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Got most of the dirt removed from the GH, found 2 more 'carrot' sweet potatoes in it (wahoo!). [  ]
I'll start leveling the floor in prep for laying the fabric down, and setting the raised beds on top of it. At least if we get those boxes set in we'll have place to put some of the dirt. Also, I'll get the SP box relocated with fabric under it too so it too can receive some dirt. Even with day temps only in 40s, the GH gets up over 100 degrees inside with sun on it and its doors closed - with them left open it stays about 80-85 so really nice for working inside it.
Looks like this weekend maybe be wet (40% for us). Won't be too bad for working inside the GH since it will stay dry - but its also likely to be our last opportunities for getting things done outside.
I put a load in the FD this AM - 2 trays of Roma tomatoes, some corn and some blocks of prepared chili (see pic). So far, storing the green tomatoes is working out okay, some of them came from there. There are several more Romas and regular ones ready so I may have to FD another full batch of just them this week. They sure work well in chili. Haven't yet tried rehydrating any for BLTs, so we'll give that test out of this current batch.
Well, I'd best get to working outside.
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LOL, when I first saw your post this morning, I did not have time to read it all, so I just looked at the pic and thought the FDer tray had banana bread on it. Just read the whole post and saw it was chili[:/]. So what do you put the chili in for those small batches to form that shape before you FD them? Pretty crazy how warm your GH gets, should be great for growing next Spring. 50% chance of rain down here on Sat, hope it holds off until the afternoon because I want to go hunting that morning. Speaking of carrot sized SP, I picked the last of our carrots this morning. Nothing left to do now but see if I can get my tiller in the grow boxes, so I can get some leaves till in.[:/]
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We use a silicone tray, one that you'd use for small loaves of bread, and just set it on a small cookie sheet (or it might even fit on FDer sheet) to give it some structure. It allows us to fill extra portions, especially more liquid things, that may even be different flavors in our freezer until we are ready for full batch in the FDer. Once they are frozen in bricks you could transfer to FD tray still in freezer if you had more that would fit in the silicone tray. The silicone tray is nice because it'll flex easily to remove your brick of food without having to thaw it any.
Yes I see we too are up to 50% chance of rain Sat and Sun too. We got all the foundation spaces closed up today, so tomorrow I'll work to level the flooring while Jeff is at his doctor's appt then he'll start building the raised boxes so once we can lay the fabric down we'll be able to lay the boxes right on top. We just may reach our goal for GH before we depart on our trip after all. [ ]
Our tiller is small Mantis tiller, it works nicely in raised beds since it is pretty small. As we fill the new raised beds we will till in some leaves, some compost we made this year as well as some used straw from my bales, it really makes it nice for using up a lot of yard waste this time of year. Free fertilizer, cant beat that!
Hope your hunting trip goes well!
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Silicone trays are a great idea, where do you buy them?
So how did it go with leveling the floor and building the raised boxes today?
I use to have a small Mantis tiller but I got it used and it did not work, so instead of fixing it, I traded it to a guy in exchange for some engine work on my last boat. Seemed like a good trade at the time, now I wish I had it.[  ]
Ira and I went out fishing today, I'll post a report later.
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NOT very good progress today, maybe we just needed a break - LOL
But we did add handles (inside and outside) to the GH's sliding doors to make it bit easier to slide them.
No appt's tomorrow and we now have all the other things we needed (like the screws for making the making raised beds) and were' both agreed we'll hit it hard tomorrow. if we need any breaks from stuff tomorrow we'll also police -up stuff for winter prep - like moving inside all the patio furniture, install driveway markers so we don't plow our lawn or hit the gravel area beside the drive and kill our snow thrower.
Those silicone trays are not too pricey - this one on Amazon (I'm a huge Amazon person) is pretty cheap and very similar to the one I have except mine is not pretty pink - not that color matters, LOL https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OCG7GVO/ref...s9dHJ1ZQ==
I'll watch for your report, hopefully it was better luck than last time.
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Sorry got busy with trip to Virginia then elk hunting . Then I couldn't find this thread. It's kind of hidden 😁 but anyway yes I garden we do tomatoes ,potatoes, carrots, beets,broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, corn,squash, beans, peas, greens and melons. Not always successful with short season but we try.
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Wow, you grow a great garden and it looks like a very decent size. How long and deep are your boxes? What kind of squash do you grow?
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6 X 32 and 2 foot tall and I filled them with utelite soil blend. we usually have zucchini, spaghetti and pumpkin for our squash.
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Wow, that is some big grow boxes and 24" deep is awesome. It looks like you are using vinyl siding for your boxes, can't say I've ever seen a pieces that long before. Where did you buy that utelite soil blend?
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direct from the mine on the west side of Rockport. its great for small seeds because it doesn't pack hard like our clay soil. I think J&J carries it in bags as well.
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the 24 inches deep makes it easier on the old fat guy pulling weeds[laugh]
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So how has your progress been the last two day? Thanks for the link to the silicone trays.
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There is a mine for that stuff, I had no idea, can you pick it up at the mine? Is it a lot cheaper to buy there?
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Who is the old fat guy, your Dad, because I know you aren't talking about yourself. How hard was it to make your grow boxes, I like the idea of the taller boxes too.
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It looks like those boxes are made with vinyl fence materials? But I too would like to know more about the utelite.
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Yes, that's what I meant, vinyl fence material, not siding but I'm amazed at how long it is. I can see that there is a piece in the middle that divides it up but that would mean that each piece on the lengths are 16 ft long, I did not realise they made fence pieces that long. I love the idea of having beds that are two feet deep.
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That is how deep we're making ours in the GH. If we have enough wood left over, the SP box will also be increased to that depth. perhaps it will be even if we had to buy little more.
We've seen kits that can bought that look a lot like those. I did notice those vertical pieces as well, maybe that where you join two lengths or something?
Progress report - Jeff needed to slightly adjust the windows so they'd seat in better, then he wasn't happy with the strain the openers put on the aluminum so he picked up some thicker and cut and drilled it to fit for added support. So a quickie install turned into almost full day's progress, but we are comforted in knowing its good and sturdy, built to last.
Pretty foggy this AM, its almost hard to see the houses across the street. Kind of weird. The breeze we had yesterday really cause our leaves to finally drop. So I'll be gathering them up today for tilling in, someday - if we can get to it before we depart or have to wait till we get back at least they won't be under the snaow. We pretty much lost a lot of yesterday due to our son coming over with the grand daughters for lunch, a movie and a logic board game. It was a great visit.
Supposed to be cooler today which will feel good working outside.
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Well, we gathered all the leaves that have dropped today and put them in the SP box for holding until the raised beds are built and we can then till them in with dirt and other compost.
We made more corner brackets for our raised beds. We are using the steel that GH was supposed to mount onto. So we're upcycling it by cutting and flattening it, then drilling holes in for the screws. Sure beats throwing it away and buying something else to use, it just takes a bit longer [crazy].
So we're kind of done for the day. Maybe tomorrow we'll get rest of corners made, maybe even level out the floor of GH and put down the fabric so we can start filling and tilling all this stored soil, leaves and compost. before snow starts to fly in afternoon. at least once that happens we can still work some more on the inside of the GH even if it is after we return from our trip.
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[quote jjannie]That is how deep we're making ours in the GH. If we have enough wood left over, the SP box will also be increased to that depth. perhaps it will be even if we had to buy little more.
We've seen kits that can bought that look a lot like those. I did notice those vertical pieces as well, maybe that where you join two lengths or something?
Progress report - Jeff needed to slightly adjust the windows so they'd seat in better, then he wasn't happy with the strain the openers put on the aluminum so he picked up some thicker and cut and drilled it to fit for added support. So a quickie install turned into almost full day's progress, but we are comforted in knowing its good and sturdy, built to last.
Pretty foggy this AM, its almost hard to see the houses across the street. Kind of weird. The breeze we had yesterday really cause our leaves to finally drop. So I'll be gathering them up today for tilling in, someday - if we can get to it before we depart or have to wait till we get back at least they won't be under the snaow. We pretty much lost a lot of yesterday due to our son coming over with the grand daughters for lunch, a movie and a logic board game. It was a great visit.
Supposed to be cooler today which will feel good working outside.[/quote]
OH, I thought you said you were making yours 12 " deep[:/]. Yes, that joining piece that connects the two sections, if you zoom in on the pic, you can see the slots that are were made just for joining the two sections. Sounds like you guys are making that GH bullet proof, with all the improvements, it should last for a very long time.
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Did you get much snow up there yesterday or this morning? We we drove by yesterday, when we came back from hunting, it was still pretty nice along the freeway there. We hardly got a skiff here but it did rain for a while. Please post another pic of your greenhouse before you two leave.
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