Category Archives: Washington

Read more..

Mini Greenhouse: Using Roofing Panels to Warm the Soil

Using Fiberglass Roofing Panels to Create a Mini Greenhouse, Extend the Season or Warm the Soil

A few weeks back we had a spell of warmer weather and I waited till the end of it to attempt a sowing of pole beans. A couple weeks after the fact I decided to look for the seed as nothing was coming up. I dug around and found…nothing. The soil didn’t look disturbed so I’m not thinking it was birds. I’m guessing it was just too cool and wet and the seed rotted. When the weather gods predicted another bout of warm weather I was on it. It occurred to me that I could possibly get a jump on sowing if I could warm the soil. Remembering a mini greenhouse I used in gardens past I made a trip to the lumber yard and came home with an 8′ long roofing panel. Once upon a time these used to be made out of fiberglass and perhaps you can still find them but any I’ve found locally have been PVC or ‘polycarbonate’. I’m hoping they will work as well (and last as long) as the fiberglass panels used to. I’ve used them to extend either end of the growing season when just a few degrees can make all the difference. My hope in using them this time is that they will help to warm the soil a few degrees so that the bush beans I plan to plant there will have a better shot at germinating should the weather cool again (a very real possibility around here).

Shopping List

  • 1 clear or semi clear roofing panel. 26″ wide and the length of your choice. Mine was 8′ long
  • 4 1″x2″x16″ stakes per panel
  • length of wire or twine to secure the panel

Preparation and Installation

  1. Cut a 1/4″ notch into each of the stakes, a few inches from the top. This will insure that the wire or twine stays put. I cut my panel into 2 4′ sections but they can also be left whole.
  2. Once you decide where you want your panel to sit, drive two of the stakes into the ground approximately 6-12″ in from each end of one side of the panel.
    Drive two more stakes in 12″ from the first two. If two panels are being installed next to each other you can use 2 less stakes as the middle stakes can secure both panels (see image).
  3. Gently fold the panel into an upside down U shape and set it between the two stakes.
  4. Tie string or wire, crossing over the panels. Thats all there is to it!

Garden Happenings

Harvest

2 large bags filled with lettuce, kale and spinach
The Palco spinach is showing signs that it is about to bolt which necessitated harvesting that 1′ wide bed. Since I wanted the space on either side of it I decided to harvest one of the beds of the Mild Mesclun mix that was ready. I also harvested the rest of the red and butter lettuce from the bed next to the peas. I ended up with two large bags of green goodness, one filled with lettuce and the other with spinach and kale. Way more than we will ever eat I decided to fill some 1 gallon bags for the local food bank. I ended up getting 8 1 gallon bags in total. 3 spinach, 2 kale and 4 lettuce. 8 to go to Helpline and 1 bag of spinach for us.

Sowing

It may be too warm but I sowed two short rows of Renee’s Farmer’s Market Blend lettuce in the shade of the peas.

On the balcony I started a pot of SMR-58 cukes, Astia zucchini and another attempt at “Italian Pesto basil. ALL of the batch I started inside this spring ended up dying. Not sure if it was a rot or ? Need to investigate that.

Read more..

Two Tiny Tomatoes Perfect for a Tiny Space

For the past couple of years I’ve kept my tomato growing to the balcony. The 50sq foot space gets almost all day sun in which tomatoes thrive. In addition to the one large salad tomato planted in a half barrel, our balcony supports a dozen or so different herbs in pots, several fig trees I started from cuttings brought out from KY and several pots of geraniums and pansies. I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with a single tomato plant so I set out to find something small that wouldn’t take up much of our little remaining space. This year I opted for an old favorite and a new variety I had never grown. Both were started inside under lights in the early part of April. A couple of weeks ago I transplanted them to their final containers.

Tiny Tim Tomatoes

Tiny Tim Cherry Tomatoes
Tiny Tim is an old favorite of mine. An upright heirloom variety that grows just about a foot tall, this open pollinated tomato was introduced in the 1940s and does really well in containers. I’ve had luck planting 3-4 plants in a 3 gallon container. They are a little crowded which means a little more work keeping up on the watering and feeding but I find it worth the extra effort and the yield is great for the amount of space required. I trellis the plants by cutting the bottom ring off of a 3 ring tomato cage and using the two two rings to contain the plants. They end up looking like little green bushes full of small red fruit. The taste is tangy sweet.

Litt’l Bites Tomatoes

Renee’s Litt’l Bites is a new variety for me. An English tomato that also grows to about 12 inches in height but tends to spread sideways more than TT. The two I planted should be spilling over the side of the railing planter they are sharing with some trailing nasturtiums and pansies before too long. Since this is a new variety for me I can’t attest to their taste but The plants are very sturdy and already sport a number of blossoms and a few small tomaotoes despite the 50-60f temps we have been having recently. Our weather here in the Seattle area is a lot like some parts of England so I have high hopes that this will become another favorite of mine. I’ll update this post once I actually get to taste them.