All Tucked In

A few weeks ago Mike and I planted some starts and today they are grown up enough to go into the big-kid boxes with the grown ups! We learned some things about light availability in the greenhouse with the first round of planting, so we also brought in some extra compost, raised up some of the beds, and totally ignored parts of others because they are not worth it in the fall and winter.

Greenhouse Tangent: before I get to telling you what all is in the greenhouse let me describe this structure. It sounds great at first because it is so big and it is more or less permanent. But it is perhaps the worst possible design for our climate where we are more concerned with light in the winter than super frigid temperatures. It looks pretty much like this:

Except that it actually has a few less windows (and more roof) if you can believe that nonsense. And it is fully dry-walled and insulated with very few vents so it is roughly a billion degrees in there in the summer. Apparently this is a good design for "cold winters in northern latiudes." With our relatively mild winters with near-constant cloud cover, this is possibly not the best choice. That said I am pretty certain that said greenhouse was erected with the intention of growing marijuana; there is plenty of ceiling structure to attach grow lights to. So maybe it is a great design for that, but not quite so brilliant for veggies. On the other hand we would almost certainly not have a greenhouse of any sort at this stage, so really it's silly to complain. I bet I will talk more about why we are so certain that one of the money making ventures of this property was weed, but right now I want to talk about my veggies more.

We have two rows of about 2.5 x 8 foot boxes (they were there when we got here and some of them have moved up behind my kitchen for an herb garden) two boxes per row, four sets in front and three in back. Each box is split in half and there is largely on type of veggie per 1/2 of each box. So about 2.5 x4 of planting space for each section. Also there are, what? five or six more boxes stacked in the back of the greenhouse too. Goodness this is boring. Anyway, I planted starts and direct sowed some things and then of course we have some things in the ground already. Here is a (maybe?) boring inventory of vegetables (from left to right and closest to the window to furthest away; four rows).

• New kale, mixed variety, sewed today.
• Broccoli, about six weeks old.
• Purple carrots, about six weeks old (I have a weakness for oddly colored vegetables).
• Mixed colors of carrots, sewed today.
• Lovely kale that we are already eating. I like it early for salad greens and I always plan too much so I have to "thin" a lot.
• Rainbow chard, sewed today.
• Some big spinaches that we have already "thinned" and eaten up the babies in salad; now they are ready to get big and be soup or pasta greens.
• And some broccoli I sewed straight in the box today. NEXT ROW
• Cauliflower starts and some established cauliflower too; in two "sections"
• Plain old orange carrots (sugar snax), about six weeks old
• More purple carrots, from starts, about 4 weeks?? old (an experiment).
• Old kohlrabi and then kohlrabi from starts. Why so many?? I have no idea! I think I just like to watch them grow because they are so weird.
• Lettuce, sewed today. Romaine, red leaf, and green leaf.
• Spinach from starts.
• Two whole sections of cabbages. Cabbages!!
• Purple turnips, old and new.
• Golden turnips, old and new.
• Rutabagas, old and new.
• Mixed greens, that should probably find their way to the salad bowl this week.
• Now we are in the back row, where there is the least amount of light:
• Holy smokes: more freakin' turnips! But as Mike pointed out: a turnip is not like a cabbage; you need a bunch to make supper.
• Beets (old) and
• Beets (new). I <3>
• nothing and nothing again. Not enough light. Some lettuces told us in no uncertain terms Not Enough Light.

And if you can believe it that is less than 1/2 of the depth of the greenhouse. This spring or summer we are planning on pulling off a big chunk of the roof and replacing it with clear plastic. With vents. So that we can use the rest of this space. In the summer we will grow some of the semi-tropicals that don't usually live up to their potential in our maritime climate: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil galore . . . I would also like to tuck in some dwarf fruit trees: lemon and lime especially, and I would like to try some avocado and grapefruit and maybe figs. I saw some of the lemons and limes in a nursery greenhouse once, before we moved here. Those poor little trees were almost falling over from fruit and I can't stop thinking about them. Also I would not mind replacing the gravel floors with pea gravel and/or sand because I think it would be friendlier on bare feet. But then again it is pretty much a snake swingers club in there, so bare toes are probably out of the question regardless.

And that (finally) is the story of today and the greenhouse.

Also I made more baguettes. We seem to have run out . . .

Lastly: there is a sweet green haze of something in the mud-garden. I think it's crimson clover (we planted a mix). The cover crop i s making it's presence known. Thrilling!