March Photo Record #1

This is the exterior of the first raised bed with low tunnel as it was set up last weekend. This is assembled from 4 hoops of 1/2" grey conduit draped with 6 mil plastic.  Because of my troubles with gusting wind, I have clamped the plastic to the top of the raised bed using 2 x 6s and one in-elegant 4x4.

In the background, you can see another bed covered with a brown plastic tarp, weighed down with planting containers and concrete blocks.  That will be part of this month's project.

On the right is a look at the interior.  You can see the conduit hoops (used because they are UV resistant) set into 1" pvc that has been fastened to the raised bed frame.

This bed has been planted for about a week.  Kale is in the foreground, with chard in the middle and butter crunch lettuce at the far end.  I watered it about 4 days ago but you can see that the soil is still darkened.  The plastic creates a microclimate that conserves moisture, and condensation forms on the inside of the plastic.

With cool days as we have in March, I won't need to water much for the next several weeks.

I amended the soil with compost and turned under the leaf mulch that I covered the bed with last November.  When planting, I added Espoma Plant-tone organic fertilizer.












Below is a closer view of the bed

Winter Challenges

Winter means different things in different locations.  Here, the threat of winter is not so much the deep cold.  We seldom get temperatures below 30 F;  and nights in the lower twenties are an extreme rarity.  We will receive significant snowfall perhaps twice a winter, and that is merely a snowfall over 2 inches, usually in late January or early February.

Instead, what we are usually faced with are soaking rains causing saturated ground, and gusting wind.  Because of our flat terrain and low elevation, the ground drains very poorly, and gardens dug into the ground will usually remain saturated.  The solution is to build raised beds to dramatically improve the drainage.  With raised beds and low tunnels to give a modest amount of frost protection, but more importantly rain and wind protection, winter gardening should be fairly straightforward. 

This would be true except for the other factor of this area: gusting winds.  Winter storms can bring with them tornadic winds that will rip apart row covers, and poly film stretched over pvc hoops is especially vulnerable.  The danger is that you have a winter garden that you've nursed for several months, but one severe windstorm will tear your covers to shreds and then leave your garden exposed to desiccating winds or soaking rains, or both on alternating days.

So the bottom line is that structural integrity is the primary factor in securing the low tunnels.  In the videos, you see happy gardeners digging a shallow trench with a hoe and covering the loose plastic edges with a few inches of soil.  That is simply not happening here.  You'll be chasing your agribon into your neighbor's yard after the first weekend. I've had the wind move concrete blocks off the plastic.

So now I'm wrapping the ends around 2x6s and clamping the boards to the top of my raised bed perimeter. with 4" C-clamps.  It does secure the row cover, but it makes it more difficult to get into the bed when you want to harvest a few leaves for your dinner salad.

The result, however, is that we're creating an excellent winter microclimate.  Free from the wind and driving rain, with their feet dry but leaves moist inside the dome, and with plenty of sunlight, winter plants have what they need to thrive.

 

Markers February 2016

The state of the mountain:
The upper bed has been prepared and has been covered with a tarp for the last 6 weeks.  The lower two beds have also been covered with tarps for 6 weeks, but the beds beneath them have been too wet to work.

This past week I put up the hoops  (8' grey electrical conduit) and covered them with plastic to further seal out the moisture.  The rainy weather has been constant for at least the last week, and it snowed on the 15th (last Monday)  so the pattern of having the most miserable weather in February has been holding constant.

However, I have swiss chard seedlings started (Bright Lights) and ready to plant.  At the Walmart garden center I found 9-cell packs of Kale and Butter Crunch Lettuce.  Both of these are ready to plant in that upper bed, which is scheduled to be the Leaf bed this year.

I wish the spinach or bok choy seeds had come up by now, but neither has done anything.

The middle bed is too low, and is inundated with ground water.  We need to create a proper raised bed in that location to help the drainage situation.

I need to get large flat pavers to hold down the ends of the plastic row covers, and 2x6s for the sides.