Snow? What Snow?

The forecasters are 0-2 in my area. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow but instead were treated to sleet and plenty of it. One of our local TV weather people said that they had no idea this was going to happen. She said that none of their models saw this happening. Well, I would tell her it's time to get some new models. This was very far off the mark. Here is picture of our morning scene below.

But, I digress! During one of the more intense sleeting periods, I decided to check my greenhouse as I knew it would be covered in ice. And, I was correct. When I turned the corner to view my greenhouse, here is what I was confronted with.

I went inside and noticed that the roof panels were bowing from the weight of the icc/sleet. Not a good situation with yet more sleet being forecasted. So, I went back to my house and related the predictament to my wife. I began thinking I would put an electric heater in the unit to raise the temp in the greenhouse which was sitting at 28 degrees. My wife came back and told me about a thing she had seen called a terracotta clay pot heater. Intrigued, I listened to her explain it. When all was said and done, it entailed putting a candle on top of a base and then placing the pot over it - making sure there was allowance for air to get into the area under the pot. One twist was to use a sterno candle instead of a regular candle. This boosts the amount of heat it produces. After gathering all the items I needed, I went out and constructed my first terra cotta heater. Here is the finsihed product.

I used 4 cement path pavers for the base. I made one alteration. Since I had space on each of the 4 pavers, I decided to use 4 small pots I had and put teacup candles under them. So I lit the sterno candle and the 4 teacup candles. When I finished, I closed the greenhouse and began shoveling our walks and steps. After about an hours time, I went back to the greenhouse. I found that the temp had risen to 43 degrees in that hour - a 15 degree increase. I was surprised given the outside temp was 26 degrees. I could hear the ice crackling and melting on the roof of the unit. So, I took an old broom and proceeded to brush the ice off each panel on both sides. It didn't take much effort to get the ice to slide off them. Here is a picture of it after my brushing.

Almost all the ice came off and the panels seemed to be back to normal inside. And, I learned a new technique to use if winter decides to visit us again which we all know it will. These terra cotta heaters can be used in an emergency to heat boats, campers and even rooms in a house in a crunch. One person said they used it to heat an unheated area where there were water pipes during a really cold snap.
Both my wife and I were a little surprised this worked so well. It's always a good thing to have an emergency contingency to fall back on. The other "surprise" was that we had these supplies and never realized they could be used in such a way. You learn something all the time. I am very grateful to have a wife that is so resourceful and full of useful information.
Well, that's all I have today. I am currently seeding in a new set of crops for the early spring. I had a failure of sorts with my last attempt. Seems I may have used my heating pads a little too long. I did have seedlings but they were very leggy which most likely was a result of too warm of soil. Spring crops prefer cooler soils. Lesson learned. Seems gardening always has a lesson to learn regardless of your "expertise".
So, please check back as I start anew with my seedling production. I am hoping that winter will go away and I can get into the garden. I have much to do there and time is ticking. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!

Winter finally arrived!

The Mid-Atlantic was visited by old man winter this past weekend. But, knowing it was definitely heading right for us, I decided to open up my leaf mold composters while it was snowing in order to get a little moisture into them. It was snowing at a pretty good pace when I went out as attested to by this picture.

It was supposed to come down at a very fast and furious pace for several periods throughout the day. So, in the morning, I went out and took off the tops of the various composters and dumped the snow from the lids into each container as seen from the pictures below.

Overnight, we were hit with an ice storm which is causing major traffic issues and sidewalk problems. Some areas have had power outages. I'm just grateful to be retired and not out in the mess. Here is a picture showing the ice out in our and our neighbors yards this morning.

We are expecting another wave of snow today through early tomorrow. I"m going to have to go out and get my front porch and sidewalks unvovered before that hits.
As of yesterday, the plants in the greenhouse have been hanging in there but I need to get out there to check their status today. Here's hoping they came through.
There is lots to do and report on in the coming couple of days so once the snows/ice are gone, I'll start digging in to them. Please check back periodically for the updates. As always, Happy Gardening Everyone!

   

Garden progress

 Garden progress

Posted on Jan 11, 2021 11:51 AM

Last Thursday was a very beautiful day for winter. The sun was out and the temps were going to be in the low 50's. As I gazed out my back room, I was immediately reminded that I had a bunch of bamboo poles that needed to be cut for the construction of my fence. Knowing I needed at least 44 six and half foot poles, I began to cut the poles with my hacksaw.
Having already sorted them, I began to cut the longer poles that I had determined would give me 2 supports each. Those gave me 28 supports. Then I turned my efforts to the bamboo that would give me 1 pole each being shorter than the other set. At that point, I combined the cut poles and was very happy that I had a total of 58 poles. And, as a bonus, after looking at the remants from the cuttings, I was able to save many more than I originally thought for plant supports. I estimate that I will get probably 15-20 total. They probably couldn't be used for heavier types of plants like tomatoes and cucumbers, but they definitely could be put into service on pepper plants and such. Below is a split picture showing the fence posts along side the plant supports.

The bamboo was free as they were being pulled out of a backyard and the person just wanted to get rid of them. I researched the use of bamboo and found out if you let them age from a green color to brown, they will become more rigid. These have aged in my backyard for about 8 months if memory serves and they are pretty rigid. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.
The cutting took about 2 hours all in all. Now the project can move to actual assembly of the fence when I purchase the fencing. I can't wait as I need to defend the plants from all of the pesky squirrels in our area.
That's all I have at this time. There is still much to do and I will be relating as much as I can. Spring is fast approaching so the pressure will start to mount. Good thing I love gardening so much. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Cloches

 I have, over the last few years, begun to rely on cloches to get my plants off to healthy and early starts in late winter/early spring. Since the weather was a bit warmer than usual, I decided to take a quick inventory of the various cloches and structures I have at my disposal.

When it comes to cloches, I received these three below for Christmas. They are called Greenhouse Buckets. They look very sturdy and are made of a very durable "plastic" material which the manufacturer claims will resist fading and yellowing. They are tall and give a reasonable amount of space to use them on taller plants. I tried one in a bare spot in my garden this past weekend. It was a sunny day with temps in the low 40's. My thermometer recorded a high temp of 92 and a low of 30 overnight. It was a very non scientific process so I am hopeful about them. They can be found at greenhousebuckets.com.

I also have a set of two different types of cloches which are older and are starting to show their age. They have been through many seasons and have yellowed thanks to the rays of the sun. But, the plants last year did not show any effects from this yellowing so I will use them again this year. I'll continue to use them until there is a failure with the plants. The whole point of these is really to protect the seedlings from frost, heavy rains or even an unexpected late snow shower. And, these all have performed that task quite well.

I also have a couple of structures which I have used for various purposes. I am thinking I will probably plant seedlings in them or maybe do some early direct seeding in them. I think I have had both of these for over 7 years and they have weathered quite well. I will clean the dirt off them with a little bleach solution and will then keep them where they are presently in order to warm up the soil underneath them.
 
I have a collapsible 6 X 8 ft. greenhouse which I am considering placing next to my permanent greenhouse. Not quite sure about that at this time as I have to work out the purpose for it. The question is whether it would add any value to the garden and it's production. I haven't convinced myself one way or another. Time will tell.
That's all all I have to write at this time. Lots going on and it is keeping me pretty busy. I will update when I get the opportunity this week. There are seedlings to start and a whole myriad of garden projects in the works. So until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Lettuce abundance

Well, here we are at the beginning of 2021. Having much to be grateful for and to look forward to the New year. Let us all look forward to a more abundant year.

I took stock of the progress of all my plants.  The weather has been on the mild side lately so I decided to move my plants from my basement into my greenhouse in order to get them out in the sun. They were looking a little anemic so I figured it was time for them to get some good old fashioned sun under protection of the greenhouse. I moved 10 of the most mature plants in order to minimize the shock to them. After watering them down, I left them to soak in the rays.
Here is a picture of one rack of my lettuce and spinach plants. I can see a few salads in my near future which is very exiciting.

Additionally, I will have Giant Ceasar lettuce to add to the cuttings from the above lettuces as seen below.

I also have seedlings that are coming along in the greenhouse that are just starting to put on mature leaves. The container on the left has Iceberg, Bibb and Giant Ceasar. The planter to the right has 8 spinach plants. These were all planted at the same time and seem to be progressing well.

So, everything is moving along. The days are starting to get longer as we'll see our first 12 hour sun day before the end of January. There is much to do and time is approaching for the first planting of seeds for the early Spring crops. I have a long list of tasks that need to be addressed before I can put any plants in the garden. It's going to be a very busy beginning of the new year.
I will be writing about these endeavors as I tackle them so please keep visiting my blog. So, lets move forward in this new year everyone and Happy Gardening!