2016 Garden - Starting Early

Is a high tunnel basically a greenhouse?

 

once the weather shifts out here kind of cut and dry we have had snow on holloween so its a crap shoot on prolonging the season. i will say this i have thought about the tunnel thing but might jsut run a indoor setup for lettuces and stuff easy like that

 

This is a picture of a high tunnel.
I plan to do something similar but smaller.

 

Interesting!

 

Well I'm already planning 2017's garden.

Anyone buy seeds from or heard anything about Urban Farmer? - http://www.ufseeds.com/

I ordered some pepper seeds last week. Super fast shipping. I'm thinking about ordering all my seeds from them.

 

Took a ride over to my bros house this evening. Pepper plants are still going strong!













The habanero plants are LOADED. Gotta be hundreds of peppers on them.

 

It begins...

 

Even though it is not complete, I have started planting in my high tunnel. I still need to make permanent ends with doors I can open when it gets too warm inside.

Some peas are coming up from the compost in the bed where I am planting carrots.

The garlic and lettuce are starting to come up. Plus a bunch of cuttings from my favorite tomato plants had grown enough that I needed to transplant them into larger pots.


If everything works out, I should have peas, carrots and lettuce through this winter.

 

Hummingbird tongues?

 

Got it in one! Roasted the birds on a skewer, and they were delicious. And they come with a built-in toothpick.





(Actually, the first saffron threads of the season.)

 

The lettuce in my tunnel is doing pretty good. If you notice bare spots in the garlic that is because I have been feeding the gophers. I forgot to put down wire under the beds.

I was able to pick a large bowl of the Buttercrunch today. Very tender, sweet and delicious.

More seeds arrived today from Baker Creek.
All but the squash can be grown this fall/winter.

 

Sadly no crocuses grew, and we had planted a whole bag of bulbs. Pretty sure the chipmunks and/ or squirrels got to them all back in the spring. It stinks waiting for a year, and then finding out we got nothing.

 

I've got pepper plants that are still going strong and blooming. Also....2 cucumber plants have sprouted. In a spot we never planted cucumbers. It's at the complete opposite end of the garden. AND one plant has a tiny cucumber on it.
Weirdest thing.

 

I am getting my first raised bed planted for fall. This one was planted with 8 dozen garlic cloves and 5 dozen potatoes. The garlic is a hardneck variety called Spanish Red. The red potatoes are a fingerling called Amarosa. I forget what the gold ones are but they sure taste good. The bed is about 3 feet wide and 30 feet long. I plan to make about 5 or 6 more beds like this. I will also be adding hoops so I can use plastic or row covers when the temp drops below freezing.

 

Nice haul!

It frosted here the past few nights. Garden is officially DONE. Until next year. Which, starts in about 1-2 months getting the seeds going.

 

We've seen only a couple nights with very light frosts. It's been in the 60s for a while. (In previous years we've seen single digits this time of year.)

Love me some home grown garlic!

 

same here not as cold as it should be but i will take advantage

 

Pulled in a good crop of jalapenos, bell peppers and green tomatoes on Saturday. Looks like that finishes up the vegetables for 2016. Still have some herbs that are doing well.

 

Those were the seed potatoes and garlic cloves that I planted.
Things are getting a good start in the tunnel. On the right there are 4 rows of carrots coming up and a row of lettuce as well as lots of onions and garlic.
On the left is lettuce that I have been able to pick a large colander every 4 days.
In the back are tomatoes and celery that I am trying to over winter. They are actually blossoming and setting fruit.
The water in the middle is to help with residual heat at night.

 

Amazing Mark, that you can get away with winter tomatoes where you are.
I might have to try a tube this winter, but it gets pretty cold here...
I am just getting my first raised bed in, 4x8x2 high. And I did get in a compost box.
Great to read about members gardening here. One of my fav topics besides knives.
I had built a really cool greenhouse at my home in Cali, and of course that is sold and history. So time to start again.