Hoop House update

Today, we closed in the open north end of the hoophouse with some aluminum-frame storm windows which became available when we replaced some of the aging windows in our house. 

Wow, I LOVE the visibility we have with the glass, and the frames added some rigidity to the structure as well.  Where the windows didn’t cover, we recovered with inexpensive plastic sheeting from the hardware store which we also use with good results for small  raised bed hoophouses in the garden.

To install, we simply added framing made from a 2′x4′ ripped in half to make a 1′x3′.  We then used galvanized self-tapping screws to attach the window frames to the hoophouse framing.  The final step was adding the plastic to the uncovered area, and tacking down the plastic with lathe salvaged from a house project. This makes me wish I had a few more windows to replace!  I may have to start perusing Uncle Henry’s for some used aluminum windows.  It makes the hoophouse a lot brighter, I hope the plants like it as much as I do.We still have not buried the plastic on the sides of the hoophouse.  We left it unburied thinking we might want to roll up the sides for venting this summer, but it never really got hot enough to need it.  For now, we have covered the plastic with scraps of plywood scrounged from the town’s waster transfer station, where it was destined to be ground up into incinerator chow.  I think this is a much better use.

What’s growing?

Things are still growing great in the hoophouse — we’ve got lovely lettuce, Swiss Chard, kale, parsley, and leeks, and yes, tiny little green spinach sprouts from the spinach seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago.  I really hope this overwinters and comes back to early life next spring.  I’d like to try sprouting broccoli again, too.  Has anyone ever had success with that?  I tried it last year but the plants did not survive.

Insect discrimination

Yes, I happily discriminate:  Parsleyworms, aka Black Swallowtail butterfly larvae, are welcomed with open arms.  The five in this photo are on parsley in the hoophouse.

Flowers and sunshine

I still have not found my camera’s USB cable, but I did discover that a Garmin GPS unit uses the same cable, so I was able to download photos, shown now below.

The holly bed, with alliums, Leopard’s Bane, and wiegela blooming.

The row of lilacs we planted in May, 2002, blooming.  These are syringia x prestoniae cv. James McFarland.  They are fast growers and bloom later then standard lilacs, but don’t come close in gorgeousness in my opinion.

The shade garden, with more plants in place.  We have purchased a few more at a plant sale a teacher colleague of Dan’s held, and with a coupon from Longfellows Greenhouses.  Once we get these in, it will be time to stop and let the garden fill in and see what it looks like as it does.

In the vegetable garden, things are coming along under the row covers.  Here, Dan weeds the brassica bed.

A Limelight cauliflower

Parsley, lettuce and napa cabbage.

The hoophouse.  We’ve been eating spinach and lettuce for several weeks now, the weather has been cloudy/rainy, and cooler than normal, perfect for lettuce.  The spinach has now bolted, much to the delight of the girls, but the Tom Thumb and Black Seeded Simpson lettuce is holding on.  Note all the marigold flowers, and just in front of them, the basil gone to seed.  Sigh.  These plants have been ready to go in the main garden for some time, but it has been too wet –which leads me to my next post.

Vegetable garden update

We’ve had some needed rain here at Henbogle, and as a result, things are looking lush and green.  Overnight, the maple and other trees leafed out, the flowering crabs are beginning to bloom, and the lilacs buds are filling out, almost ready to bloom.

Things in the hoophouse are growing like gangbusters.  As always (will I ever learn?) I have more lettuce than I can eat, and the best spinach I’ve ever grown.  Conditions in the hoophouse appear to be perfect for early spinach.  Saturday,I transplanted in more lettuce, Red Sails and assorted green lettuces, Rainbow Lights Swiss chard, cilantro and flat leaf parsley.  I also planted some cucumber (Sweet Success and Zagross) and melon (Prescott Fond Blanc) seeds behind the chard under the milk jug hot caps.  Beyond those plants are my peppers, planted two weeks ago.  Across from the peppers are more brassicas, Gonzales cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli.  Intermingled are onions, more cilantro, and parsley.  Behind the bright green lettuce are tucked my spindly little tomatoes, planted with the peppers.  They look good with the exception of the Speckled Roman, which seem to be sulking a bit.  Awaiting space are marigold and basil seedlings, and my extra pepper plants.

Dan and I set out more broccoli, cauliflower and sprouting broccoli and tucked it in well under floating row cover.  The raised bed planted with peas and salad greens is filling out, although the Bulls Blood beets germinated sporadically.  I’ve also got a box of leek starts impatiently awaiting a permanent location.  More lettuce and Minuet Napa cabbage is growing under floating row cover on one end of the other raised bed (no pic).  At the other end are more broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

The main garden is still drying out and warming up.  I hope it will soon be ready for working, but who knows, we have more rain in the forecast.  More and more, I am thinking raised beds are the answer here, or another really big greenhouse!
For dinner tonight:  scrambled eggs with spinach, mmmm!

Henbogle through the lens

The tulips are in full bloom.  These are Darwin hybrids, I planted them the first year we were here, and they have been fabulous, increasing in size yearly.

Seedlings preparing for their summer home.

Lettuce and spinach, almost ready to harvest.  If it hadn’t been for my hen assistants doing some “thinning” for me a few weeks ago we’d already be eating it.

The peppers, all snug in their new bed.

Asian greens and brassicas in the raised bed.  Behind, the peas, radish, spinach, arugula, and beet greens are all sprouting.  Things are green up and sprouting all over here at Henbogle.  The summer cannot be too far ahead.

Hoop house heat management

Saturday was a busy day in the garden.  Like Daphne, my tomato and pepper plants needed planting.  I started the tomatoes on March 8 and the peppers on March 21, thinking I’d be able to plant them in the hoophouse in April.  The plants were big, and one of my pepper plants were just beginning to set buds.  The plants needed to go in the ground, preferably now.  Next year I need to start them each about 2 weeks later.

It is still cold in Maine, I am sure you are surprised to learn.  Our last frost date is in mid-May, but the nights are still cold.  The peppers and tomatoes were started early with the hoophouse in mind as their destination, but even in there it is still pretty cold at night.  What I have come to realize is that my little hoophouse just doesn’t have enough thermal mass to stay more than 2-3 degrees above the outside air temperature.  The soil is much warmer and drier, and it warms up nicely in the hoophouse during the day, but the mass isn’t adequate to hold the higher temps up more than a few degrees through the night, especially since I had to remove an end wall to keep the temps in there below blast furnace on warm sunny days.

Yep, same problem, different manifestation.  There is not enough thermal mass to slow the heat buildup from climbing into the lethal zone.  Last week during our unseasonable hot spell, I removed the north end wall plastic to keep the temps from nuking my poor plants.  The broccoli looks much happier since then, and the lettuce has started to grow again.

But back to the peppers and tomatoes.  What to do?  I’ve been hardening the plants off outside for the last week or so. The plants were spending the entire day outside, and nights in the unheated shed connecting our barn to the house.  The plants were ready to go in the garden IF I could keep them a little warmer at night than the ambient air temperature.  So in the ground they went, with some high-tech polar fleece blankies to keep them warm.  I also used a few wall-o-waters over some of the peppers, and tucked them all in under some floating row cover.  The tomatoes were stripped of their lower leaves and planted up to their necks, then covered in milk jug hot caps until the temperatures warm up and they can be uncovered.  If I had extras, as Daphne did, I would fill gallon jugs with water to absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night.  Unfortunately, I turned all my milk jugs into hot caps, and we rarely have soda on hand.

I set the tomatoes in amidst my lettuce and spinach, hoping that soon I’ll be eating the greens and making room for the tomatoes.  Once the lettuce is gone I will plant some basil and parsley in front of the tomatoes  –perfect companions in my mind!

Still to come in the hoophouse are cucumbers and melon, and later in the summer, late broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, swiss chard, and some cabbage.  I hope.

More seedlings

Although we’ve been busy with vacation fun, Spring marches on and it is time to start more seedlings.  Some might consider it a bit late for starting tomatoes, but we’ve had a cool spring, and my tulips are about a week behind in comparison to past years.  As tomatoes sulk in cool soil, I opted to delay starting the tomatoes destined for the primary garden with its heavy clay soil.

Shown in the photo is more cauliflower:  Graffiti, Cheddar, and Green Harmony.  For tomatoes, I sowed 1 Tigerella, 1 Rose de Berne, 1 Sungold, 1 Matt’s Wild Cherry 2 Orange Banana, 1 Green Zebra, 2 Amish Paste, and 1 Cosmonaut Volkov.  These will supplement the 6 plants already growing which are destined for the hoop house:  1 Tigerella, 2 Speckled Roman, 2 Pineapple, and 1 Cosmonaut Volkov.  I also transplanted some seedlings to individual pots, and set some purple sprouting broccoli into the hoop house.

It is still pretty cold in the hoophouse overnight.  The soil temperature is significantly warmer, and it is drier, but the temperature stays only 2-3 degrees above the outside temperature.  There is not much air mass and the plastic cover is not tight at the base.  I hope next year it will be warmer when the plastic is more securely attached to the frame at the base.

Venting the hoophouse

Saturday was cold and dreary, but one warm sunny day could easily cook my tender babies in the hoophouse.  My new min/max thermometer indicated that the high in the hoophouse on Thursday was 105°F.  That’s too hot, baby.

I had read somewhere about someone creating vents with foam insulation glued to the plastic.  It sounded like a good idea, but finding an adhesive that would work on both foam and plastic proved nigh on impossible.  So, Dan, clever lad that he is, suggested wood framing, stapling the plastic to it, cutting the vents, and inserting foam to close the vents.  How to photos:

On the north end wall.  Note the thermometer sensor attached to the framing on the left.

On the south end wall.  Once the chooks have moved to their spring and summer home, we can also open the door for venting.

Tacking the plastic to the vent frame using old plaster lathe.  We added fiberglass screen for reinforcement and bird prevention.

We cut slits in the plastic.  Later, we can cut larger openings, but for now, cutting that expensive plastic was scary!

Trimming the foam insulation to fit.

In the colder months, we’ll seal any air leaks around the edges, but with warmer temps on the way, no need to worry about that right now.  We will still need to add some sort of handle to facilitate removal of the panel when it is inserted snugly, but for all practical purposes, I can cross that project off the list.

Winter sown experiment

The winter sown experiment appears to be successful.  We planted these in Vermont Compost Company Fort Vee mix, in plastic jugs which were watered well and placed in the hoophouse and ignored.

The Napa cabbage looks great, way too many seedlings, though.  I’ll have to thin soon.

The Gonzales cabbage.

Rainbow Lights Swiss Chard.  YUM!

Spring

and the hoop house seeds are sprouting!  I planted these seeds February 17, just a few days before our big storm on February 22. We have spinach, radicchio, lettuce and escarole.

Happy spring to one and all, especially my fellow gardeners!