Pages

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Great Green House Experiment

has begun. Remember that neat little green house we put up this spring? Good, cause now we are finally going to try out the idea i had in the beginning. Growing some veggies all winter long so we have fresh salad stuff.

100_0113

Yesterday i filled them with some top soil. The layers were soil, heater wires, chicken manure (a favorite here on the Shore), soil, manure, soil, manure, soil, manure, with a little topping of lime. The heat wires are supposed to keep the soil at 70 F. and hopefully the air space above the soil surface. Next was tying them into the weather computer (the one that gives you that cute little weather box 100_0115up on top) to monitor the air temp, soil temp,  and soil moisture. YES, YES i know how geeky that sounds. So far the soil temp has gone up ten degrees (from 42-> 52 F). The air temp inside ranges from 90’s on a really sunny day to about ten degrees above the outside temp at night. If necessary i can cover over the boxes to hold the heat. Monday i probably will add another bag of soil to each bed too give it a little more depth so the plants don’t fall over.

So what will the crops be??? Lettuce and spinach are a must. Broccoli and cauliflower are also good cold weather candidates. I’m thinking some beets (Beatrice is not happy). I would like to try one (and only one) tomato plant (maybe a cherry or grape) and maybe one cucumber vine that will be trellised. Beans and peas are another possibility.

More as this story ‘grows’…… :-)

Grenville

7 comments:

Tammy@Simple Southern Happiness said...

Hello and thank you for coming to visit my blog and your kind comments.

I like reading about farms and gardening. I like this wireing system you have. Not seen anything like it before. Interesting....

Here in the south you would be run out on the rails for planting only one tomato plant... I wish I could get away with that but the neighbors would turn me in to the locals. I had a bumper crop and did not know what to do with them. At times I was happy to let the squirrels have them.

Will be checking back to see your progress.

Have a blessed day.

Montanagirl said...

Looks like you'll be busy farming! Good luck with that. It's always nice to have fresh salad makings.

possum said...

Call me when the salad is ready...
Its snowing again down at this end of town...
Hope you enjoyed your hike this morning. Did you find any of the missing road signs???? Hmmm?

grammie g said...

Hi Grenville ...are you really home ..who's going to eat and maintain all this when you decide to take of again!!
I'd grow a few beets if I was you ..the tops make great addition to a salad, beet greens, and buttered beets...I'm hungry now...love that stuff!!
Don't go "hog wild" with this thing now there is only so much room !!

Elaine said...

It'll be interesting to see how well your experiment works. I know it would not work here!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Welcome Simple Southern Lady - thanks for both the comments and for stopping by to visit. Please do come back and see Grenville's progress on the greenhouse growing project. Thanks again for the recipe using the frozen tomatoes and peppers. Going to try that within the next week.

Anonymous said...

The only reason that there will be only one 'mater' plant SSH is that i doubt that it will survive the cold, even here in VA. Of course in the summer in NJ it was a rule that everyone had to have at least 6 tomato plants or cousin Vinney would visit you!!!! Nice thoughts Mona. Possum, you'll be the first to know when the salad is ready. Thanks for the beet salad idea Grammie, it sounds great. Your right Elaine. I couldn't afford the heating bills in your neighborhood.