Excuses, too; or thinkin' won't get it dun.

[digitS']

Eliot Coleman wrote a book a number of years ago about a 4 season harvest. It amounts to growing crops in an unheated greenhouse, then covering some these plants inside the greenhouse to protect them against freezing, and harvesting right thru the winter. I've always wondered how possible the idea is.

Some of the things that Coleman grew, like purslane, I really have no desire to eat - winter or summer. Still, I grow Asian greens that should do well in an arrangement like that. Bok choy seedlings are started in what was the pototo bed. They will need transplanting around the garden in a couple weeks. I usually sow more seeds but better stop doing that just about now - the plants will not have time to mature before frosts slow their growth to nothing. This is true with lettuce and other choices than bok choy of the Asian persuasion .

What about moving them indoors?

My sunshed greenhouse is almost perfectly adapted to starting plants in flats. Dozens of flats!! However, the main bench has to be pulled out before next year. The 2 by 4's are just too old and rotting. That bench is in the middle of the greenhouse attached to the center posts altho' it has its own legs. What if I replaced that bench with an 18-foot growing bed this winter? I won't be turning on the greenhouse furnace during the winter but Coleman didn't use heat . . . (altho' he talked about it.)

Space for the overwintering rosemary, etc. would not have to be lost since that area is 52 inches wide and the path against the north wall should provide enuf room for the potted plants. The path is narrow, it would leave about 38" by 18' for in-ground growing and the entire 52" could be covered by one of my pvc/plastic film "hoopies" for protection against freezing. At any temperature below 15 outdoors, the containers overwintering in the greenhouse must be covered anyway.

Maybe I'm just too tired from summer activities to be imagining that this would be a good idea. It would be nice to replace the greenhouse's door and yet, there should be some nice winter days when that would be possible whether I do it or not. I'd mostly just need to schedule a time to rip out that bench, haul it to the dump and till up that 38" by 18' bed.

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

I don't think an unheated greenhouse would work in the northern climates. I have a tunnel greenhouse and I did have a lettuce and broccoli plant survive unassisted. I think it was that mild winter of 2012. A lot of work for chancy results. How much fun if it did work!

 

[bobm]

How about a roll of black plastic spaced strategically among the plants to help increase the temperature. :coolsun

 

[thistlebloom]

Elliot Coleman gardens in Maine, and makes it work in an unheated greenhouse. But like Steve pointed out, his success is dependent on choosing the right varieties. Correct me if I don't have this right, but I think his winter greenhouse crops are all various types of cold hardy greens.

Steves greenhouse is even farther north than Colemans, but I bet he could do it!

 

[digitS']

It really isn't growing anything during the coldest months of the year. Coleman was just "storing" fresh produce in the ground. Alive, of course . . .

Without any sub-zero weather last winter, the bok choy in the open garden survived! Usually, only a few plants will survive but they will be severely scarred.

I am really thinking that the plastic film on the greenhouse plus the plastic film over the little hoopie should protect the plants well enuf that they would be usable during the winter months. Once March rolls around - I need to put that bench for the flats back in there, turn the heat on and grow the plant starts for the garden. The time for harvesting Asian greens will have passed . . .

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Steves greenhouse is even farther north than Colemans, but I bet he could do it!

CRIPES. How have i never realized that we live farther north than MAINE. Just had to go to the TEG members map and confirm this.

On a different note, i'm very excited about my greenhouse next year. I'm going to try and have mine going in march too. Yup, thats the plan!!

 

[MontyJ]

After the craziness of the summer gardening season, I couldn't imagine trying to keep it going through the winter, even on a small greenhouse scale. But, the idea of keeping things in fresh (alive) storage, is an intriguing concept. Your asian greens and bok choy, for me it would be cabbage and carrots; even if to keep them safe from the worst freezes to seed them next year. A hoop house inside a greenhouse could be kept close to, or above, freezing with just a lamp or two, except on the coldest of days. I know your talking about no heat, but perhaps just a little wouldn't hurt? I still have some cabbages in the garden that I would like to seed, as well as a few carrots. The greenhouse is tucked away in the barn, right near the hoop house. Food for thought here.

 

[digitS']

At such a northern latitude, there isn't much strength with the winter sun staying just above the southern horizon. It is kind of pathetic . . . then, you add up our typically cloudy winter days - snow or no snow. SAD! It all comes down to not really believing that there is much to gain from Old Sol during those months no matter what .

MontyJ! It is you and Dew who got me thinking again about how I might have fresh winter veggies. Ridgerunner had that link to a sauerkraut crock with a fermentation lock and I'm thinking, "That's not much different from Dad's & my beer set-up. Maybe I could do that!" Then I realize that I don't eat a pint of sauerkraut in a year . . . I have trouble getting thru a jar of pickles and DW is no help. What am I gonna do about fresh food - you know, so I can keep up with MontyJ & Dew??!

I originally built that greenhouse thinking that I'd grow flowering plants for winter sales. Then, the opportunity to do that failed before I could even plant the first seed. (My sales venue closed.). It can't be very well adapted to in-ground growing with the benches in there but the main one, needs to go. Maybe something portable could replace it. I have had basil and once a couple of tomato plants growing in the ground in there during the summer months.

Oh, about that Coleman -- it has been many years since I read that book but, I believe, he has an entirely portable greenhouse. No small structure, either. The thing sits on rollers and he can start the garden during late summer and roll the greenhouse over it when cold weather comes . . .

Steve

 

[MontyJ]

I would love to have a permanent greenhouse Steve. It's one of those things that is "on the list" but never seems to move up to the top spot /: JackB is some motivation to get it done eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, but when? With a greenhouse I would be more able to get into the farmers market gig.

 

[digitS']

Farmers' markets are fun. The better ones are real fun for the customers, too. That means they show up for entertainment as well as products.

You have to be careful about "the management's" ideas for a FM. I swear, anybody who has a parking lot thinks they can set up a market! Or, you've got the civic improvement group who has motivation entirely different from the growers. It doesn't mean these people are evil - of course not! It is just a different set of requirements and the customers will always be the final judges.

Mismanagement is how the flowering plants plan died in the cradle. The venue was excellent for a winter market. Just very low-key but with already a great amount of pedestrian traffic. Yes, go ahead and offend the property owner by allowing the vendors to take advantage of everything. It had to be pretty low-key for us too since this is such a tiny greenhouse. But allowing the shoe shine guy to create chaos and the produce re-seller to make a mess with boxes of imported produce just doesn't make sense. If the customers can find exactly the same fruit & vegetables at every soopermarket and being entertained by idiots is all it takes to have a farmers' market, it would be easy.

Craft fairs are craft fairs and should probably be limited to crafters. Turn a FM over to crafters and the growers will be jumping thru the wrong kind of hoops. It is already tuff enuf to grow their produce and get it to the market. Surprising how many people talk about God doing the growing . . .

A farmer purchases an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields are grown over with weeds, the farmhouse is falling apart, and the fences are collapsing all around.

During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams."

A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Low and behold! It's like a completely different place - the farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there are plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together."

"Yes, Reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone."

Steve