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I like your vertical lighting to handle taller plants. I still have a few carrots outside that I pull as needed if the ground isn't frozen.
Ben
GARDEN 2023
- Thread starter Pearl
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Ben
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Here is my greenhouse to start out 2023. Only the top left shelf has a heat mat running.
We have been eating salad by cutting the outside leaves from the lettuce plants of various ages and variety.
On the left is radishes growing in 4x4 pots in various stages of development that goes in our salads. To the right are my onion starts for this year. They are sucking down 32 oz of water a day but doing good.
These are the young lettuces plants that will get transplanted into 6 inch pots when they get larger.
One of my fig tree clones lost its leaves when the temp in the greenhouse dropped to 17 over night when the outside temp was -4 degrees. Look closely ro see new leaves are developing.
I am trying to grow an olive tree for the first time. It wasn't growing and The Princess suggested I may be over watering it. Research showed she was right. But, how do dry out dirt? It took weeks of not watering it but now we have new growth!
Below is my attempt at growing my own onion sets from seed. I simply stopped watering them to let them go dormant. I will try growing them soon to see if they will work.
I should be starting my seedlings soon so they are ready for spring.
Ben
We have been eating salad by cutting the outside leaves from the lettuce plants of various ages and variety.
On the left is radishes growing in 4x4 pots in various stages of development that goes in our salads. To the right are my onion starts for this year. They are sucking down 32 oz of water a day but doing good.
These are the young lettuces plants that will get transplanted into 6 inch pots when they get larger.
One of my fig tree clones lost its leaves when the temp in the greenhouse dropped to 17 over night when the outside temp was -4 degrees. Look closely ro see new leaves are developing.
I am trying to grow an olive tree for the first time. It wasn't growing and The Princess suggested I may be over watering it. Research showed she was right. But, how do dry out dirt? It took weeks of not watering it but now we have new growth!
Below is my attempt at growing my own onion sets from seed. I simply stopped watering them to let them go dormant. I will try growing them soon to see if they will work.
I should be starting my seedlings soon so they are ready for spring.
Ben
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I an effort to keep our dog in the yard I accidentally doubled the garden area. 
A few pics following the tidy-up, including one of the sprouting conkers and the daffodils coming up
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We are going to build a cattle panel greenhouse early next month. I have watched several videos and I think this is about the best I have seen. We have been collecting materials for awhile. So far we have the cattle panels, plastic and I just got a storm door of Craigslist.
Part 2 is after they figured out the cooling. I already planned on this part.
Part 2 is after they figured out the cooling. I already planned on this part.
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Oops
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Still need to clean up the raised beds from last year. I'll be moving this summer and that leaves the wife to take care of the chickens and garden. Going light next year. Mainly squash, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, and green beans.
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Anyone have advice on growing/storing bare root strawberries? I have 25 coming. And the cold is coming back.
That is a great idea! How big of greenhouse are you planning to build this way?
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Worked the greenhouse today so here are some photos on progress and assorted thoughts.
Grabbed 3 radishes for tonight's dinner.
I have been trying to grow my own onion sets. I tried 2 approaches (1) 4x4 pot with a bunch of seeds and many 2x2 pots with 3-6 onions in each. Those in the 2x2 pots were tiny. The 4x4 pot were larger.
After picking them apart I had some small sets that look viable. Next year I will try out a 6 inch pot.
I repotted more lettuce and now have a full shelf of lettuce to keep us in salad.
Started two trays of seeds. 27 broccoli and 9 tomatoes.
Onion starts are going strong. I have been adding a pinch if tomato plant food to 32 ounces of water every day.
More radishes are growing for next week's salad.
The olive tree has recovered from my over watering and is putting on fresh growth. Wish could say the same thing but the coffee which The Princess thinks was killed when the greenhouse temp dropped to 17 degrees during the big freeze.
There is one grape vine clone that is pushing out a bud more than just my wishful thinking.
I have to plant more radishes and lettuce but they can wait.
I believe the greenhouse build eas a good move. This is the most I have had going in January.
May God smile on you and yours!
Ben
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I was happy to see two of the seedless grape vines have put out leaves.
They were cloned using clone balls on my biggest grape vine last season. They had established root balls when I pruned them in early December.
Broccoli and tomatoes starts have sprouted.
The Princess has been happy harvesting lettuce and radishes from the greenhouse and carrots from the outside garden. I boiled and sliced up some eggs and chopped up home left over ham. She provided some shredded cheese. She has had chefs salad 3 time this week.
Ben
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That's kinda what I'm doing. I put them in peat moss, and stored them in the garage. The garage isn't really heated but it does draw heat off the house, and doesn't really go below freezing unless it's really bad.
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Thanks. I've been checking them every day to make sure they are not too wet and not too dry. I just hope that when I have my surgery my mom doesn't overdo it.
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Watering Plants in PEAT Based Products
Peat moss is part of the same plant as sphagnum moss. The sphagnum moss originates from the plant on the surface of a soil or marsh, while peat moss is the layer beneath it that holds the saturated, dead sphagnum moss. Because of this, peat moss naturally holds water, like a sponge — it can soak up to 20 times its own weight in moisture!https://getgooddirt.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-watering-plants-in-peat-based-products/
I lost elephant garlic outside in pure peat, because it was a wet winter.
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Today I finally got back to a starter tray from Late November of last year. I had not been consistent at watering it over the holidays and discovered that I had a bunch of transplanting to do. I transplanted the indoor cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and egg plant. The bell peppers and tomatoes were from seeds that I had collected last season and I had an abundance of plant starts in 2 tiny starter cups, I transplanted a dozen of each and threw out the rest... We are expecting an Arctic Blast tomorrow so I am hoping the greenhouse will stay above freezing. I will need to harvest tomatoes tomorrow.
The wife has finally caught onto the idea of a hidden garden, we are seeing signs that food items may be a choice target in the future.
I have had a lot of onions come up outside the year as our highs have been going up and down a lot. I am also seeing dog digging tracks in the shallow raised beds. I am tempted to put in 2 layers of 4X4 to raise them up to about 18" off grade level.
While checking my hedge I found praying mantis eggs about 2" below the top of the hedge, I hope they don't hatch too early because of our crazy weather.
The wife has finally caught onto the idea of a hidden garden, we are seeing signs that food items may be a choice target in the future.
I have had a lot of onions come up outside the year as our highs have been going up and down a lot. I am also seeing dog digging tracks in the shallow raised beds. I am tempted to put in 2 layers of 4X4 to raise them up to about 18" off grade level.
While checking my hedge I found praying mantis eggs about 2" below the top of the hedge, I hope they don't hatch too early because of our crazy weather.
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Thank you very much for that post!
It prompted a number of thoughts.
Re: bell peppers
Wow. i completely forgot about peppers. Now I have to find heat mat space for another starting tray. I still have time.Re: artic blast
The Princess insisted I pull all of the trees inside today untill Saturday.
Re: hidden garden
The Princess has been exploiting the greenhouse. Not that long ago she was coming home from shopping muttering "3$ for a head of lettuce!". Now she shows up with a bowl and shears to collect lettuce leaves.
Re: beds
Ben
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Continuing the previous...Thank you very much for that post!
It prompted a number of thoughts.
Re: bell peppers
Re: artic blast
The Princess insisted I pull all of the trees inside today untill Saturday.
Re: hidden garden
The Princess has been exploiting the greenhouse. Not that long ago she was coming home from shopping muttering "3$ for a head of lettuce!". Now she shows up with a bowl and shears to collect lettuce leaves.
Re: beds
Ben
My beds are a mess! 15 or more years is just too long for pressurize treated lumber.
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Just a heads up with lots of folks waking up, get your gardening stuff early. I hear everything is already flying off the shelves.
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We have a couple threads about growing onions. I think that you can cut the long shoots off to encourage them to grow stronger.
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/starting-onion-from-seed.6902/#post-447733
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/producing-onion-sets.15372/
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And we have to be careful not to use lumber that has been chemically treated. It poisons the soil. I saw someone had built raised beds from treated lumber at a community garden. I wondered why someone else had never said anything to them while they were building it. I never crossed paths with the people who did that, or I would have told them. I build my raised beds from cedar timbers.
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I have been fortunate as I lined all mine with 4 layers of the 6 Mil black plastic (to avoid the problems @Weedygarden talked about) I wish I had wrapped the outside too. The wood on my old beds that have a south face and have warped heavily due to sun exposure, I will have to think about a solution.... I might add composite decking boards to the south face to shield it from the sun.
Sun and water combined play heck with wood, I have noticed that some of the rail fences around here have to be replaced about every 5 years because of warping and rot... I like composites because they don't have that problem, but they do become brittle with age...
So the storm about Christmastime picked our sitting area canopy up, mangled it and threw it in the yard. Needless to say it's in the dump now. I got seeds ordered today which I'm thankful to have done. Will have lots of spring clean up to do whenever the ground thaws. We went from harvest to frozen within a week late this past year (weird year). Trying to figure out what I will do back by the sitting area. Not interested in spending money on another canopy for the wind here to destroy. To early to start seeds here, but fun seeing everybody's baby foods.
If your raised beds are made of RR ties, have you thought about wooden shakes (shingles)? They might add a nice look and won't warp. If one gets damaged, easily & cheaply repaired/replaced.
Questions: Have any of you ever had cabbage come back a second year? Also, how about eggplant?
I might have done in the eggplant if that was a possibility, but a couple of the cabbage still have viable looking stems. We had a super late autumn and it's early yet. I just didn't want to pull them if there's a chance they'll regrow.
I might have done in the eggplant if that was a possibility, but a couple of the cabbage still have viable looking stems. We had a super late autumn and it's early yet. I just didn't want to pull them if there's a chance they'll regrow.
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I tilled an old garden spot today. I hope to plant potatoes in a week or two.
brassicas come back a second year to bolt and produce seed. sometimes they produce seed the first year.the weather has lots to do with it. but as a whole second year. i never produced cabbage seed but kale,radishes and onions..most time onions are two years... i have. currently i have some old timey blue collards i hope to get seed from.its been awful cold here though.
if stem stays good it will come out. i have had bloomsdale spinach survive through -10 or -15f and come back in spring for harvest. you have to stay on top of them cutting leaves and eating and cutting flower stems off as they appear to keep getting harvest or let them go to bloom for seed pods.
Thank you. I too have radish, onion etc. I will see what happens with them.
