Dealing with the freezes and hoop houses

Texas freezes are getting a lot colder and with the drought stressed landscape plants we need to take special care to protect them. Also more people than ever are planting home gardens and many of these plans will not take a “hard freeze” well or at all.  So the temp is dropping and what do you do?  

Central Tx Gardener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82kqFT4jYZw

1. Water plants well. keep the water off the leaves and do not make the soil wet.
2. Mulch well around the roots of perennials like roses, mums
3. Cover plants with cloth — blankets, sheets, frost blankets etc—not plastic unless it is over a frame.
4. Make temporary row covers from any bendable substance-wire, then cover with heavy frost blankets late in day and remove in morning. Frost blankets come in dark green and white. the white ones let light through and can be left in place for a couple of days. The green ones work for deciduous shrubs / small trees that need no light . 
5. Make hoop houses—you’ll need 1/2” PVC in 10’ lengths, 4 way connectors or strap ties, 4-6mm plastic sheeting, clamps,   PVC can be made into hoop and attached to beds with U-brackets, cinderblock, short rebar pieces. (see pics following) Securing a piece at the top stabilizes the structure. attaching a length of wood or PVC to bottom of each side keeps it in place. Step by step instructions:
   http://www.texasgardener.com/pastissues/sepoct02/extending.html  or  http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/hoop-houses.aspx#axzz3J3nvkhUF  
6. Use lights for heat. Old fashioned light bulbs work well, strands of Xmas lights 7w type, even mini-lights wrapped around pots help. Clamp type shop lights work well too—might need a colored bulb. For greenhouses the small oil filled radiator type electric heater works well. 
7. Precondition tender fruit trees and strawberries using a spray like seaweed or kelp and watering with a higher potassium fertilizer. Several spays like Frost Away or Freezepruf work on non-edible leaves. These are anti-transpirants so plants do not loose moisture through their leaves. Trees need their graft area wrapped too. 
8. Use buckets or water in a circle around a tree. fill the tree-gators with warm water—who would do that????
9. many potted plants have to be moved inside for a freeze. porous pots tolerate freezes worst as they water gets into the clay and freezing shatters the posts, any pot where water might stand(remove the drip trays) can cause frozen roots. putting several pots together and wrapping them or placing them inside a barrier filled with mulch/leaves can help them winter. Check the zone rating—those for 6 and less will overwinter here generally well. http://gardening.about.com/od/containergardenin1/a/Winter-Pots.htm 
10. consider creating a cold frame from boards or cinderblocks with a glass/plastic/plexiglass top. These are frequently placed against the house or garage but can be put against any wall. you can grow plants in it that need a bit more protection from cold or wind, put potted plants into it (depends on height) , store dormant plants until spring, harden off seedlings, http://www.finegardening.com/4-ways-use-cold-frame 
    

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/hoop-houses.aspx#ixzz3J8v3Yirc

http://www.backyardgardening.net/article/raised-bed-hoop-house/

http://bonnieplants.com/library/make-a-row-cover-hoop-house/ 

Garden survives freeze and keeps on producing

I have been watering and covering plants for weeks now as each cold snap comes through but I think it has been worth it in preserving the plants that we eat. I did not count on all this cold when I bought the cheddar and purple cauliflower. They are nice but don't do the cold as well as the snowball. I am surprised to see how much moisture the soil is holding (see my cute moisture meter) as I was ready to pour more water on an already adequately moist bed. The brussels sprouts though needed water and got a good gallon.

Inside the greenhouse I have a mix right now--peppers and tomatoes in large containers that continue to give up a few fruit every week or so and new seedling that are in their growing pots. I have over 15 tomatoes out there and many celery and broccoli and chard too. The broccoli and chard will move out in a week or so but the tomatoes will live in there until March.

Winter crops coming along

Seemed like such a long time since I planted the cabbage and the cauliflower and broccoli in the beats. All of a sudden all of them are getting ready to harvest. We have been eating beets now for several weeks, both the cauliflower and the broccoli have small heads on them and the brussels sprouts are taking off and putting on lots of their small heads on each stem. The spinach didn't fare too well this winter but we are getting a smattering. The bok choy keeps bolting because of the warm weather however is the flowers are absolutely covered by bees every day. They have put on nice large leaves which I'm harvesting individually. Even the lettuce is finally beginning to produce. I have two different kinds of P is growing and the ones that only get about 2 feet tall are producing well the other ones finally are blooming but they're getting mildew on them so we'll see how they do.

Going inside the greenhouse makes me smile. I have four different kinds of peppers in there and two different kinds of tomatoes as well as basil and one eggplant. All of the peppers are producing nicely and one of my tomatoes given to me by a friend is covered with small tomatoes that we have been able to ripen every few days. I am using the shelf to bring along the tomato seedlings  until I can plant them in March. I have had to move most of the herbs out of the greenhouse and put them in the ground as they're big enough and have tolerated the transplanting.

Winter garden presents challenges

This falls garden has presented a number of challenges. The infestation of whiteflies and other insects I had in the front yard garden has carried over onto many of the fall garden plants. I have pulled out all of the infested plants throwing away many eggplants and squash plants. Faithfully using fish emulsion on the suggestion of green and growing and the sustainable harvest people I have managed to have plants that are once more thriving except for the beets. They are being particularly hard hit by something that's eating holes in their leaves but I don't want to risk putting too much nitrogen on them and causing them to not make adequate sized beets. I have also found a number of very large cut worms in the soil which were doing significant damage to my bean plants and others. I have dug them out and smash them in hopes of reducing their population. At least we have had several flight freezes in late December and early January.

We were able to get the greenhouse repositioned and covered with its plastic in plenty of time for the cold weather. In fact as soon as we had it ready the weather was not cold for several weeks again. The plants seem to be thriving in there with the extra humidity and heat. I have about six different kinds of pepper plants in the greenhouse and all of them have numerous peppers on them. This morning I noticed almost 20 small tomatoes on the four tomato plants and one more eggplant. I have a shelf mounted on the side to nurture small plants before I transplant them to the garden.

I use the tops of several 2 L bottles to make cloches for my broccoli and brussels sprouts transplants and these  seem to have caused them to grow better. Experimenting with the tops and the middles of the 2 L bottles leads me to believe that the tops that are closed with just a small hole work better then a 4 inch tall surround from the middle of the bottle. Now I wonder if using the bottom that is totally closed over the plants will also work well. However I will use whatever I can use so that the plants are protected from all the wind we have had.

The garlic and the onion sets that I planted are  growing well this year. I did get to mulch them with about an inch of leaves just before the freezes to keep the moisture into the ground. I think that only two or three of all the garlic bulbs I planted failed to germinate. We've been stealing a bit of the tops and they taste wonderful. I can hardly wait till this summer when we harvest them to have much superior garlic to what we've had in the past.

Spring bringing change to the gardens

 The winter garden this year was amazingly productive but as I pull out the cauliflower and broccoli plants I have all kinds of spring summer plants ready to slip into the ground. Using the window grow box and the greenhouse to grow my transplants has helped me to provide plants for the garden that I know were grown the way I want them grown. I kind of jumped the season a bit by planting tomatoes on Christmas day but when they were transplanted in the  last couple of weeks they

were ready. Some had buds on them and many now are blooming. A few even have tomatoes on them already. We refinished a bench glider and put it on a platform against the house looking out on the gardens. We can sit morning and late afternoon and have a drink and rest looking out at our bounty. More than that, people who are walking by stop and ask questions about the garden and the plants and are amazed that the plants are largely vegetables with a smattering of flowers here and there.

I thought by now I would be taking the sides off the greenhouse and replacing the plastic with row cover cloth but the extra humidity has the peppers going crazy and setting lots of fruit so I am holding off a few more weeks. I found a variety of cucumbers that do not need pollinators to grow in the greenhouse and have a nice showing already.
Off to do more planting as there are still a few feet of unplanted soil that I can drop seeds into.

A very bountiful winter

I have to admit that I planted a few too many seeds in my little starters. Never in my wildest imaginings was I prepared for all of them to germinate and thrive. The winter crops have been incredibly bountiful enabling me to share with friends and put some bags of cauliflower and broccoli in the freezer for later in the year. Now the kohl rabi is starting to head up and the cabbage is heading nicely. Should hold us for another 6-8 weeks, maybe more. We even made our first batch of sauerkraut and several batches of slaw--from the cauliflower leaves and bok choi. Fabulous tasting and better than just composting the leaves. My husband says we are on a cabbage diet and maybe we are as we are focusing on eating what I am growing.

The Malabar spinach and new Zealand spinach that did not do well last year both have seeded themselves and are thriving.  Even the regular spinach which we can only grow over the winter and early spring here is much more productive this year than it ever has been. I am also having a bumper crop of peas that I planted last October and suddenly took off with the rains this winter. Chard, of course is thriving and so pretty.

I wound up with 4 different kinds of cherry tomatoes/small tomatoes so they are going to stay in large pots and sit next to the greenhouse. I tried to find tomatoes that would thrive in the heat of our summer and am trying a couple of Porters and Porters Pride, Creole, Heatwave, super Sioux, and Arkansas traveler. I may have a couple of Romas or not. They did so poorly last year that I am about given up on them. I have both Black beauty and oriental eggplant, one that wintered over is blooming to beat the band--now will it set fruit? I haven't figured out where to put the green beans but they are so good fresh that we have to put some in. I am going to put more cucumbers in the greenhouse with row cover to try and avoid the bugs.
If I can find room for most of the plants I will be lucky. Maybe I'll have to share a few of the little guys with friends to turn them on to gardening too.

Getting a jumpstart on tomatoes in the sunroom

 I think Christmas was a bit early to start  the tomato seeds as they are getting pretty big and have another 30 days to go until I can put them into the ground. They started in the heated mat I made then up potted to 6 packs under the grow lights. Now they are in 4" pots under grow lights in the sunroom.  they will be ready to go into the greenhouse in a week or so or into the unheated mini-greenhouses I bought last year so maybe I was not to early after all. 


 Some (cherry ) will go into tubs and not into the ground. I think that anything less than 5 gallon is too small for tomatoes although the peppers are doing great in the kitty litter buckets that are about 3 gallons. I think the eggplants may do ok in the smaller buckets too so we'll try them this year. 
Germination rates were mostly fabulous resulting in over 20 plants growing out now. I'll have lots to share with friends. I am specifically growing ones that are heat tolerant and many from Texas or nearby states with our hot summers.
I also started about a dozen sweet 100s for the new garden at the school as well as almost as many romas. The school will get some and I'll keep some to put into pots. 
This year's list of tomatoes includes Porter and Porter's Pride, Creole, Heatwave, super sioux and white rabbit. 

Greens take off

Last fall when I was planting the cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, kohl rabi, chard, and spinach I didn't think as much about what it would look like in the winter as I am now. The gardens look beautiful and are feeding us most days with really healthy greens. We have found we like the bok choi so much that I reseeded for spring. Chard has been a bane. It grows so well but it is an acquired taste until this week when I steamed it in tomato juice instead of water or oil. Also found a great greens recipe with beer and molasses in it. WOW! Now we cannot get enough. I am impatiently waiting to harvest the first broccoli and kohl rabi.

Broccoli is really coming on--2 last week and several not far behind. The cauliflower are heading too deep in their leaves while close by the kohl rabi are beginning to make their bulbs. None of them is following the schedule on the seed packets but the produce will be welcome as it comes. We will probably get far more than I planned on from the looks of it now. 


The green house has been a real surprise to us. We really just wanted to salvage and protect the plants that were not done bearing but were frost tender--tomatoes and peppers with an eggplant thrown in. The heat and humidity has produced a new crop of peppers and has resulted in tasty vine ripened tomatoes that are better than I had last summer. I have draped the lettuce bed with plastic sheeting in a kind of cold frame arrangement to try and even out temperature and moisture and am being rewarded with bags of leaves every week now. Better get some more seedlings going to put in next month as these play out. 

Home-made heat mat for seedlings

I got a link for a homemade light box to start seedlings in my http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/11658/diy-heat-mat-speeds-seed-starting email this week but it used expensive rope lighting that I did not have on hand and many of our local stores did not have in stock due to clearance sales. I also was not sure I wanted to construct a box of plywood right now as we are redoing the kitchen and that takes priority. I did have a heavy cardboard box the right size and several strings of mini-lights that are not LED  to make a try. 

1. After cutting the box to size for half my windowsill  I added a 3" wide box in the center for stability and possibly to set transitional plant on top of. 
2. Next the lights were divided between the 2 halves and mostly  positioned under the lids of egg cartons. This give a good surface to set the plant trays and keeps the light a bit subdued. 
3. Next I secured enough plastic to make a cover and added a couple of pieces of styrofoam to insulate near the window. The plastic keeps in the heat and humidity pretty well. 
4. I added a tray of seed for the first trial. The temperature at top of soil level is an even 70 degrees which is perfect for the tomatoes. We used the top of the  freezer last year but some of the seeds need light to germinate or shortly after and the hotter and cooler cycles probably weren't the optimal either.

I  made my own starter cups using a clear XL egg carton with its top as the drip tray. Of course I did use the organic seed starting soil I have used in the past. Next week we'll see how things are actually progressing.

Heating my greenhouse easier than expected

Keeping the plants from freezing was easily accomplished but keeping the soil temperature in the pots above 50 degrees to let the tomatoes and peppers continue to ripen and maybe to set more fruit on the cherry tomatoes has provided a bit of a challenge. 


A single layer of 6mil plastic was letting the temperature drop a bit too much at night so I added a night cover of a reflective back tarp I got on sale at Harbor Freight over the summer. Using it has let me turn the heater down to low and still maintain temperatures 10-15 degrees higher than ambient over night. It has been a bit of a hassle putting it on at night and taking it off in the morning but I am finding new baby tomatoes so I do not mind so much. 


The entire structure has a double layer of cardboard about 20" high around the base right now but will slowly be augmented with 2" thick styrofoam blocks. I will also try adding large cell bubble wrap to the inside of the roof in hopes of limiting the use of the tarp. Bubble wrap could stay in place all day and actually add a bit to the heating.


Thanks to all who helped find the ideal temperature for the greenhouse as the cherry tomato that went in covered with blooms a couple of weeks ago is setting fruit like crazy--saw 8-10 new ones today. The celebrity tomatoes that were already on the plants are thriving and the first one is ripening. I do not expect more fruit to set. Peppers seem to have a few new blooms but again am not expecting anything but growing out those on the plants already.
 

Construction of Greenhouse no small task

With the weather being a bit more favorable this fall the tomatoes and peppers were setting like crazy but not quite ready to pick. I put them into much larger containers which probably helped with their growth but presented a real problem moving them into the sunroom area for the winter. many were very heavy and there would be no space for seed starting. So off we went to Lowe's for 6 mil plastic sheeting and to the garage for scrap wood. We managed to make the entire 6'x7' structure with what we had on hand or could re-cut. I even made a door out of the old sliding door we do not use any more. I didn't move the water barrel out as it is full with 55 gallons and should help keep the temperature a bit more stable this winter.
 It heats up pretty good radiently which may be a problem on warmer days (not many scheduled any time soon!) but isn't keeping much over ambient by the end of the night. I pulled the oil radient heater and the red Xmas lights out of the sunroom and was able to keep the greenhouse about 10 degrees over ambient at 40-42 so we'll see how it does. I have put in more buffer (cardboard) around the pots too. My reading says to add bubble packing wrap to trap more heat from sunlight but not sure how much it retains over night. 
We did get the frames for the last 2 rainbarrels built and installed last week too. They are now full too. George is building lattice type screens for them as the blue is not as attractive as we would like along the front walk.

Nippy weather means it time to plan for garden frost

Great article in the Statesman on preparing the garden for these frosty nights. Nippy weather means it time to plan for garden frost
I put up some ideas for making your own pots and starting seedlings on the reference page with links to videos.

Threat of frost avoided

Wonder what makes a person run out with all their sheets and old towels to the yard? It is the dread term "frost alert" or "freeze warning." Usually there are a couple of false alarms but you just don't know if it will be a miss or a hit so out to the tender plants I go. Of course, this time the weather took a pass but the dry wind was a real thing to deal with last week. I would hate to lose the tomatoes, peppers and  eggplant while the warmer weather drifts in and out over the next few weeks. Some of them will come into the "green house" and some will have a portable hot house dropped over them. I am thinking of keeping 2 of the cherry tomatoes out by the lettuce and just covering them if it gets chilly with the hot box from PVC and plastic. The NZ spinach is going crazy so hope it keeps liking the cooler weather. Rain barrels are still supplying the water but I am ready for a bit of rain to replenish them. I replanted the red leaf lettuce to pots and put it into the green house as the bugs or squirrels just won't let them alone but the bibb lettuce is doing fine in the garden.

Lots of "putting by" this morning! I am liking the NZ spinach better and better! I haven't steamed any until this am and it does not cook down very much, unlike regular spinach. Was able to put up servings of the rainbow chard, NZ spinach, beans, hungarian hot peppers, habbenero peppers, egg plant and have spinach and lettuce for dinner tonight. I cut some of my cherry tomatoes and brought them into the house to ripen.

Tricking the squirrels out of the seedlings

Not too pretty but it is being effective in keeping the squirrels from eating all the lettuce and spinace before we can. Each seedling is getting transplanted into a plastic collar made from 1/3 of a 2 liter soda bottle or used styrofoam cups with the bottoms cut out. The nicest side effect is they are acting like mini-terrariums so the seedlings are growing well. I have moved any trays of starters inside to keep them growing until I can transplant them (now if the cats will leave them alone!)
I have tried interplanting the lettuce with the carrots in their bins too and so far, so good.
The spinach, chard, broccoli, and caulifower are growing great and not being attacked. None of the peppers or tomatoes are being targeted either so we are slowly picking those.
I need to plant a bed of peas soon, just need to figure out which place to put them. I hope to use them as both a food and cover crop this year. We will see. It is still not very cool and it is mid November.
We will get enough NZ spinach for a quiche today--next year I will plant 2-3 times as much of this as it has been a real producer!