Monday, April 13, 2015

Greenhouse News!

Half a Greenhouse is Better Than None

Last summer, I decided to try out the long-neglected  greenhouse. After soaking the ultra-desiccated rock-hard potting-type soil in the two beds, I dumped on bone meal, organic fertilizer, and compost, digging it in as best I could. I planted some store-bought tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and Walla Walla onions. I only planted one side, figuring that I'd not waste so much effort if nothing grew.

See those red "automators" around the tomato plants? They DO work!

Yeah, trellises would have helped, but the whole thing just went bananas, with loads of really tasty veggies - we gave away lots, and still had plenty for ourselves. We got some weirdos, too.


So how did tomatoes sprout their own appendages?

Those plants pumped out stuff all the way to the end of October, despite my lackadaisical watering, even forgetting to turn on the timer for the drip hoses I put in. Waaay too many onions, too, but that's for another post.

Auwe! I managed to bust off one of the mower blades, to be repaired...

Winter this year was almost a no-show, and we are well into Spring, ready or not. The greenhouse is getting kicked into shape, so we should get peas, spinach, and more. If I can, I'll let the old onions set seed, but if they fail, well, time for something else to be planted, and at least I'm having a lot of fun with the old greenhouse. Meanwhile. the pastures are getting really lush.

2 comments:

  1. What kind of greenhouse is this? How large? It looks great.

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  2. Sorry for the waaay tardy reply, Ien! This greenhouse was put up decades before our arrival, and sadly suffered a long spell of abuse and neglect. The inside length is 11 ft 8 in, with a central aisle that measures 20 inches between the 2 x 12 in pressure-treated walls of the raised beds. There are several gashes and rips in the poly sheeting, which I am slowly patching with a UV-stable tape. I'll try to update with another post, to show how the tomato jungle has emerged.

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