Winter Gardens/ Greenhouse!

[Sally PB]

It was 80 degrees in the green house yesterday when the sun was shining. It can warm up in there very quickly. The ground in there is still quite a bit warmer than the ground outside too.

 

[Sally PB]

Picture of the green house.

Sorry about not-squareness of the picture.

South is to the right; we're looking at the west side. Our prevailing winds are west and north. This is up on a hill, and it gets a lot of wind. There's almost always at least a breeze up there.

Hubby dug out that plot to make it level: it's a bit of a slope right-to-left (south to north), and he did that with a shovel. This is a lot of work; it's the same soil I complain about in my heavy soil garden.

See the pile of dirt and grass near the base of the west wall? I'm filling that in with dirt.

And logs. Also doing it on the north side and east side. The south facing side is clear to nearly ground level. I call this my Big Dirt Project. There is more there now than shows in the picture, but it's not really "done" yet. I want to insulate the outside at ground level to help keep it warm. As much as I can, anyway, when we get temps in the teens (and lower) and lots of wind up on that hill.

 

[CCsGarden]

Picture of the green house.View attachment 3695759
Sorry about not-squareness of the picture.

South is to the right; we're looking at the west side. Our prevailing winds are west and north. This is up on a hill, and it gets a lot of wind. There's almost always at least a breeze up there.

Hubby dug out that plot to make it level: it's a bit of a slope right-to-left (south to north), and he did that with a shovel. This is a lot of work; it's the same soil I complain about in my heavy soil garden.

See the pile of dirt and grass near the base of the west wall? I'm filling that in with dirt.
View attachment 3695761
And logs. Also doing it on the north side and east side. The south facing side is clear to nearly ground level. I call this my Big Dirt Project. There is more there now than shows in the picture, but it's not really "done" yet. I want to insulate the outside at ground level to help keep it warm. As much as I can, anyway, when we get temps in the teens (and lower) and lots of wind up on that hill.

Wow! Just wow! I wish I could build something that big! I'm in a neighborhood right now and more yard is small . But once I move to my land I hope to do bigger greenhouses like yours
Did you come up with the design?
If you did you do a great job on it!

 

[rosemarythyme]

My winter garden is 2 kale plants and 1 collard greens lol.

I'll start up seeds again in January, but I'll live with buying vegetables for a few months to give myself a break in the garden. Still finishing up winter prep for the yard - have to trim back the azaleas and ivy, and then cut back roughly 1/8 mi of laurel bushes, ugh.

 

[Sally PB]

Did you come up with the design?

This is all hubby's design and work. He's my hero.

It's a lot bigger than it needs to be, but once it's built, the expense is done, since we don't heat it. So I have lots of storage room for garden things in there. And I can keep my totes of potting soil semi-sort-of warm.

A full tote of soil is waaaaay to heavy to move. I'm glad I have them in there where I need them come March/April. I also have a tote full of water. That's one of the ways I know how cold it gets down on the floor.

We went a lot higher than needed (so far) as we thought about maybe over wintering a tree in there. What kind of tree? But we have the option.

 

[CCsGarden]

This is all hubby's design and work. He's my hero.

It's a lot bigger than it needs to be, but once it's built, the expense is done, since we don't heat it. So I have lots of storage room for garden things in there. And I can keep my totes of potting soil semi-sort-of warm.

A full tote of soil is waaaaay to heavy to move. I'm glad I have them in there where I need them come March/April. I also have a tote full of water. That's one of the ways I know how cold it gets down on the floor.

We went a lot higher than needed (so far) as we thought about maybe over wintering a tree in there. What kind of tree? But we have the option.

That's so great you have that! Sounds like it came to a very good use for garden supply storage too

 

[CCsGarden]

My winter garden is 2 kale plants and 1 collard greens lol.

I'll start up seeds again in January, but I'll live with buying vegetables for a few months to give myself a break in the garden. Still finishing up winter prep for the yard - have to trim back the azaleas and ivy, and then cut back roughly 1/8 mi of laurel bushes, ugh.

Thats nice you've got some kale and collard Greens growing! I always like doing the fun stuff such as sowing seeds , building greenhouses and harvesting things. But never trimming bushes and plants down
Well we have to do the stuff we don't like aside from the other things

 

[Sally PB]

We have cloudy skies forecast for the next several days. When they threaten us with sun again, I'm going to go see how cold it got in the green house before the sun comes out.

I need some motivation to get outside and do something. If I have pots of spinach planted up there, I'd have a reason to get off my butt and go outside.

Hey, Sally! You could go up to the green house and you might see something GREEN! Talk about an incentive!

I have been known to make weird, excited, squeaky noises with I see seedlings sprouting.

 

[NanaK]

Hello everyone!
I have decided to start my own thread because I wanted to share pictures of my wooden greenhouse I made out of scrap pieces of wood and my winter garden! And maybe some tips too

I would love to see your winter gardens and greenhouse!
Feel free to share tips, advice and what ever you feel like sharing

View attachment 3695215
Inside I've got some lettuce and dill sprouting
View attachment 3695216

And some cabbage
View attachment 3695218
Over the next weeks I hope everything gets bigger. I have some carrots, zucchinis and basil I will share pictures of later, that is also growing in my greenhouse

Hope you enjoy !
CC

Love this!

Has anyone ever tried "Winter Sowing"?
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext...All the Dirt on Winter Sowing Power Point.pdf

Now I need to finish getting the greenhouse clean up. It is not photo worthy at the moment.

So far as the winter garden, I am in zone 8a so I still have some brassicas in the ground right now. I have a small patch of carrots, garlic and onions, also. Those things are pretty tough.
I like to use my greenhouse start a few seeds early in spring and save a few things longer in fall. It is only passively heated. Days are short this time of year so things grow slowly.

 

[Callender Girl]

Winter sowing looks intriguing! Thanks for sharing the info!