Tuesday 2 May 2017

New Develpments

Well, spring is here and spring activity started in the garden.  First of all, I have re-built small hoop tunnel into tall one , same as the other one. Now we have tow double walled high hoop tunnels.
Since my tomato seedlings have grown so much, i had to transplant them to the tunnel last weekend.  Did the same to cucumbers, as they started to flower (wow that was quick).  Tunnel with water canisters as heat accumulators provide consistent 3 degree temp differential between outside and inside.  So far did not have to use additional feat source  to maintain positive temps.
Today Iw ill be planting and seeding the new tunnel.
It looks like we will have summer weather this week as temps supposed to be 21 tomorrow, 25 on Thursday and so on.  I think I will have to seed outside containers as well.
Been busy aerating grass and cleaning the yard.  So much work right now, but it is so rewarding.

Tuesday 25 April 2017

Redundant question ..

This is in relation to previous post.  Today, we again got between 5-10 cm of snow on the ground. I man ground was totally covered by it.  In five hours it was all gone but not before wreaking havoc on morning drive.
I had to stop doing work in the garden due to rain or snow over past few days.
My focus was on upgrading low tunnel to tall one.  Using experience  from constructing one last year, I have rebuild the low one by  utilizing all of the materials from it, but of course, had to get new face build, so had to buy some lumber to do so.  Anyway, tunnel is ready to be covered and I forgot to mention, that it is double walled as well  (based on my previous experience).  I have plastic for inner tunnel ready, as well as, my outer shell.  Waiting for better weather with no wind or at least minimum wind, as with such large surface, we are dealing with sail like structure.  We already attempted to install the shell, but wind increased and had to abandon the effort.
Will try this weekend as the weather supposed to change for better.
In the other news, I seeded carrots and beats and my transplants are ready to be moved to tunnel (tomato).

Thursday 13 April 2017

Spring is here, or is it?

This morning we have got surprise (not really surprise) snow!  Ground was covered within 10 minutes.  At least we are getting moisture and grass will look good.  I already seeded lettuce in the tunnel last Saturday, but it is still cold and night so no sprouts yet.
Getting ready to upgrade low tunnel to full height this spring.  Will post progress of project once it starts.

Monday 6 February 2017

Digging but not the garden, snow

Well, we has a spring at the end of January and last weekend, fresh snow arrived.  We were looking forward to new fresh snow as bare ground showed up after warm weather and it was icy.   Out wish came true, but delivery was a bit excessive.  We got about 40cm of snow since it started on Saturday.  Had to remove snow from my driveway twice yesterday and more was coming.  Did it again this morning and more is coming.  It is still -19C but, watch this, forecast for the weekend is +8C so we will have a bit of a mess.
nature, you can't control it so enjoy it.  We been x-country skiing on sunday and it was funs, especially for our dog.

Friday 6 January 2017

2017 Plans

Our garden last year had a very successful year, partially due to utilization of the new high, double walled tunnel.  I did not have much to go about before I made decision to built this tunnel. I knew that it must be "high" as our "low" tunnel did not work that well due to hight restrictions.  We have been struggling in early spring with frost exposure and as such decision to try double walled tunnel.  Used regular poly for inside tunnel and woven 11 poly for outside.  The result was difference of about 4 degree, so when temp went down to -4deg C, inside was still at ) deg C.  One thing I regretted and will have to change this year, was use of non-clear poly for inside tunnel.  This was due to the fact that this was the only one available at HomeDepot at that time.  I will have to replaced it as tape that connected two poly sheets has failed and they would have to be reconnected anyway.
One thing on my mind is how to heat effectively tunnel in the spring during low temperature spells (lat year we had frost up till first week in June).  So far, we used candles, they seem to be working o.k., but I am looking for environmentally friendly way, perhaps solar panels, small heater, and RV battery that is sitting in my garage.  I know from reading and calculating that this might be difficult to achieve with 100-150 solar panel setup.  Will have to think about this as using solar heat sink is not feasible due to tunnel sitting on top of raised beds (cross members inside).
I will have to search for some alternative way of providing heat during low temp times (peak low temp) which is basically between 2:00 Am and 6:00 AM.

Last year we had very wet July and some of the crops were affected by this.  We might reduce how much lettuce we will grow as we had abundance of it, despite sharing with family and friends.

I will have to figure how I can grow seedlings inside the house with new puppy present, especially, that this pupp is gardener and loves digging in our pots inside the house.  Definitely will be challenging.

We have planted garlic in the fall and hope that this will result in good crop this year.
 
Slowly we have to start thinking about what to seed and when in prep for spring.

Sunday 1 January 2017

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Winter is here

Well, I have been quiet for a while.  There were some changes in our life.  Our beloved golden retriever has left us for good after 14 years. 
Now we have adopted new dog, 6 months old puppy and with it busy time.
November was very nice, warm and almost snow free.  We have enjoyed that time and then came December and a change in weather.  As of Monday our high temp. are at -18C level.  In fact that was warm, as next few days it will be high of -21C with pretty significant wind, it feels like -37C.