plants from a few select nurseries, I have been contemplating how I can increase my seedlings this year. And, it hit me. I have a garage that is detached and unheated. I have been tracking the current temps in it and it seems to be a little warmer than the greenhouse. No big surprise there. But, in about a month, the sun will be stronger and the garage probably will be warmer. So I have begun to clear the area on one of the south facing shelves. I put clear plastic over the two windows above the shelf to stop the wind coming through. It probably will have enough warmth to get the seedlings started so I can transfer them into the greenhouse to harden them off. It's a new project that should keep me even busier.
On a side note, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit one of my favorite seed stores in Maryland. It's called Meyer Seeds and is close to downtown Baltimore. They have been around for a very long time. When you go in the store, you take a big step back in time. The decor reminds me of pictures of stores in the 1950's. I had the pleasure to speak with a gentleman who was able to point me to an almost fail safe cucumber given it is self pollinating and who then pointed out that my problem was most likely the cucumber beetle. He gave me a fix for that to boot! He also assured me that they have stock in all seeds as I questioned him about that given reports that some seed companies were expecting some spot shortages this year. He then sold me peas and beans in bulk and advised I use an inoculant before planting the peas.
It was a great visit there and I look forward to going back there during planting season to get organic based sprays they have. It's always a treat to speak to someone else who knows your passion and problems. They rate high on my list on both.
Well, that's all I have for now. Hopefully, you are starting to get the bug to plant. It certainly wont be long now. Until next time, Happy Gardening!

The challenge of wind

This past Thursday (10-17), our area was buffeted by very strong winds due to the nor'easter that was off the east coast this past weekend.  Some gusts were in the range of 40-50 mph.  I really gave it no thought in regards to my new greenhouse.  That is, until I saw a panel from it lying next to one of my garden beds.
Upon discovering this, I went out to inspect the structure only to find that there were two panels that had become freed from the greenhouse.  I gathered the two pieces and put them inside the unit to make sure they weren't tossed all over my yard or worse yet, damaged.  I then attempted to locate the clips that were supposed to hold the panels in place.  These clips are best descrided as spring loaded paperclips.  And finding them proved callenging to say the least.
After my initial reconnaissaince trip around the immediate area surrounding the gardenhouse, I found about 6 clips.  I knew I needed to find more of these so I expanded the search.  Amazingly, I ended up finding more clips almost 20-30 feet away.  I then tried to attach the panel that was taking the brunt of the winds.  I put the clips back in place and secured the panel (or so I thought).  I then moved on to the next panel feeling like I had accomplished something.
Just when I finished securing the second pane, the previous wall piece made this horrible sound and then proceeded to fall out and begin a dance accross my gardens.  I hurriedly caught up to it and turned around and saw the second pane push out and fall to the ground.  So, with one in my hand, I ran accross the gardens and grabbed the second piece.  Defeated, I put the two pieces back into the greenhouse and analyzed the situation.
I decided to open the vent in the roof to allow the winds to flow a little easier through the structure.  Feeling quite proud that the greenhouse was going to make it out of these winds in relatively good shape, I began to look for those clips that weren't obviousy up to the task at hand.  While walking the area, I heard yet another noise.
I turned around and looked directly at my building only to see a roof piece wobbling furiously.  Then, all at once, it was launched like a kite into the air.  I stood there dumbfounded and amazed at the same time.  It moved up rapidly as I had visions of this piece landing in my neighbors yards, or worse yet, that it would land in the next block.
As quickly as it went up, it came down with suddeness.  I ran to try to catch it while thinking this was not going to end well.  But, it did,  Someone upstairs must have thought I had had enough.  I gathered this piece and laid it with the other two pieces inside the house.
At this point, I decided to let things just progress on their own.  Until the winds died down, I was fighting a literal losing battle.  I went inside and tried to keep myself preoccupied.
After a couple of hours, I went back to unit and discovered that another side panel had succumded to the fury of nature.  I put that inside on top of the others and looked for more clips.
My wife ordered new clips from the manufacturer which they said were improved. No further damages were sustained from the storm Thursday evening and by Saturday, the winds were much calmer. 
Upon receipt of the new clips on Saturday, I went out and reinstalled the panels.  Yes, the new clips seem to be more substantial so there is hope that this episode will not repeat itself.  Amazingly, throughout this whole ordeal, none of my plants were damaged.   All of them came through with no noticeable damages. 
I can only imagine what my antics looked like to my neighbors as I fought natures elements.  They already know that I am a bit over the top on my gardening but this episode must have cemented that in their minds forever.
I am that neighbor afterall.  Well, that's all that is fit to write about at this time.  Have a great week and Happy gardening everyone.
                     

Greenhouse update.

I am both happy and relieved to report that the greenhouse is now complete.  It took most of Saturday to erect the structure.  Thankfully the weather was almost ideal as it wasn't too warm.  It is still summer afterall in this part of the world.  It would not have been completed without the very able and determined efforts of my friend Mark, my wife, son and daughter in law.  It was challenging to say the least.
The biggest challenge came from the fact that the greenhouse had sat for almost 2 years before it was built.  It was stored in what I considered a relatively safe area but was somewhat exposed to the weather.  When opened, the instructions were unusable.  We printed the instructions from online but they were for the newer model and the numbers did not quite match up.  My wife and son were able to piece the door and vent parts together through what I would call dogged determination and methodology.  I would not have been so successful.  Lesson learned here not to procrastinate.
After siting the 4"X6" wood supports and laying down a run of marble stones in the troughs we dug, we then cut the wood to their proper sizes and leveled them on the stone.  We then attached the wood pieces to each other by using L brackets and 3 inch wood screws.  Once that was completed, we began the construction of the greenhouse.
As can be seen from the picture below, the process was to build the 4 walls separately.

This is the one of the wall sections which was comprised of about 10 pieces.  Once all 4 walls were built, we transported them to the site and attached them to each other.  Then the middle support was attached along with the three supports on each side which act as the channels for the "glass" inserts.
We then finished the greenhouse by inserting the vent into the section for it and attached the sliding door to entrance wall.  I then screwed 3" wood screws though the base of the greenhouse into the wood base framing.
Here is a picture of the finished product.

The greenhouse is 8 ft long and 6 foot wide.  It actually feels pretty spacey inside right now.  I am sure that will change once I load in selves and such.  The sunlight is diffused by the panels.  Both the space and the diffusion of light are better seen in the picture below. 

On Sunday, I began transferring the various shelving units I have into the greenhouse.  As can be seen below, there appears to be enough room for what I have planned. 

I hope to be able to try to grow the traditional root crops inside it.  I will then have a real feel for how far into the winter I can grow plants.  It will definitely help me with growing my own plant varieties and timing plant maturity in the spring and throughout the summer.  

That's all I have at this time.  My next step is to get as much of the garden plots reset before it is too cold.  I will keep you posted on that and the many goings on in the garden.  If you should have any questions, please drop me a line.  Thanks for visiting!

Work progresses in the garden

As noted in my last post, I had much to do in order to set my garden up for next year.  I can report that I made some progress in that regard.  When a project is this complex, you have to think what is the most important task at hand.  Clearly, that would be the assembly of my new greenhouse.
I had to first decide the placement of the greenhouse.  I chose the end of one of my old beds as it affords the best southern exposure for it as seen in the picture below.

The greenhouse will be the central hub of the garden.  I will use it in the early spring to begin seeding flats of spring crops and then I will use it to grow seedlings for succession plantings during the summer.  It will also afford me the ability to start late season crops earlier for transplanting into the garden in the fall.  I will have friends and my son coming over this weekend to begin the project.  I did some pre-work in the interim so that we could get as much finished as possible.  Having never attempted such a project, it is a little daunting when you begin to think of all the steps involved.

As you can be see in the picture, I have dug trenches where the 4X4's will be placed for the base of    the structure.  This will reduce the risk of the greenhouse moving or even tipping over in high winds. But first, we will put down a layer of crush and run stone in the trenches in order to allow the water    from rains or snows to dissipate from underneath the wood.  This will reduce the rotting of the wood over time.

Once the stones and the boards are in place, we will begin the process of constructing the greenhouse.  That seems like it is going to be a very long process as most of the build your own greenhouses are just adult sized tinker toys.  They are somewhat akin to IKEA furniture.

On another note, I seeded carrots about two weeks ago into a flower container I picked up at our local Big Lots.  I decided to use it for carrots given the depth and structure of the piece.  I mixed a cheap bag of top soil I bought on sale from Home Depot for the base product and mixed in some time release fertilizer really well.  Then I added some Amish seed starting soil into that.  I then spread a layer of the Amish soil on the top, poked spacing holes and added yet some more of the Amish soil into each hole.  I then seeded the holes, covered the seeds with the soil and sprayed them with water.

I am keeping them in a plastic FlowerHouse greenhouse that I have.  As seen above, they are doing quite well.  I am hoping to get more seedings of cold weather plants completed.  Unfortunately, the greenhouse construction is taking up most of my time right now.              

Well, thats all for now.  I'll post more pics of the greenhouse as we/I make progress.