Friday 26 May 2017

Wind Test ...

On Tuesday, my hoop tunnels underwent extreme wind testing and I am happy to say, it was success.  We had extreme weather conditions, strong winds and lots of (horizontal) rain and a bit of snow.  Wind was blowing all evening and night at speed between 40-80 km/hr, and with rain going at the same time, it was miserable weather.  Had to take dogs for short walk ion the evening and it was not fun at all.  The walk was rather speedy for that reason.  We needed the rain so everything is getting even greener.  almost everything in my garden has sprouted to life and it looks good.

Sunday 14 May 2017

It is done!

I have completed seeding and planting my garden for this year.  Maybe small tweaks here and there are required but in general it is finished.  Things are looking good in the garden, my rhubarb is a good indicator as you can see below, it is doing well.


My tunnel is looking good, picture below is a bit old (week) and things look much bigger now.
And here my dog relaxing after hard day work.


Wednesday 10 May 2017

Garden Update

Well, weather definitely has improved and it is hot, not kidding it was hot on a days, that i rushed to seed as much as possible and even planted potatoes, as ground is pretty worm.  I have been working hard to till (by hand ) all containers and seeding them.
My garlic that we planted last fall is out and growing like crazy. Lettuce in the tunnel will be ready for consumption in ten days or so.  Just in time as California bad weather this winter started to impact veggie price ( lettuce head goes for ~$5).  Can wait to eat healthy and tasty lettuce from our garden.

Still have few more things to seed and will be doing it over next few days.

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.