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.

Wintery Update

My dog chilling out in the wintery weather and she loves it.

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.

Fall update

Garden is pretty much shut down for winter.  We still need to plant garlic for the next year but it seems that weather next week is summer like (according to forecast) so we will wait another week or so as it will be too warm.  We also need to put some tulips bulb in flower bed for the spring.  In general, I was planning to continue to mulch  leafs this weekend, but unexpected snowfall on Friday, delayed these plans.  Our two mountain ash trees produce so much of leafs, and so late in the season that this is big challenge to keep up with management.

We lost our Molly and she is dearly missed.  The best dog ever!  

Fall cleanup

After -9 C on Tuesday this week, nothing survived in the tunnels  and garden and officially garden season 2016 is over.  We will still plant garlic for the next year crop, in about two weeks time.  We cleaned garden, our compost is full to the point that nothing more can fit into one of the composting bins and left some space for day use in the other one.  Weather was great today despite forecast calling for rain and cool weather.  At one point my weather station recorded +12C.
Now we are still processing harvest and enjoying fresh produce as well. 
We had pretty sad week as we had to make decision on "putting down" our beloved golden who reached age of fourteen and her conditions deteriorated so rapidly that we decided inevitable.  It was and still is so hard on us as she was such a wonderful dog.  RIP Molly.

Winter...?!

IT has been a while since last post, so decide to provide quick update on state of the garden.  It is Canadian Thanksgiving and snowy one here.  It has been snowing everyday for the past two days and the effect left about 4-5 cm on the ground, making my dog so happy. Snow would melt at the end of the day, but today it was snowing again and ground again is covered by wet snow.  It was also be unusually cold and I mean cold as temps are around 0 most of the time and hardly reaching into positive territory.  My large tunnel double wall design proved to be a winner.  I have temperature recording device and it shows me the lowest and highest temps and also current temp, humidity.  Even at days where temp went down at night to -3C it was still positive temp inside and during the day when it was very cloudy and temp. outside was at -2C, we had +6C inside.  So we still have tomato plants growing and producing red tomatoes.  We still have quiet a lot of green tomatoes. I decided to evacuate sprinkler system and thus close water to the garden.  We have covered lettuce but lots of wind moved cover to strawberries that surprisingly, are still producing and I had strawberries last Wednesday straight from the plant.
We have now assumed that small tunnel is done, despite kale still growing in it.  In the next few weeks we will focus our energy on cleaning our garden and prepping it for winter.

Harvest time ..

Last weekend we started harvest in the garden.   Here are some pictures from  potato harvesting and carrots.  Some of the potatoes were huge, more than 1 lb in some cases, 2 lbs.  I think we have collected about 150 lbs from plot that was approx. 10 sq ft  garden plot.  This was definitely the best year for potatoes, despite getting bit of frost in the late spring, they still produced above expectations.  Now is the question how long they will last in our "cold room" that really is wine room.  We will observe and see.