Tag: season extension

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Rowcover laying is difficult enough…then just add kittens!

Our house is new, and so many people have been to the house to paint, complete projects, and work on things.  We have had to lock the kittens in the house so they don’t “help” the painters.  The kittens, rescued last summer from the Calico garden and tamed by my three children into loving creatures who seek the attention of people, behave more like dogs than any cat I have ever known.  They do seem to appreciate our rescue of them from the wild.

A couple of days ago, I worked in the garden putting down row cover preparing the plants for the upcoming cold weather.  Ashes and Phoenix chased me into the woods, climbing trees and stalking each other among tree trunks, when I entered to rake some leaves to put on the new asparagus and garlic beds, and they attacked my ankles as they hid in the cover crops.

As I spread the row cover over the broccoli, spinach, and kale plants to protect them from the cold weather, as well as the rain and the wind, the cats wanted to “help” me.  They are like helping children, in that their help is often a hindrance.  Here is a video of them not helping at all, but having a great time playing in the new tunnels I created with the row cover.

I created the structure of the tunnels by cutting some 12 gauge wire, available at home centers in the chain link fencing section, into hoops about 40 inches long.  If you cut them too long, they will flop over, and if they are too short, there will not be enough room for the mature height of the plants.

Then I draped the row cover over the hoops, and I secured it with clothes pins and with metal posts, stones, and whatever else I could find.  I need to work on more efficient ways to weight down the row cover.  You cannot cut the wire with ordinary wire cutters, although I have read that you can score them with a metal cutting tool and snap them.  I purchased bolt cutters  to make the job easier.

Row cover protects plants from freezing temperatures, and, depending on the weight of the fabric, may increase the air temperature around the plants by several degrees.  The fabric keeps torrential rain off of the plants, and it also prevents the desiccating effects of winter winds.  It almost gives your plants a mini-greenhouse environment similar to that of a cold frame, but the fabric allows enough heat to escape so you don’t have to worry about the odd sunny day roasting your plants the way you have to if they are covered in plastic.

Use some season extension techniques and harvest vegetables all year long!

 

 

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DIY Hoophouse

I went on a tour with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association last year.  They sponsor a three-day conference, in Durham, NC,  which I would love to attend in full, but I was able to go on a tour of hoop houses and farms.  I read many articles and books about farming, and people always talk about hoop houses, which are unheated greenhouses.  In our climate, people grow crops in them year round.  I was very interested to see beautiful tomatoes, unmolested by insects, disease, or weather, in November in the hoop houses.Building a “real” hoop house is not presently in my budget, so I came home and created a DIY version out of materials I already had at home.  Professional hoophouses, like these, are large structures in which people can walk around and trellis tomatoes.  I can’t walk in mine, but it should protect the lettuce plants.

I spread a piece of clear, heavy weight plastic on the ground.  I attached the metal rods on each long end with strings tied underneath.

I roll up the sides, as shown below, to ventilate the greenhouse.  In my climate, South Carolina zone 8, I leave the sides up most of the time, closing them only when severe winter temperatures threaten.

Sometimes, I roll down the sides but I leave the ends up.  This provides some ventilation but provides additional protection from cold temperatures.

I have not tried growing warm weather crops in this modified high tunnel.  Our summers are so blisteringly hot anyway I fear I would forget the plants for a morning and find them fried.  Because of the flimsiness of my construction materials, I couldn’t build it high enough to accommodate the growth of a mature tomato plant.
This is definitely on the realm of DIY structures and was, for me, free from materials I had on hand.
At the end of the winter, I found success in this DIY structure in starting seeds for transplant and for keeping the worst of the winter weather off my delicate plants.  A professional-grade hoophouse remains in my dreams but this will suffice for now!
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Build a Cold Frame for Ongoing Winter Harvest





Although they have not need its protection yet this winter,
my lettuces and spinach are happily growing inside the cold frame while we wait
for cold weather.  I planted them inside
the box in September with the lid open so the warm weather did not roast them.  Now, when freezing weather threatens, I can
close the lid to the box in the late afternoon, the glass lid will hold the
heat inside, and I will have fresh greens the next day that are unharmed by
frost. 

My husband and I made my cold frame cover from a discarded
shower door.  Any glass or Plexiglas door
or window would work; the glass allows sunshine and heat to reach the plants
inside the cold frame.  My shower door
came with the hinge attached which we use to open and close the frame.  If yours does not have a hinge, you could
slide it up and down as needed and prop it with a stick; a covering that is lightweight,
like Plexiglas, would probably be the best choice.  When the lid is raised, make sure to attach
it to the ground in some way so that strong gusts of wind do not suddenly close
it; the glass on one of my frames shattered last winter and I will have to
cover the frame with plastic this winter. 
Winter greens grow inside the cold frame

We made the sides of my cold frame out of treated
lumber.  We caulked the joints and put
some weather-stripping along the top of the frame to prevent drafts.  The back of the cold frame is about 18 inches
high, and it slopes down to the front at about a 40-degree angle toward the
southern sky; the front is about 8 inches high. 
This slope is supposed to maximize the amount of captured sunlight.

Options besides boards include stacked hay bales, concrete
blocks, or landscape timbers.  Plug as
many cracks as you can.  Gardener’s
Supply Company carries prefabricated cold frames; harvesting your own salad greens instead of
buying them will offset the purchase price quickly.

 Place your cold frame directly on the ground, fill your cold
frame with compost-enriched soil, and plant the seeds or transplants.  Because of the greenhouse-like moist
environment, seeds sprout quickly and are the most economical choice.  Water the soil when it begins to dry out and
fertilize the plants as you would in your garden. 

If the weather forecast is for temperatures in the high 40s
or above with sun, prop open the lid of your cold frame to vent excessive heat
that might burn the plants.  I have two
sticks, one to open the lid just a crack and the other to open it wide for
harvest and for very warm days.  If you
will not be home, prop the lid open a crack; they have a better chance of
surviving the cold weather we get than an afternoon in with temperatures in the
sixties closed inside the frame. Lettuce and spinach tolerate temperatures down
to the mid-twenties without harm in the open garden; I close my cold frame on
nights when the temperature dips into the low twenties and teens.   

The best plants for a cold frame are lettuces, spinach,
collards, and other cool-season greens. 
Carrots, beets, and parsnips also like the protected environment.  Depending on your cold frame’s interior
height, you might also be able to grow broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.  I also “harden off” transplants, or provide a
protected area outside for plants to become gradually accustomed to the
outdoors, before I set them out in the garden in the cold frame.
Happy salad greens

When you are home during the holidays, maybe you can find
time to make yourself or the gardener on your list a cold frame as a belated Christmas
gift.