One Big Planter Box

It's Enormous!

So we've finally got our raised bed installed, thanks to a lot of sweat equity from my husband, family, and friends. It looks lovely, and since it's made of cedar, it smells great and will last forever without imparting any arsenic or BPAs into our food.

Once my current crop of Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beets, and tomatoes is done, we'll be planting some more root vegetables, like potatoes, so we can benefit from the nice depth of the box. It's about 20 inches deep.

It's got strong brackets at each corner and 10 inch timber screws, so we don't have to worry about it blowing away in Hurricane Sandy.

In other news, I think I've almost resolved our inchworm infestation - I'm only finding one a day now. This is probably because we're officially out of cauliflower.

Also, now that it's getting colder, we're enjoying how nice and warm it is in there, and looking forward to some tasty veggies.

So, what are you up to in the garden today? 

Post your updates in the comments.

Hungry Inchworms

We're being invaded!

One of the wonderful things about having our garden inside is that the birds don't spread seeds for weeds all over it, and they don't eat our fruits and veggies.

BUT (and this is a big one), since they can't get into the greenhouse, they can't eat all the bugs off my plants either. This means we've got a bit of an inchworm infestation.

So, I've spent the last few days picking inchworms off my plants. They seemed to find my remaining cauliflower especially delicious.

At this point, it's clear we're going to have to re-plant, or we aren't going to get any cauliflower this year. I hope those nice, fat inchworms enjoyed themselves.

Our Brussels sprouts got some of the same treatment, and the little green guys even made it as far as my arugula. It seems like they don't like green beans too much, so those are safe so far. I've been taking them outside and moving them into the hedge, where they can winter over in comfort - away from all of my tasty veggies.

In other news, our tomatoes, cabbage, beets, and herbs are doing just fine - I'm checking them daily for inchworms and don't see any yet.

So, what's growing in your garden? Have you ever dealt with inchworms? How did you get rid of them?

Bunnies Break into the Greenhouse

We've Been Robbed!

There are a lot of wild bunnies living in our neighborhood, which makes it a cute, but risky, place to garden. I've tried any number of bunny-go-away remedies - they tend to just jump right over the bunny fence, and I've never been entirely comfortable spraying cayenne pepper all over my veggies because I know it hurts them.

So, in my outdoor garden, I do three things:

1) I leave a little clover in between the plants. It grows wild in our yard, adds nitrogen to the soil, and sates bunny hunger.
2) I pick tomatoes just as they start to ripen, or something (bunny, bird, or other) eats them.
3) I grow greens they don't like - like arugula.

I had given up on growing things like Brussels sprouts and cauliflower because rabbits just like them sooooo much. But now that I have a greenhouse, I should be able to grow those, right?

Well, right. Sort of.

The other day, we came home and the door the greenhouse was wide open. It's latched, but not locked. Nothing seemed to be missing so we shut it and then went to run some errands. We came back and hour or two later, and the door was ominously hanging open, again, and you can see in the photo above what the furry culprit did to our cauliflower. I'm hoping I can save it, but I might just need to plant more.

In the mean time, my husband has installed four barrel latches (two in front, two in back), so that the doors stay closed no matter what. This will also help keep the heat in, which we  need since it's getting cooler.

Here's a mug shot so we can identify the criminal if we see them again....

Setting Up (Green)housekeeping

It's time for a little interior decorating.

 We got a lot done this weekend. First, we went on a lumberyard adventure. After pricing out all of the options, we decided to do the raised beds in cedar, rather than composite lumber. We're actually happier with this choice - it's more expensive than regular pressure-treated lumber, but won't leach arsenic into our plants.

Cedar also turned out to be cheaper than composite, is all-natural and will pretty much last forever. Regular, non-pressure-treated lumber from most other wood won't work either - pine, for example, would rot and have to be replaced every year.

So, we got the lumber, rebar, and other supplies for the raised beds, and set the lumber in the greenhouse to season a bit while we go back to our regular jobs this week.

Then, it was time to move the rest of my plants into the greenhouse, as well as some other creature comforts. It was also time to move my green beans into a roomier pot. They seemed a little traumatized, but I'm hoping they'll perk up again in a few days. Our greens, cauliflower,  and Brussels sprouts seem to be enjoying the nice weather in there, and the tomato, beet, and cabbage seedlings are small, but hanging in there until I have more room for them.

We took a well-deserved break in our sunny, warm space. We're still amazed at the temperature difference between inside and outside.

Next weekend, we'll be taking a stab at getting the raised beds together. My husband will be the star of the show - this kind of building project is his specialty and he's got it all planned out.

So, what's growing with you? Please leave a note in the comments.

The Greenhouse is Complete!

We have a greenhouse!

It's done - it's built - it has at least one plant in it! It took five weekends, but it's built! We are so excited.


The last step was putting on the doors. There are four  - two in the front and two in the back.


There was also more weather stripping to do. I can't recommend enough that you find one of these weather-stripping rollers at your local hardware store - it made installing and adjusting our weather stripping a LOT easier.


After five weekends of work, sweat, a little blood, and a lot of parts, we were finally done. We closed the doors and found an almost instantaneous increase in temperature - it's almost too hot in there for plants now, but this will be a good thing in a few weeks when it starts to get chilly out.



Then it was time to put our first plant in the greenhouse. I have some arugula that's  been waiting to go in there - of course we have plenty of room. Now that we've christened the greenhouse with the first plant, we're ready to create the raised beds.


We're planning to build two beds along the lefthand side of the structure - each about 5 feet by three feet, with a little pathway in between so we can reach the whole planting areas without stepping on our delicate plants.


We want to use composite lumber - most of the pressure-treated stuff is infused with arsenic and we don't want than in our beets and tomatoes.


If we use non-pressure treated wood, then it will rot in a couple of years and we'll have to tear down the beds and rebuild them.


So, the best choice is to spend more money up front for beds that will hold up well for years, and that won't leach arsenic into our garden.


At this point, we're looking into suppliers and pricing it out; in the mean time, we'll be gathering other furniture, plants, etc. to place in our space.

Finally, here's a bonus shot of Tito, who was supervising our work from the cool shade of the shed.

So, what's your garden up to these days? Please share in the comments.

Next time: Seedling update, moving plants from our house to the greenhouse.

On Weather Stripping

Oh weather stripping, bane of our existence.

Necessary evil, sucking up our time. I could probably write an ode to how hard weather stripping is to install, how much it hurts the hands, and how many hours it took to position it around every panel in the greenhouse. But I won't.

I'll just say I'm glad it's done, and grateful to my husband for taking care of it for us.

We've also got the skylights fully installed, and they're designed using a hydraulic hinge with a liquid that expands when it gets warm and opens the window to vent the heat out of the greenhouse. When it cools down, the liquid contracts and the window closes.

We're in the home stretch - it's just the doors and then it's time to work on the interior. As soon as the doors are on, we can start moving plants out there, which is timely as nights are starting to get cool.

In other news, here is a photo of a bengal cat that we have at the animal shelter where I'm a volunteer. She's been adopted, but you can see animals who are available for adoption by visiting www.PetHarbor.com and entering your location.

What's next? An update on our plants, and hopefully some more gratuitous cat.

What's going on in your garden? Please share.

Seedling Update and September Garden Pics

The sad business of thinning.

I hate thinning out my seedlings. I feel like a plant murderess.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell which ones to take - many of my seedlings are the same size. I looked for seedlings that were straight and looked stronger than the others, even if they were similar in height. There was definitely some guesswork involved! Many of my seedlings were getting too big for my Jiffy seed starting kit and they had to be moved into bigger pots and given a bit more space.

Seedling farm, with feline plant-sitter.

One bonus of seedling-murder was that I was then able to make myself a delicious microgreen salad. Baby beets and cabbage are really tasty. I still don't have enough carrots for thinning out, but my tomatoes, cabbage, beets, and catnip were ready to go into pots. One important thing to remember when thinning out seedlings is to simply clip them at the soil line; don't try to pull them out of the dirt. At this point, roots are very delicate and you can destroy your remaining plants that way.


Meanwhile, in our outdoor garden...

Here's what's going on:

We had a guest in the basil...

Our ancho chiles are nice and hot - they're working out great for our salsa and chili now that fall is here.

And a tomato plant we'd thought was dead thanks to our very hot summer is producing new fruit now that the weather's a little cooler.









Next time: We're going to be installing the doors and putting on the finishing touches to the structure. It's already warm and humid in there, even without doors that close. Then, I'll be able to move our seedlings out there, and start building the raised beds.

What's going on in your garden? Please share!