Thursday, January 31, 2013

Greenhouse & Gardens

I finally got around to getting a couple of pictures of inside the greenhouse.


Almost all the way down one wall there are about seven different kinks of tomato plants in about forty containers. I will say, even though we don't have the room for all those tomato plants it's good to be able to choose the best ones to go in the garden when that time comes.
 One side of a cut in half 55 gallon drum holds the spinach and the other half of the drum holds the lettuce. We only do the leaf type so we can go out every night and trim the tops for our dinner salads. The wife plants these in stages so we can have fresh salads all the time. This will continue until they start tasting bitter.   
All the herbs are coming up as well. Most of these will be planted in the cooks herb beds right out the back door of the kitchen. There are enough herbs planted to take up one full corner of the greenhouse. We are also doing a medical herb garden again this year so we can dry a bunch and make into salves or teas to cure any issue we are faced with, hopefully.

What is not shown here is the other side of the greenhouse that holds all the pepper plants and whatever else the wife has planted.
Right now we are having to keep a heater in the greenhouse to keep the temps at 75 degrees. I don't like it but it is a necessity right now to make sure these little things have a chance. All the greenhouse is watered by the harvested rain water and ran through the bio sand filter.

This weekend I am planting potatoes and carrots. I am trying a new way to plant the taters this year because the stacking wood towers I built did not yield as much as I needed them to do. We ended up having to purchase potatoes to put by to last all year. Even though I got them cheap, I still had to spend the money because of a failed attempt for the real thing. It was the first year I had to buy taters in a long time.
I will post on how I am planting them this time.

That's all I got for now,
Have a good day

15 comments:

  1. Looking good - and I love that you're using harvested rain water to irrigate your seedlings. You couldn't give them a better start in life :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dani, I agree about the rain water. It works wonders on the tinder little sprouts.

      Delete
  2. Impressive!!!!! Rain water is like Miracle Grow, but free ☺ My dad is working on a rain barrel for me, I can't wait!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kelly, Calling it Miracle Grow hits the nail on the head. Good luck with the rain barrel.

      Delete
  3. Looking good ! How big is the greenhouse and what is it made of?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Coley, good to hear from you. It is a kit I bought during the summer while it was on sell. I posted about it a couple of times. It's made from a thick hollow plastic siding and a metal frame. During a big storm a few months ago most of the panels blew away so I had to make my own to replace them.

      Delete
  4. Really nice! It's good to see green things when everything up here is brown! Can't wait to see how you plant your potatoes. We are gonna try something different this year too. Just not sure what. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks SGF, stay tuned and I will post about how we do it this weekend. I have never done it this way but through a lot of research it should be the best.

      Delete
  5. I'm hoping we can get some rain barrels going. Right now all I have is a 5 gallon bucket.
    Do you have posts of how you did your rain barrels?
    God Bless!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea LindaG, just put in "Rain Water Harvesting" in the search bar on my blog and you should bring up about 20 posts about it.
      Even though I am in North Texas, the first flush system I built was adopted by the Arizona Rain Water Conversation Commission, I am a registered speaker for rain water harvesting, I have done in home teachings on how to set them up, and the list goes on.
      Right now I can store up to 3500 gallons and it is pumped into the bathhouse, greenhouse and barns through a 12 volt pump box ran directly from the sun.
      If you have any questions you can email me, I will be more than happy to help.

      Delete
  6. Beautiful! We will start really rolling on our planting in the coming month. Last year we started tomatoes and peppers in January and felt like that was a bit early. It's been hard to hold off til February, but we've made it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Barb. Third week in Jan is the time to start them here in North Texas. I am sure it is different all over but that time seems to be the best here. It is easier to just buy the plants at the feed store but not as fun. Good luck with yours

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Everything looks so great! How do you heat the greenhouse?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Queen, Unfortunately I am using a thermostat electric heater at the moment. I can't afford to use wood because we need it for the house. I am designing a Rocket Stove that will be in there so it will not use near as much wood and will stay hot all night.

      Delete