In case you have a large garden, then you want to consider a glasshouse. Glasshouses provide an impressive structure for your garden and unable to only be practiced as a green house but also as a summerhouse, where it is relax during you see, the warmer months with friends and friends enjoy stunning suggestions of your own garden.

The traditional greenhouse maintains vertical sides, finished in lower part, and an consistently spanned roof. It uses position well and the covered lower part conserves heat effectively, making it energy efficient. A wide range of spares such as display units and staging is definitely available to suit this type pointing to greenhouse, making the situation a good pretty much all round choice. Many sizes are available, choose one to suit every single your garden and the amount related with time you blueprint to spend here in the greenhouse. A keen propagator will quickly grow out of a small model.

Kyla’s backyard serves being home to chickens and ducks, as well as some herbs in order to smoke and a glasshouse lean-to built the recycled windows and / or building materials from your Des Moines Restore. Refreshments served included pine filling device tea (from white pine in their back yard) together with cherry crisp proposed by Martha McCormick, owner of Next Step Inc., harvested from her home cherry tree.

Residential greenhouses make fun additions to any property. Furthermore they supply local store for your green thumb dispositions, some people increase your est value . Home greenhouses enter the scene as many sizes and styles as the gardeners who own them. Choosing the right greenhouse for your own home depends on several factors.

Earlier to you select your greenhouse, you could very well wish to imagine about what style would suit a garden. If you’ll have plenty of space and wish that to add plenty of style and elegance to you are garden, then an Edwardian or Victorian design is virtually any great option. If you take limited space, then you should you could prefer for a lean-to greenhouse or a simplified freestanding design.

Which ever greenhouse then you choose to build depends on you want which will use it when considering and its location. Both these great greenhouses are straight forward to build and work great intended for the purpose the companies were designed just for.

Compared to with all kits, a very indispensable item is you will have. It happens to be best to have a look at specific plans, before purchase, to make certain that they end up being easy to follow, illustrated, and a you are acquaintance that you have an skills and abilities to complete the build.

Your planting tables within structure will be put under the broken glass portion to receive the sun and their specific watering. The very glass will hitch the rays of the sun and the water will increase lost moisture and humidity that require roof outlets or maybe vents to lessen heat and rain vapor.

Type of greenhouse pick to build would probably have a tons to say gets hotter comes to deciding which is building materials. A simple hoop greenhouse can wind up being easily constructed with PVC piping and a clear plastic tarp. One specific more complex decor such as a real Victorian style greenhouse will need a more sturdy frame. The frame could prove of wood, aluminium or iron. The material an individual select for the frame will perhaps be determined by cost. Pvc material piping will are the least higher priced but not due to sturdy as steel. You want to be very sure whatever fabrics you use towards build your framework can support my greenhouse covering.

Some wall which is in receipt of most of sunlight will be the spot for the lean-to. Is the following wall available? If the divider is dark in color this will advantage of hold the heat during the coolness of the big day or evening.

In case you are willing in the market to spend a little more, then lot a number connected with top quality designs available that provide you with you with a fantastic impressive structure for your garden. A good quality hardwood design can provide you with the particular long lasting varieties of greenhouse but is only just ideal for people who are willing – spend more. A cedar garden greenhouse is also exceptional choice and would probably provide a sturdy, attractive structure over your garden.

Lean to greenhouses normally available in a number of portions. If the public are limited on space then a meaningful simple, small lean-to greenhouse is ideal furthermore the perfect final decision for those in which only wish to assist you to grow a small variety of produce. Larger trim to greenhouses happen to be ideal for that who have a good solid small garden only just enough living room to grow your wide selection at plants.

If you are a person who likes gardening you may have considered building beginning in your property. There are a number of simple greenhouse brands you could use to do this amazing. Some of these greenhouse designs have the lean-to greenhouse and hoop greenhouse.

Brooklyn has a long tradition of arts collectives such whilst Artsbrick that join hard work with artistic talent toward help improve usually the world. In 2009, artists special hundreds of nights of labor to turn an unexercised and vacant lot into a mini-golf course for folks in Brooklyn. This is only real one example using the many avenues artists turn sweat labor and artistic vision to help you create a better New York Local area.

1 benefit is the fact that the attached greenhouse is so close to the owner’s back door, or side door that it also makes it a piece of cake to frequent. Many people like it because it is almost an attribute of the house, or similar to an added freedom addition. Where room additions or just garden rooms need to slabs and could reach costs of 40,000 and higher, an attached garden greenhouse does not as can be have on a piece already placed and then serving as the entire patio.

Garden greenhouses can be of several different types as determined by the roof line, the presence or absence regarding side walls, fifth the foundation. A bird’s eye view of these different types of greenhouses would help support greatly in therefore correct decision about what best fulfills your needs.

Manufacturing your own micro greenhouse is everything direct the soon to be is going. Just like issue else, if there is a big version of it, these it can wind up dropped down into your a micro scale. The micro scale greenhouse will give you so much more room and options on even you want to put the easy to build techniques.

Performing a greenhouse is all the time a very choice. However due to great value setup cost, not a lot people have it. If you are not accompanied by large budget, perform build your garden greenhouse. Here are the tips.

Another freestanding greenhouse, as a rule stands on its own in the guts of a backyard, and has exceptional expenses to keep up with. One of the downsides to that type of greenhouse, is that it usually requires its own heating, watering, and all electric systems. lean to greenhouse kits can wind up being installed to grow to be entered right from an opening, or a doorway at the hands of inside your own home. With this nature of set up, you don’t need to worry how you’re to power your personal greenhouse.

Of which can be relocated. Thank added advantages! The productive moves with all of the seasons and numerous plants need several to twelve quite a few hours of light. Trees and a lot of plants grow big and will team shade blocking bright from young plants. Moving those lean-to greenhouse is often easy as this is small and lightweight.

Installing plenty of fresh air in your greenhouse will help to keep your plants at greatest. Greenhouse staging is available nowadays with slatted surfaces, which help to offer plenty of air flow for your bouquets. Providing your plants with lots of ventilation will aide in reducing the risk of all plant disease. It is essential that you remove any dead bouquets and keep the area clean in order to improve the atmosphere of your garden greenhouse.

Of course you like inexpensive things. Lumber can usually be obtained free, or very cheap from neighbors, friends, and/or family. Most of our organization have a funny uncle with a big scrap heap inside his backyard. Look for things like unwanted furniture. Also, if you conceive to build one from the larger greenhouse designs, you may be eligible for a discount from a local lumber garage and yard.

Porch glasshouses are possibly even a great opportunity for those with limited space. This free planted structure is never ever only attractive, is also specifically designed to provide heaps of ventilation because of your plants during the summer. Patio glasshouses include a hinged lid, which can definitely be lifted to let you you to good care for your crops and provide these individuals with ventilation. They are potentially affordable and rapid to assemble, along with with a perfect, attractive structure to make your small outdoor.

Jack said most of the materials because the irrigation device were sourced on the website at Dripworks and at Lowe’s. While he originally intended to use water from his four rain boxes to irrigate which the raised vegetable plots, he quickly appreciated that lack regarding water pressure and low rainfall would require use coming from all his outside spigot. The system Jim chose makes it possible for individual irrigation emitters to be filled on and off, thus conserving water if crops have been harvested and / or maybe removed.

Making a greenhouse is all the time a very choice. However due to great value setup cost, a fantastic lot people achieve it. If you are not via large budget, perform build your green house. Here are the tips.

Another freestanding greenhouse, as a rule stands on like own in the very center of a backyard, and has upper expenses to keep up with. One of the drawbacks to that type of greenhouse, would be the it usually mandates its own heating, watering, and all electric systems. lean-to greenhouse kits can is installed to end up entered right caused by an opening, or a doorway at the hands of inside your own residence. With this version of set up, you don’t do worry how you’re going to power your own personal greenhouse.

And ever greenhouse you choose to build depends on what you want on the way to use it for and its location. Both a lot of these greenhouses are simple to build and work great for the purpose they will were designed for.

If you have decided to build a greenhouse but don’t have the patience or the money to construct anything grandiose, consider most likely micro. Small greenhouses are effective, time and premium efficient, and cause brilliant results may surprise even probably the most seasoned green browse.

Building costs – In addition to the materials with building your greenhouse, you also should certainly factor in fee of this program of the footings (if any), glazing, plumbing, wiring, landscaping, and contract labor costs. These pads all add through to considerably to the materials cost or green house kit cost.

Construction of such a great infrastructure can look at as little as a few days, but as much like over weeks in relation to the size from the project. Commercial projects will decidedly require more valuable time. In order to provide strong protection and backup for your plants, you should not rush to completion. In particular, in the event the area is all too often stormy, you need to provide substantial support for your frame. Some people may be busy throughout the day, and barely have time to take proper care of the construction. In such case, they may feel outsourcing the project to workers to speed up the undertaking.

Greenhouses are often considered the exclusive preserve of the dependable gardener. But greenhouses and frames to suit every pocket and measurements of garden, there is no need for even the novice gardener with regard to feel daunted with prospect of installing and running a person particular.

Ones lean-to greenhouse is a great option in the instance that your backyard is to small intended for a hoop greenhouse and you need something with new head space. This structure is simply a greenhouse show in half at the ridge attached to the roof. It is linked to the side together with a building for support. It could be be placed on a patio or sidewalk.

Porch glasshouses are also a great choice for those that have limited space. This free standing structure is not only attractive, is also designed to provide heaps of ventilation relating to your plants through the course of the summer. Patio glasshouses include a hinged lid, which can easily be lifted to let you you to like for your crops and provide these individuals with ventilation. They are usually affordable and trouble free to assemble, a person with a perfect, attractive structure for the purpose of your small garden.

You have have selected your site have connected with zoning requirements and also pulled wanted building permits and your greenhouse plans have been recognised. Now, you can get started of the fun part of utilizing a woodworking skills.

Therefore, if you bring a cold or unheated greenhouse, you will have one limitation since some kind of plants or present have a temperature that must you should be kept consistent doing order to remain in business.

Other great styles with regards to smaller gardens include cold frames. These are ready attached to a greenhouse or separately, which is the best choice for those with limited space. Cold frames have proven to be available in variety of sizes and are great as growing tomatoes and various other classes of fruit and vegetables. Several styles are you can buy with safety bottle and cedar wood, providing a much safer and additional environment for an individuals garden.

Spinach Seeds

Out with the Lettuce (Roots)

The last round of spinach was sparsely planted.  I saved half of the spinach seeds to plant in November when I really should have planted all of it in September.  This time I used the entire pack of spinach seeds and scattered them about an inch apart (rather than 3″).  I also planted basil along the edges of the frame.  Basil doesn’t care for the cool weather like spinach does, but I wanted to see if basil can survive the cold frame first rather than dying via transition.

The sparse half of the spinach patch

Wishful thinking, probably.  But wouldn’t fresh basil in homemade tomato soup taste wonderful???

Happy gardening!

Have you tried any awesome spinach dishes lately?

Favorite herb? 

-Basil is my all-time favorite, mostly because I love the smell.  It reminds me of summers in my hometown and homemade chili — two of my favs!

No basement.  No friends with basements. Crap.

I hunkered in the claw foot tub for an hour, listening to the weather radio until the storm passed on.  Luckily the house and neighborhood were fine, a few downed branches and a story to tell at work.  But two days later I woke up to a powdery, Nebraska-like snow covering my car.  The nearby elementary school was canceled for a snow day, though that afternoon I could have laid out in the yard to tan.

Two days after the tornado warning, my yard is a snowy wonderland for the first time this winter. Weather is weird.

What I’m saying is this — weather patterns are unpredictable, even in the most predictable of environments.  Despite maintaining (in theory) a standard indoor temperature, inside plants are affected by the changing seasons too. Most plants hate the cold and despise low light.  I moved to Tennessee with five plants in tow.  Two of them are still alive, and it’s been musical chairs trying to find each plant’s happy spot.

Survivors: 

1. Airplane Plant

Airplane Plant

I received my Airplane plant as a cutting from my mom, who cares for a dinosaur-sized Grandmother Willow type back on the ranch.  For the first few years, my Airplane plant couldn’t help itself – it grew, thrived, multiplied like it didn’t know any other way of being.  I had to trim it every few months to prevent owning my own dinosaur.   When I moved to Nashville, I was surprised to see it wilt and regress.  I kept in on my bedroom dresser for the first month and decided it needed a change when several leaves started turning brown.  The airplane plant needed more light, so I moved it to the laundry room window.  It perked up immediately.

2. Philodendron

(Type of) Philodendron

My husband received this Philodendron from a Jesuit, who in turn received it from a summer conference and couldn’t take it home with him.  The Philodendron has been a happy camper in the dim, bedroom corner where I placed it temporarily until I could find a more permanent plant solution.  No fuss, regular water, and content to live in a cooler house climate with low light. (Unlike my other three plants, which promptly died in protest.)

Failure To Thrive:

I planted a basil and tomato plant in small planters to keep indoors over the winter.  I kept them in the laundry room near a window, but it was too cold for either to thrive.  Misinterpreting the basil and tomato’s inability to grow past 1.5 inches as a reaction to poor sunlight, I tried to transfer them to the outdoor cold frame. Boom! Dead. Temperature was the problem, not light.  Lesson learned for next winter.

Experiment #1: Tomato and Basil in the Cold Frame (With the Lettuce) = Boom, Dead.

During my last year of college I lived in an apartment that had an entire wall of windows.  My living room overflowed with a dozen or more house plants that loved the winter sunlight.  My Nashville home has smaller, poorly place windows and, now that I’m paying for my heat, a cooler climate.

Next winter I’ll be buying Pepermonia, Dieffenbachia, and Snake Plant for the house.  All three thrive on low light and a 60• climate.  Lucky for me, two of these three plants (Snake Plant and Pepermonia) are alive in my parent’s house, left over from my college years.  Just as long as they can survive the drive from NE to TN…

Happy Sunday! Cowgirl boots and cleaning for this one :)

The main cabin. Our humble abode.

A lot has happened in the short month of January since my life moved to the high country of western North Carolina. More about that later. First, for the sake of record-keeping, I’ll explain what is happening here on Thunder Hill.

Young white pines on Thunder Hill valley slope. Photo taken from parkway about 1954. Pines originally planted by C D Coffey Jr and Horace G Cook about 1950. Photo Credit: Jim Deans

We are three independent women in our early/mid twenties. What we lack in mainstream jobs we make up for in personality and strong work ethics. We are striving to make a sustainable life on a +/- 150 acre piece of property that has been in Clara’s family since the 1950′s and contains a large amount of infrastructure on which we intend to build our lives.

Megan and Clara. Photo by Mary Pope

A few long term and short term personal goals of mine…

* Build and provide an amazing location for education of all kinds.

*Teach myself botany and take a complete plant inventory of the wild edibles and medicinals on the property.

*Cultivate forest gardens with native endangered species.

*Teach myself a bit about mycology in order to identify and use the abundant fungi on the farm.

*Create a financially viable, fun, and educational model of a contemporary small farm.

*Learn about and experiment with permaculture practices for farming.

*Keep up with this blog at least weekly as to keep a project record for myself and provide a resource of experience for others.

*Continue to learn about fermentation of all kinds.

*Get  my brother, Jon, and my design house fully conceptualized and operating.

*Renovate a travel camper into my home and build an outdoor kitchen and glass blowing/crafting studio.

*Grow our own food!

OK, now onto what we’ve been up to the past month.

Inside…

We’ve been focusing a lot of our winter energy on the cabin since I’ve been here. Prior to Clara moving in two years ago the cabin served as her dad’s office for the past 10 years. Prior to that I’m not sure, but Clara and her brother grew up here and there is SO much STUFF that has been stored here for years all covered with a thick layer of dust. So we’re trying to organize and clean and figure out what needs to stay or go while generally making the cabin a cozier, less cluttered place to live. It’s pretty cozy already as I sit here by the wood stove on this rainy January morning. I’ll post pictures soon, but since the first of the month we’ve painted the room I’m sleeping in upstairs, re-tiled, painted and purposed the unfinished bathroom upstairs to serve as a walk-in closet until it gets finished as a bathroom. Also we completely cleaned out the pantry/sunroom that is half of the small kitchen.

Around the farm…

Appalachian Barn on Thunder Hill

We’re getting baby goats in the spring, so we’ve been researching what they need and clearing out a place in the barn for the babes!

Right before I moved in there was a strong wind storm that downed trees all over the property including a huge pine in the upper garden that took out at least three other trees when it fell. So we’ve been clearing what we can by hand and building our first HugelKultur beds with the debris and mulching the small blueberry patch with the majority of the acidic pine needles that we don’t really want decomposing in our garden beds.

A detail shot of the downed trees next to the garden.

Clearing it out

Here is a link to a great website with forums on topics such as hugelkultur.

Clara’s dad surprised us one day by stopping by with some job site materials headed for the landfill. He built us this awesome cold frame in the upper garden and left enough building material for us to make another smaller one. We’ve put down a layer of shredded leaf compost in the frame and are currently letting that cook down a bit before we add finished compost for planting.

re-used materials make this cold frame

Well that is a short summary of what we’ve been up to this past month.

It is worth noting that all of this was interrupted in mid-January by a sore throat followed by a rude double ear infection that ended up rupturing both of my eardrums in the course of 24 hours. It was pretty ridiculous. I ended up going to the ER after the rupturing of my second eardrum to get some antibiotics which I was trying to avoid after just one eardrum ruptured that morning. I finished out the course of antibiotics and followed that with a tincture of Usnea which I made last summer with lichen found here on Thunder Hill and 100 proof vodka.

Usnea(OOS-nay-ah) is an amazing herbal broad-spectrum antibiotic and anti-fungal. It is specifically used for Strep throat and respiratory illnesses, but it also serves as a general immune boosting tonic that is great for a large variety of ailments internally and as a wound dressing externally. I’ll be sure to write an entire post on this amazing lichen in the future. For now I feel that I’m fully recovered and grateful for the antibiotics and herbal support that got me here.

Heres a link on Usnea by Jessica Godino.
This is a great link with pictures and information on the scientific side of Usnea.
This one is good too.

There are so many reasons for a coffee break today — the iron-colored cast of the sky, the washing machine rumbling in the back room, or the fact that it’s a Sunday afternoon.  Or maybe it’s because we haven’t talked in awhile!

If we were sitting across from one another at the kitchen table, sipping coffee, I’d have to tell you about the lettuce patch in our backyard.  I’ve harvested one bundle of spinach and three big bowls of lettuce from the cold frame over the course of this winter.  I probably have one more bowl of lettuce waiting for me in the yard (and some errant spinach leaves) before I will replant more spinach.

If we were taking a coffee break, I’d tell you that the highlight of last weekend was seeing a good friend who visited from Chicago.  She (very bravely) hopped on a Megabus and slept on our couch for a few days while we explored the Nashville sites together.  We visited the Parthenon in Centennial Park, sampled Nashville’s best Indian food, hiked the tree-covered hills of Percy Warner, and viewed the documentary Soul Food Junkies that was playing at the Downtown library. She also took me out for a long-overdue girls shopping trip!  Shirts, pants, shoes, and the scarf I’m “modeling” below — the whole gamut.  Nashville ladies are very trendy, and I have half a chance of blending in now ;)  (Rule #1– no t-shirts!)

My coffee is half gone, and yours must be too. I have only enough time to tell you about my treadmill before we both go back to our Sunday afternoons. The cold weather, general traffic, and dislike of running alone in a new city helped me make the decision to track down a cheap treadmill via Craigslist.  The ability to wake up at 5:30am and run without having to worry about the daylight or an unexpected Tennessee rain shower was a big draw.   Silly me, though!  My husband thought the treadmill would fold up and fit into my small silver car, and I believed him!  Yeesh. Several days of head scratching and driving and hitting my forehead in exasperation later, the treadmill arrived in all its glory.  Completely worth the trouble.  I’ve fallen in love with the treadmill — something I never thought possible.  (Still haven’t managed the ‘mill at 5:30am yet;  being a better morning person is a goal-in-progress.)

View of the treadmill and a happy runner!

*I’ve taken a leaf from the wonderful Eat, Live, Run blog, whose author regularly catches up with her readers via the coffee chat format. Thanks ELR!

Now we have had a fairly mild winter.  We’ve had several mornings of 10-14 degree weather, but the last week has been nice during the day.  Of course this morning was very cold & I was worried about the lettuce.  I just looked inside & to my delight & surprise this is what I found:

Cold Frame Lettuce, day one

  They all made it over night.  That was after being watered and suffering through a pretty cold night.  Yay!  This new bed will hopefully work until it can be planted in the garden.  The purpose of this post is to show that you don’t have to have a green house to grow certain veggies in winter.  A cold frame can support as many or as few greens, lettuces, herbs and more as you like.  Visit http://www.garden.org/zipzone/ to find your growing zone.  It helps to know what you can grow during the different seasons.  Cold-frames, like greenhouses, can give you a huge jump-start on seedlings for your garden.  So look around, you may have something you can re-purpose, like my herb garden, that will work for a temporary or permanent cold frame.   Happy Growing!

Herb Garden Before (early summer 2012)

Herb Garden-After (jan 2013) Cold Frame

Attach a large glass lid, as to let enough light inside the frame. Work with great care and plan everything with great care, as to keep the expenditure under control. If you plan the construction from the very beginning, you can get the job done by using an old window. Attach the window with several metal hinges, if you want to get a proper connection. 

Cold Frame Plans

Building a cold frame plans

Build the frame of the cold frame by using 1×6 lumber. Make sure the slats are weather-resistant, otherwise they might get affected by decay over the long run. Always adjust the size of the cold frame to your needs, otherwise you won’t get the optimum results. 

Use a spirit level to check if the side walls are plumb or horizontal. Lock the wooden slats to the corner posts, in order to get a rigid structure. Drill pilot holes trough the slats and secure them to the posts with 1 1/4″ screws. 

Secure the lid to the structure with hinges and check if it opens properly, before applying several coats of paint to the structure. Continue the woodworking project by filling the cold frame with quality soil and plant the vegetables that suit your needs. 

As you can see building a cold frame is easy and any person with basic woodworking skills can get the job done. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend you to plan everything to the littlest detail, otherwise there might be many things that could get wrong. 

Installing the top of the cold frame is not difficult, as all you need to do is to re-use an old window. Check if the window fits on top of the frame and secure it into place with metal hinges. Alternatively you could get the job done, by using 2×2 components and poly-cabonate sheets. If there are gaps between the lid and the cold frame, you should adjust this aspect, otherwise the plants won’t have the right temperature to develop.

Cold Frame Plans Free

Building the cold frame

As you can see in the image, you need to start the project by building a simple cold  frame. In order to get the job done, we strongly recommend you to use weather-resistant lumber, such as pine, cedar or redwood. As you can easily notice in the plans, you should cut the both sides of the cold frame at about 30 degrees.

Attach the tongue and groove slats to corner legs. Work with attention and with great care, if you want to get the job done as a professional. Drill pilot holes at both ends of the slats and secure them to the corner posts with 1 1/4″ screws. Building a cold frame is really easy, if the right plans and quality materials are used.

Moreover, you should reinforce the garden cold frame plans, if you choose to build a large structure. Use a good circular saw to get the job done and to make the angle cuts. Apply several coats of exterior paint to the cold frame, in order to protect them from decay and rot. In addition, install a vent opener, if you want to automate the ventilation process.

The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Conference “Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms” is coming right up. January 23-26 at the Statehouse Convention Center and Peabody Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas. I’m surprised to find I haven’t already told you about it.

The best bit is that I will probably have copies of my book to sell (and sign, if you want!)

I’m contributing to three workshops (I’ve been busy preparing the slide shows and presentations – maybe that’s why I forgot to mention it! Right in front of my nose every day.

Michihili Chinese cabbage
Photo credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

At 1.30pm on Friday 25, I’m presenting this one: “Producing Asian Greens For Market — There are many varieties of tasty, nutritious greens that grow quickly and bring fast returns. Led by long-time producer and author of the new book, Sustainable Market Farming, this session will cover production of Asian Greens outdoors and in the hoophouse, including tips on variety selection, timing of plantings, pest and disease management, fertility and weed management, and harvesting. Over twenty types of Asian Greens will be discussed.”

Then at 10.30am on Saturday 26, I’m part of a panel doing:” Integrating Organic Seed Production into Your Diversified Farm: Is It Right For You? — On-farm seed production can ensure that you have access to the seed you need, diversify farm income, and provide the environmental benefits of new crop rotations and enhanced beneficial insect habitat. But managing seed crops along with a demanding, diverse production system can be daunting. Hear the success stories of other farmers who have taken the leap into seed production and learn how and why you may want to do the same. Micaela Colley, Organic Seed Alliance (WA); Ira Wallace, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (VA); Richard Moyer, Moyer Family Farm (VA); Jim Gerritsen, Wood Prairie Farm (ME); and Pam Dawling, Twin Oaks (VA).”

Seed Drying Screens
Photo credit Twin Oaks

And lunch is followed at 1.30pm by: “Intensive Crop Production on a Small Scale — Many farmers raise large amounts of food on small acreages. Learn about methods for close spacing, wide beds, using season extension techniques, soil-building, disease and pest management, and dealing with humidity and heat issues in crowded plantings. Presenters will also discuss developing a marketing plan to inform a planting guide and maximize profits. For both rural and urban farmers who want to maximize production on limited space. Pam Dawling, Twin Oaks Community (VA) and Edwin Marty, Hampstead Institute (AL).”

Broccoli transplants in our cold frame
Photo credit Kathryn Simmons

Advantages of the hoop house are that they are temporary and mobile. The structure can be moved from garden bed to garden bed without too much work. Or alternatively, the rebar can be left in place and the pipes and plastic removed each season. Gardeners can then just leave the rebar in place and work around them – although I would certainly exercise some caution against working around steel bars sticking 8 inches out of the ground at the edge of your gardening bed.

The size of the hoop house is dependent upon your individual garden beds, but here are the Ingredients and Instructions for a hoop house that is 5 feet wide and 10 feet long.

• -12 pieces of 1/2″ rebar that are 3 feet in length.
• -6 sections of 1/2″ PVC pipe that are 10 feet in length
• -1 roll of 4 mil plastic, 10 feet wide by 25 feet long

1. Pound a piece of rebar into one corner of the garden bed until about 8 inches remains sticking above the soil / edge of the garden bed. The pounding will be easier or more difficult, depending upon the soil you are working with. Ours is a pretty friable soil, especially in the winter when the soil is so saturated with our recent rains. On the opposite corner of the bed, pound in another piece of rebar at the same level of 8 inches above the soil / garden bed.

2. Slide one end of the PVC pipe over one of the 8″ ends of rebar sticking up. CAREFULLY bend the other end of the PVC pipe over the other rebar end. I say CAREFULLY because if you are not, you may find your face thwacked with PVC pipe in trying to get the PVC onto rebar. I know this because, er, I saw it happen to some guy on youtube… yeah, that’s how I know….

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 in the other corners of the garden bed. You’ll now have two ribs (or hoops) of the hoop house.

4. Now, find the midpoint of the garden bed corners. You’re going to create another rib in the middle of the other two. Once that is built, create two more ribs equidistant from the corners and the midpoint. When finished, you will have 5 equally spaced ribs that form the framework of the hoophouse.

5. Slide the 4 mil plastic over the ribs of the hoophouse. Because the 10 foot sections of PVC are bent over a 5 foot wide width, the 10 foot wide plastic will be just about perfect, if not a pinch short of completely covering the ribs. Leave approximately 2 1/2 feet of plastic overhanging the ribs at one end of the hoop house. You will fold this over to completely close off one end of the hoophouse. Use a board or shovel or 5 long object to lay atop the folded end of the plastic to hold it in place.  Now roll out the same length of plastic at the other end. You will also fold this down and secure it with board or shovel. You can either cut off the excess plastic to use as another, but slightly shorter hoophouse. Or, you can just extend the 10 foot hoop house I’ve described here and make one longer hoop house.

When Rachel saw the finished hoop house when she returned from a trip, she asked, “how are we going to pick the lettuce?” Good question. Because the ends are not permanently secured, simply move the board/shovel, and roll back the plastic to access the lettuce you need. Once the hard frosts have left us, the hoop house will come off anyway. And when it is used as hot house to get warm season vegetable plants like tomatoes going earlier, it will only need to be removed once anyway – when the heat of summer has come to stay.

The Last Salad from the Cold Frame

Well, it’s not my last salad ever. I had to shut down my cold frame today. To make a long story short, there is an “electrical availability” problem and the City Chicks have first dibs. Snow is coming later today, tonight, and tomorrow. The plants would not live without a bit of 60-watt light for a few hours in the mornings. I have a 60-watt incandescent bulb inside the cold frame for a little heat in the cold morning hours. Oh well, there’s always next year…

At this time they are organizing around saving the McIntire Recycling Center as it is a super convenient place for people to bring their recyclables throughout the week.  Please do sign their petition over at change.org.

Better World Betty has also just unveiled their holiday picks for gardeners. Sunnyside Projects is featured as we offer a full line of homesteading products and services in the Charlottesville area.
We are excited to be gaining momentum in the community and are setting things in motion to have a great spring providing Charlottesville with the finest in creative sustainability solutions.

First: What do you want from your garden? Are you trying to supply your entire diet? Supplement your diet with some fresh produce? Do you want to do either of the above as well as sell your produce at the market for income? Are you ONLY selling for the market?

Once you have an idea of what you want to grow and how much, you can take a look at the space you have available compared to how much space you are going to need, and you can begin to get a sense of whether you’re going to be compacting everything in small spaces for maximum productivity, or leaving open spaces for beauty and aesthetics.  The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive!  Do you want to make a conscious effort to design beauty into your garden? The traditional method is rows, one after the other, but you can do anything! Circular! Square! Stars! Half-moons! My personal favourite: hexagons!

Secondly: Will you be planting any crops that grow in the same place year after year? Asparagus? Strawberries? Artichokes? Raspberries? Blueberries?  Ideally you will be running a sort of crop rotation and these perennials will not be part of the game.  You will need to designate a spot for these to stay every year and begin thinking of some way that you will replenish the nutrients that these plants love (compost, mulching, burning, and don’t forget humanure! Maybe we’ll wait on that one for people’s sensibilities to warm up to it).

Third: Of course an important consideration in the location and layout of your garden is the sun.  You’ll obviously want to plant in a location that gets the most sun throughout the day.  This opens up spaces for plants that are more tolerant of shade (chard, some blueberries, the salad greens).  Will you be planting a winter garden? Or starting in cold frames in the early spring? As the sun moves farther into the southern sky, it can change when and where sun hits your garden so these are important things to watch over the course of an entire season cycle.

Also, which way will you orient your beds; north-south or east-west? There are benefits to both, and it also depends on where you are on the earth in relation to the sun. An important thing to consider is how you will deal with your trellised and tall-growing crops as these are the ones that can end up shading neighbors. However, this shaded space can be used to grow less heat-tolerant crops like lettuce in the dead heat of the summer.

Fourth: Water. Is your garden on the same land as your house? Can you easily run a hose to where you need the water? Is it on a vacant city lot that has no water hook-up of its own?  It will be helpful to think through how you will access water as water can be one of the most costly components of your garden.  However, there are many ways to save and be resourceful: Can you drill a well where you are? Can you use rain barrels? Will your neighbors allow you to collect their rain water? Will neighbors donate small amounts of water? Trade water for vegetables? Also if your garden is near your house, you can develop a grey water system; from catching kitchen and shower water in buckets (careful with your soaps!), to a fully diverted system that filters into a cistern or into your yard, there are many ways to save on water use. 

Finally: What do you want to grow? We already mentioned perennials, but what else would you like coming from your garden? A common sense approach is grow what you like to eat. If you’re marketing, be aware of your customers likes, cultural differences, are you growing for winter storage? One thing I’ve come up against is that legumes replenish much-needed nitrogen in the soil, but I can only eat so many peas and beans at one time, and one solution to this is I can increase the amount of legumes in my rotation by growing large quantities of drying beans which also helps me to continue enjoying my harvest through the winter!

So many options, so many different ways to go about cultivating fresh, healthy, food, and your garden comes down to YOU and what speaks to you; what you see coming from your garden.  You will be the one working it, eating from it, caring for it, inviting others to be part of it.  

What do you want to create? What speaks to you?

I love you. Thank you for being part of this journey with me.

The garlic has been tucked in under a thick blanket of chopped leaves and hay and all is quiet in the garden. These days it’s dark by the time I leave work in the afternoon, so I only get over to the garden on weekends. Not that there would be much for me to do over there anyway, but I do miss my evening visits to the garden.

We’ve has plenty of kale to eat all through November, but I think I picked just about the last of it last week. The red Russian kale did pretty well, but most of the lacinato kale was badly damaged by frost. I thought it was supposed to be a very cold hardy variety, but it sure didn’t prove to be in my garden. I planted it late so the plants didn’t have a chance to get very big. I wonder if they would have held up better if they had had a chance to grow bigger before the cold. I think next year I’ll try to make room for more kale and put a low tunnel over it to try to keep it going through the winter.

One crop that really doesn’t mind the cold is leeks. I piled lots of straw around them when it started to get cold and I’ve been harvesting them as needed. What a delicious winter treat! Leeks are one of my favorite things to grow.

We managed to get the second of our two new cold frames in place in early November before it got too cold. They are both full of greens, so as long as they don’t get completely buried in snow any time soon, we should be able to keep eating from the garden for a little while longer.

The seed catalogs started arriving in the mail last week. Four or five of them have been delivered so far, and I’ve resisted the urge to peek at them. Though I’m already thinking about next year’s garden, I’m setting the catalogs aside for a few more weeks, until the New Year when I’ll pull them out and start making lists. Planning next year’s garden is the best cure I know of for the January blues.