Sunday, September 20, 2020
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Uh Oh
For some reason the dishwasher isn't draining. Which means it isn't running. Want to see what dishes for a family of six looks like?
Time to start washing.
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Monday, September 14, 2020
Massive Summer Snow, Preparation Days 1 and 2
A massive late summer snow storm is threatening to destroy almost all of our garden. See how we are going to prepare in this video.
Stay tuned for the next video on how it turns out.
Stay tuned for the next video on how it turns out.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
High Altitude Gardening, Part 6 - Raised Bed Green House
This is the sixth installment on gardening on the homestead. This time we will be talking about permanent green house structures.
We have talked before about removable cold frames on our raised beds. These work really well for extending the growing season in the spring when the plants are small. They also work well for smaller things like cucumbers and melons through the entire season. However for large plants, like tomatoes, the removable cold frames don't work. For the frames to be removable they need to be small and the tomatoes quickly outgrow them. Since tomatoes love the heat, they really need something through the whole season.
That is where a permanent green house is the right way to go. The green house that we show in this video is attached to the raised bed. It is the full width (4 feet) and length of the bed (10 feet) and is 4 feet high at the peak. The front and sides are all covered by clear corrugated plastic. The back is covered with outside siding and metal roofing. All of the structure is from pressure treated 2x4's except for the header that runs peak to peak which is two 2x6's nailed together.
We went with a gull wing door design for two main reasons. I wanted a large access to be able to easily get inside to work. Secondly, I wanted to be able to open the doors without interfering with the adjacent raised bed. This makes the door significantly heavier, but they are not so bad that Mama Bear can't get them open.
This is the first year that we have been able to grow in the green house. Our tomato crop is the biggest ever! We have been able to not only have fresh tomatoes to use, but there has also been enough to can. The size of the green house is proving adequate for our tomatoes so far, but in the future I would like to be able to put the tomatoes in a taller green house and move the peppers into this green house.
We have talked before about removable cold frames on our raised beds. These work really well for extending the growing season in the spring when the plants are small. They also work well for smaller things like cucumbers and melons through the entire season. However for large plants, like tomatoes, the removable cold frames don't work. For the frames to be removable they need to be small and the tomatoes quickly outgrow them. Since tomatoes love the heat, they really need something through the whole season.
That is where a permanent green house is the right way to go. The green house that we show in this video is attached to the raised bed. It is the full width (4 feet) and length of the bed (10 feet) and is 4 feet high at the peak. The front and sides are all covered by clear corrugated plastic. The back is covered with outside siding and metal roofing. All of the structure is from pressure treated 2x4's except for the header that runs peak to peak which is two 2x6's nailed together.
We went with a gull wing door design for two main reasons. I wanted a large access to be able to easily get inside to work. Secondly, I wanted to be able to open the doors without interfering with the adjacent raised bed. This makes the door significantly heavier, but they are not so bad that Mama Bear can't get them open.
This is the first year that we have been able to grow in the green house. Our tomato crop is the biggest ever! We have been able to not only have fresh tomatoes to use, but there has also been enough to can. The size of the green house is proving adequate for our tomatoes so far, but in the future I would like to be able to put the tomatoes in a taller green house and move the peppers into this green house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)