{UPDATE} look here for the finished product! Like I said in an earlier post, I would not recommend our present hoop house design to anyone who has gust of wind and lots of snow. It has served the purpose of getting us going, of experimentation, and we are still hoping for a Winter Harvest (I’ll …
Category Archives: garden structures
Garden Work
I did a lot of work in the garden today, another glorious Spring day. I filled up almost the entire new bed against the fence (4 x 16 feet). I am using the soil from the potato towers, which after sitting still for a good 7 months is showing its true nature: it’s full of …
Workshop/Studio, Root Cellar, and Future
Turns out we won’t be replacing our old, rotting, dirt-floor small shed with a new and larger, insulated workshop/pottery studio. The previous owner had an unwieldy septic system put in, and some digging today confirmed that part of that system lies within 10 feet of the corner of the old shed – and closer than …
Eat Real Food Challenge
I stopped reckoning our food consumption for the Riot a long time ago: the Riot way of calculating our food consumption and production was never clear to me. And so, though the growing and storing and preparing of food are almost constantly on my mind, I haven’t kept track, which made me feel at a …
Hoophouse Trouble
Well, the hoophouse almost kicked the bucket, again. Yesterday night we experienced 50 miles per hour gusts of wind that got through every crack and gap in the hoop house and almost lifted it up off the ground. Almost. When I woke up this morning after a pretty fitful sleep it was still there, but …
Start Growing!
I’m ready to start sowing in my basement light setup. I checked it and everything still works. I just received the first batch of seeds from Fedco. We also found a great deal for a 4-flat heat mat with thermostat, so jumped on it – and that has arrived as well. I bought my seedling …
In Other News
My first Beekeeping class this evening! I’m very excited and plan to report in full. I realized that with all the soil (clay) we’ll be digging up to create the pond, we’ll be able to make an earth oven. There might even be enough to build a small adobe structure around the oven. We’ll just …
Scary Weather
It’s scary out there. First it snowed: big, heavy, sticky snow. I went out every two hours to clear the hoop house with the big broom. The bare trees are loaded with snow, the branches that have leaves or needles on them droop precipitously. Then it stopped snowing, the clouds blew away, and all that …
Compost and Veggies in the Hoop House
Brrrr, looks so cold with that new banner! The hoop house beds get an airing Inspired by Rob of One Straw, I went out into the cold, bright air yesterday – gloves, woolen cap – to move the compost. The idea was to transfer it from Earth Machine no.1 behind our house, which receives our …
Who’s at the Feeder and Hoop House Trouble
I enjoy nothing more, in winter, then sitting by the big window with a cup of steaming tea and a good book or chess game, and observing the birds at the well-stocked feeder. We have the usual flock of juncos, who love playing in the snow. They are having it out with a flock (the …
Continue reading “Who’s at the Feeder and Hoop House Trouble”