You won’t know until you try. Put the seeds in the ground and do a garden experiment.
My Garden Journal
I’ve created this section of my blog primarily for my records, so that I know when I planted what.
October 30/22
Just last week I had reached my “wall”, that point when I knew that I needed a break from gardening and I had put up my tools for the winter.
Then, yesterday, I ate some fresh peas and a strawberry from my Hoophouse and my enthusiasm was renewed!
A quick bit of research showed videos of Hoophouse gardens, in December, in zone 5, with lettuces and radishes, and kale…. Sounds like a good experiment to try. Why not? What is there to lose? A few seeds?
Step 1: double up the layers
We recently covered our Hoophouse with a layer of sturdy greenhouse plastic and that is good, but we could have a really cold winter. Will that be enough?
Covering the garden beds, inside the Hoophouse, with mini-Hoophouses, will apparently move my “zone 5” environment to a “zone 6”, giving my plants a better chance of surviving.
I had some hoop support wires stored away from several years ago and I stuck them in the ground, ready for cold weather days. If needed, or I should say “when needed”, I will put some row cover cloth over the hoops, creating mini-hoophouses for each row - minis inside the biggie.
Direct Sowing for Winter
On the left side of the Hoophouse, (shown in the photo above), I have carrots growing. On the right side, are parsnips and Swiss Chard. In the centre, with my newly installed cattle panel trellis are my peas and, well, a lot of soil without plants.
This is where I sowed the following, today:
Paonia Organic Lettuce (William Dam Seeds from the spring)
French breakfast radish (same order as above)
Lacinato Kale (West Coast seeds from this fall)
Will they grow? We will have to wait and see. Will they survive the winter? Again, we wait to see.
The Challenge
When I started thinking about this experiment, I thought that my biggest challenge was going to be those low temperatures over night when there was no sun to provide a heat source.
I couldn’t have been more wrong - you can always put on another layer! But what do you do when you have a beautiful sunny day???
Let me tell you that these hoophouses get HOT when they are closed up!! And there lies the challenge. I don’t want to have steamed vegetables before they even get harvested.
Somehow, I will have to not only monitor the temperature but I will also have to get up the gumption to go outside in the middle of winter to open up the Hoophouse doorway to let out some heat and then trek back out there to close it up again before things start to cool down for the night.
Now, for most people, that is not a big deal but I KNOW ME!! I don’t call myself “the lazy old gardener” for no reason. I will really have to dig deep into my homesteading dreams to find the motivation to get the job done.
Speaking of which …. I forgot that I opened the door earlier today and I need to get out there ASAP!!
