Greenhouse planning and prep continues slowly

I posted about a year ago that we wanted to build a greenhouse.  After Wifey found a great deal on some windows and a door, I scraped most of the windows to remove flaking paint and we worked to clear a space for it.  Then we got a ton of rain over the year and progress ground to a halt.

Since then, things have changed a bit.  Wifey convinced me to move the site from adjacent to the driveway pad, between the garage and the garden to the other side of the house and nearby to the pool deck.  I'm still not exactly certain it's going to get as much sunlight, but the new site should allow for us to build it in such a way to have a wider frontage facing the south sun.

We cleared a spot for it, as well.  We had a bulge of overgrown juniper, camillas that didn't flower, and dogwood all competing for space that were removed.  I removed a tree that was leaning toward the house that, unfortunately, turned out to be an American Persimmon.  Not a huge loss, though, since no fruit ever reached the ground that I'm aware of.  I also trimmed up the canopy of another adjacent tree to ensure we got a fair amount of sunlight to the site.

Wifey contacted the county to find out where the line was about whether we needed to get permits.  Based on what she found out, we don't need a permit for anything under 150 sq ft.  If we follow the guidance of the golden ratio of design, we could have a structure with the footprint of 9 1/2' x 15 3/8'.  That would yield a foot print of 146 sq ft.

I've been reading about ways to heat the greenhouse.  As much as I love the idea of having a geothermal setup, with all the trees we have in the area, I'm concerned about how to run the piping without damaging roots.  There's also the issue of power which doesn't exist out at the site and which I'd rather not have to pay for.  For now, I'm leaning toward trying composting as a means of heating it and using water barrels for thermal mass to help retain the heat collected inside.  I'd eventually like to try to have a solar-powered setup to give bonus heat on especially cold periods.

I'm torn about the plan for the foundation.  On one hand, I think that elevating everything and building on posts would simplify things considerably.  On the other hand, if we sunk the foundation down a few feet under ground (frost line in Maryland is 30"), we would get the benefit of having a modicum of consistent temperature thanks to soil temps at that depth being relatively stable.  Digging to that depth would also allow for us to have the option of small trees (dwarf banana, dwarf avocado to name two) with the benefits of added height.  The obvious downside is that working at depth also complicates things.  I don't know that that's an undertaking (and potential expense) we're going to be willing to undertake.

So, we're making some slow progress, but still have a ways to go before we can seriously tackle construction.

Planning for permanent agriculture just got complicated

Last week Wifey and I had a productive date day where we came home with 2 almond trees, 2 hazelnut starters, and 2 purple raspberry starters in addition to the chicken coop we went out for.

This weekend my mother-in-law visited and also told me that she'd purchased some plants for me for my birthday.  While it's a great gift that will, hopefully, keep on giving it is also poses an interesting problem from a planning standpoint.

She gave me the following:

• 2 elderberry starters
• 2 hazelnut starters
• 2 shagbark hickory starters
• 3 hardy pecan starters

Wifey also got me 2 almond starters for my birthday.

Wifey and I took a bit of a walkabout this afternoon to try to figure out where we're going to plant everything.  We've pretty well sorted out locations for about half of everything.

• Two almond trees will flank the driveway by the street.  They will hopefully not provide too much shade to the garden.
• The other two almond trees will flank the silver maple in the front.
• I need to drop a few trees in the woods in the back to provide some added light and space.  That will be the new home for the shagbark hickories.  Conveniently, I discovered another pignut hickory nearby to where one of those trees will be located.
• I need to drop what Wifey thinks is a cherry tree to make some room for one of the pecans.  That will allow us to plant on what I refer to as "the peninsula" which is a spit of land extending into the gorge on the way to the orchard.  The cherry needs to go, anyway, as it is dying and has a nasty lean anyway.  

Trying to grow Sweet Potato slips

Wifey is interested in growing sweet potatoes again.  Instead of planting them in the garden and letting them go nuts (as before), she wants to try some sort of potato tower she read about somewhere (maybe Pinterest?).  So we need sweet potato slips to start the plant-growing.

After checking the usual of my (Southern Exposure and Baker Creek) and finding the slips to be expensive ($10 for 6 slips seems pretty pricey), we decided to try to grow our own before succumbing to a purchase.

We went to the local farm market and bought a $5 basket of organic sweet potatoes (maybe 7 slim potatoes in the basket) to use as fodder.  A few tooth picks, some collected rain water, and a few jelly and/or peanut butter jars later and we have 4 potatoes sitting in a south-facing window working to grow some roots.

Once they grow roots, slips (aka the plant attempting to send out runners) should form shortly afterward.  Supposedly, you just remove the slips and put those in water until they grow their own roots.  Once they have roots, you plant the slips to grow new sweet potatoes.

It is supposedly a lengthy process, but I have time.  I'm certainly willing to take that time to save ourselves some money.

A productive date day

I took today off of work for a very important reason: Wifey secured us some baby sitting for The Bear so we could go pick up our new chicken coop!

Although we are decided to give chickening another shot, we aren't certain that it's going to be "our thing."  We decided to forgo our normal M.O. of building something bulletproof (and expensive) in favor of relatively disposable (and cheaper).  In this case, it meant a clearance 10 chicken (bantam) coop from Tractor Supply.  We'd ordered ahead and traveled to the nearest one that carried that model.  As you can see below, it's something we need to assemble ourselves.

While there, we picked up 2 Hazelnut starters for our "nut grove" and 2 more Purple Raspberry starters to go with the ones I planted a few years ago in the orchard.

On our way home, we stopped off at the southern location for our favorite farm market to see if they had any leftover fruit or nut trees.  Sure enough, they had some that were still living.  We also managed to get ourselves a $20 off price reduction from each of the almond trees we purchased.

Can't wait to get this stuff either assembled or in the ground (as appropriate)!

Trying the "Ruth Stout" method of gardening

While meandering through the labyrinth that is Youtube the other day, I came across a video by a couple who grew a considerable amount of potatoes with almost no work.  It after watching it, they referenced a methodology that was developed by Ruth Stout in which you continually add mulch on top of existing soil and keep planting on top of itself.  In that manner, you continually have little/no weeds, replenish nutrients, and have to do very little work as far as tilling or weeding.  They also did a video on that approach.

I discussed it, showed the first (potato) video to Wifey and we decided to give it a shot.

In the video, they laid out a grid of chunks (appears to be 2"+ thicknesses) of straw bales to their field in the fall and let the straw rot.  In the spring they took the rotted hay, fluffed it up and pulled sections apart in areas and laid out seed potatoes.  Once their potatoes were laid out, they covered them up again.

Note: I learned that although the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between hay and straw.  Hay is dried field grasses where straw is hay that has had the seed pods largely/entirely removed.  Hay is often consumed by animals and straw is bedding.

I took a trip to the local Ace hardware and bought 4 small bales of straw.  Wifey and I then laid them down in a grid to rot for the remainder of the winter until it gets to be potato planting time.

Seeds are started!

It's almost become tradition for Wifey and I to start getting stir crazy for the outdoors right about this time.  Although Winter has technically just begun, we long for our gardening, landscaping, and doing work in the orchard.  This year is no different!

A few days ago, Wifey and I took stock of the leftover seed from the last few years, discussed what we want to grow in the garden this year, and started looking through the seed catalogs from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Baker Creek. 

Yesterday I got the bright idea to start some herbs.  I took two 4-plug leftover plant trays from something or other, added in some of our potting soil, and went searching for herbs.  I didn't find all that I was hoping for and ended up planting 4 plugs of basil.  That still left me with another 4-plug tray loaded with potting soil, but no seeds in residence.  Unacceptable!

After anther search, I came up with the bright idea (if I do say so myself) to plant some peppers.  We have never had any luck with bell peppers (hot peppers seem to do fine, though) so I figured we might as well do an early planting of peppers to see if we can do some experiments to get some to actually produce.