My idea is to insulate the inside walls of the green house and cover the whole green house with a clear solar pool blanket, the one like bubble wrap.
So stage one was the internal walls.
Initially I thought I would just do 2 ft up the sides, and the wall that wont get the direct sun through it in the winter…. the northern wall. But after seeing how thin the plastic is on this greenhouse and the heat loss it already had I decided to try and cover all side walls and leave the roof open.
Using simple construction 2 inch polystyrene insulation panels I lined the inside of the walls.
So far it seems to be working well. The outside temp can be 40F (5C) and the inside temp is around 60 F (15C). There is a heater in there but at the moment it hardly comes on, it is set at 60F. The inner side is pure white, so it seems to work in reflecting the light around quite well , and the plants dont seem to suffer at all.
While everyones outdoor gardens have now died from frost and cold weather the greenhouse still looks unchanged.
We have herbs still growing strong, and tomato plants, strawberry plants, bok choi, lettuce, a cauliflower, and bell peppers. There is also some winter zuchinni seeds that have sprouted.
Poor mans heating system on the punnets, rope light. Its waterproof and really warm
Herbs still a growing
Some of the tomatoes on the giant tree tomato plants
More giant tree tomato plant
The overview
Early bird and roma toms. The early bird to the right arent looking very happy.
2 weeks and a bit with little time off has meant not enough hours in the day to do the update to the site. Plus I was sick as a dog last week after getting food poisoning in a Shoneys Restaurant in Vicksburg Mississippi … avoid this restaurant at all costs if you are thru this little town!
So after having planted some seeds, the sudden and unexpected drop in temps seems to have killed them, so had to do some replanting. It was mainly the arctic king lettuce which didnt survive… either that or there is a bug eating them!
We finally installed out weather station, you can see the whole weather scenerio here including a live webcam . The cam updates every 5 sec and the page updates every 15 minutes.
Well its the end of august, soon the leaves will turn and the snow will come!
We are still getting the odd strawberry, lots of herbs, peppers and tomatoes.
But there are no more lettuce plants for a while, which is a bummer. But soon we will have some more.
The Giant Tree Tomato plants are amazing, and giant, they are trying to put a hole in the roof. We also have tomatoes on them, they grow quick, real quick as you can see from the pics.
Bib lettuce seeds ready for the winter
The greenhouse
Toms still going
Romaine lettuce seed...poor little thing
The giant tree tomato plants
This is a giant tree tomato, tomato. 1 week old and look a the size of it.
I am impressed, 1 week and we have seeds from the tomatoes , lettuce and cucumber. In less than one week, and ALL the seeds I planted seem to have come alive.
I am still waiting on the celery, but I am hoping they will come alive this week.
Cucumber seed (yes 1 seed only was planted) from Reimer seeds sprouted in 3 days!!
Sub Arctic Tomato seeds 1 week later
Arctic king lettuce, 1 week after planting the seeds ...cool
Well as summer draws to a end slowly … and with the reminder that its going to end soon with the night time temps around 39 degrees last week!! Its time to look towards winter plants.
I found www.reimerseeds.com who like many others, had seeds for plants that tolerate cold temps.
We purchased for winter:
- Sub Arctic Tomato (fruits when in the 30 degrees temps!)
- Window box roma tomatoes
- Salad bush cucumbers ( another colder winter vegie that grows in small containers..apparently)
- Cold set tomato (another down to freezing temp type tomato)
- Tall Utah Celery (if it can grow in utah it can grow in a greenhouse here I think!)
- Artic king lettuce (the name says it all)
We have changed our planters for the winter, so we can put rope lights in the soil to keep it warm (yes rope lights are cheap and simple for heat!) We purchased some flat and long plastic storage containers from big lots for $8 each, painted the sides black and drilled holes in the bottom for the drainage.
The heater strung up and set to 60 degree for night time temps
This is where celery and arctic king lettuce has been planted for the winter
Some sub arctic tomato plants are planted here the new winter planter boxes.
This is the roma tom on the left and the early bird tom on the right, still fruiting.
Bok choi in the planter tubes along the walls, the soil was replaced after the lettuces finished in here.
Cucumbers in the planter bags for winter
Bib lettuce in the tubes starting from seed, these are great in salads
This is the poor eggplant after it was attacked by aphids, we seem to have rid the greenhouse of nearly all the bugs, and this plant is growing back slowly
Bell peppers are still growing and fruiting.
The herbs are loving it, in fact we have too many and have to freeze them weekly.
The head of the giant tree tomatoe which is now getting toms on it
The giant tree tomato plants and trying to break thru the roof.
The roma toms and early bird toms
These toms took the brunt of the aphid attack, although now aphid free I had to cut them back a bit to get them thru it all, but all it well now
Well with the impostors, the aphids taking their toll, and the fact that we have eaten all the lettuce it looks like I have gotten behind on the planting schedule, so the greenhouse within 1 week has gotten pretty empty looking.
The giant tree toms look like they will be able to not be attacked by the aphids as long as I keep up the fight and spray them constantly, some lettuces took a hit, but the herbs and strawberries are ok.
Roma toms and Early Bird toms seem to have missed the aphids
Giant tree toms are well... giant and have a small bit of aphid damage
Bell peppers are being harvested at the rate of 1 per 2 days which is pretty cool for a little greenhouse!
