Build Your Own Greenhouse

If you have the desire to start your seedlings early and store your plants in a warm, safe place until transplanting in your garden, you may want to build your own greenhouse. Check out the slide show of the greenhouse my DH built last spring.at the right hand side of this page. The beautiful thing about this structure is that it is portable and it can be taken down and stored when you need it no longer. Ours is stored in the garage waiting for the moment when we can put it up again for this spring. If you would like more information on materials, etc, please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

A cold frame and a tent house are smaller projects and allow the opportunity to get your plants growing. For information on cold frames check my previous post. For information on tent houses and step-by-step instructions on how to build one, check out the March 19 post at quiltbeagardens for great images and explanation.

Build Your Own Cold Frames

Cold frames are easy and affordable structures to kickstart your seedlings and plants. The minute the warm weather arrives, the frost date passes, you will be ready to get a jump on the growing season by planting strong plants in your vegetable garden.

Location, location, location. Choose a sunny area with good drainage. Placing the cold frame near a building or wind break will shelter the plants from cold spring winds. Oh yes, I know how those lovely spring breezes can change into strong cold, injuring/killing winds. A water source should be close enough that you can easily run a hose to the frames for watering the plants.
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Go to your Habitat for Humanity warehouse, Good Will, your uncle's garage, or wherever you can pick up some used windows. These make excellent tops for cold frames. You can set the glass panes on top of cement blocks making sure you have a way to weight them down to weather the winds. You can also build a "frame" of wood to set the window on. The wood frame allows you to add hinges to the window and attach it to the frame so you can prop open the window allowing air to circulate through the plants.

My DH suggested using 4-6 mm vinyl stapled to a frame if you cannot locate windows. Check the nurseries and lumber companies for the vinyl.

CAUTION: On a sunny day, you must take the cover off the plants or they will bake in the cold frame box. Prop the window up with a stick, but CAUTION that the wind doesn't blow the window over and break it.

Cold frames are an inexpensive way to get a head start on your garden by hardening off the plants--acclimating them for outdoor planting. After the weather turns warm, the cold frame can be taken apart and put away until you need it next year. Best of all, when you get that itch to play in the dirt and start those seeds, you can get to it earlier by protecting the tender seedlings and plants in the cold frame.

Sprouting Seeds--Awesome!

I love this photo of the tiny sprouted seeds in the container. My DH needs tweezers to handle the delicate miracles. Some day these seeds will mature into Christa tomato plants and Red Derby bibb lettuce plants, then develop the fruit that we can eat and enjoy.

It takes patience and care from you, the gardener, and rains and sunshine from Heaven. I am beginning to understand the gardeners who do this year after year. The awe and wonder of this mysterious seed producing food is always thrilling and satisfying for the body and the soul.

For more information on starting seeds for your garden, check out my post on planting seeds for your garden.

More Lettuce!

Lettuce varieties pictured here are Deer's Tongue, Speckled, and Victoria. The cool (I should say cold) temperatures this winter in Florida produced tasty salads for us.

My DH has already started the seed for planting these same varieties in our Michigan garden. To the right is the FL garden with the lettuce growing in it. Before we leave, we will fill the garden with horse manure and topsoil for a raised garden next year.

Waiting for Spring is Difficult

I know the waiting for decent weather is almost unbearable. The winter has been long and hard. You are ready for some warm sunshine to warm up those spring bulbs, to melt the snow off the garden, to brighten your day. You are ready to dig in that dirt preparing it for those baby plants you are so lovingly nurturing these dark winter days. You realize that the day will come when you will actually plant the seed in straight (?) rows and get the fence up around the plot to keep out the varmints.

Don't fret about it. Read those seed catalogs and check out some gardening books from the library or research on the Internet. There are some great blogs about gardening and information on vegetable gardening at http://www.squidoo.com/ Enjoy them while you have time to dig around, not in the dirt, but in the pages and websites.

I know this year you will truly appreciate the signs that spring is just around the corner. Take it all in, perhaps photograph some of them. Crocus breaking through the snow or a robin looking for worms in your yard.

I know the waiting is difficult. But, oh the celebration, when spring gets here! Woot Woot!!

Sprouting Onion Seeds

These tiny little black seeds are the beginning of candy onions to eat this fall. We discovered these delicious candy onions while shopping at the Shipshewana, IN flea market in September. They are a mild, sweet onion good for cooking or in salads.

My always adventurous DH decided to sprout these seeds and start the plants while we are here in FL. Yes, we will baby them until we leave for Michigan in April.

In the first photo, he is scoring the hard shell of the seed in order to make it easier for the little sprout to get through the covering.

He put the scored seed on a wet paper towel in small plastic containers (including the lid from the Miracle Whip jar). My DH placed them on the wireless router and on the cable modem box (shh, don't tell the cable guys). The temperature on top of the boxes are just warm enough to coax the seeds to sprout. In the picture, you can see one container on the router right next to our electric pencil sharpener.

Within a few days, the seeds sprouted. Next he will plant the seeds in cell packs.

It's always fun to play with seeds. They are powerful little mysteries of creation.

Recipe--Cream of Broccoli Soup Will Warm You Up

This cream soup made of fresh broccoli from our Florida garden mixed with carrots and onions (from our Michigan garden), and celery gently simmered in a cream base certainly warms the tummies this crazy cold winter. If you have been reading this blog you know that even Florida is suffering this winter. How about snow in the panhandle this morning?? I know it doesn't compare to the bitter cold and snow and blizzards experienced in other parts of the country. Hang in there. Spring will soon be here and we will all be outside getting our hands in the dirt and toiling under bright sunshine.

Cream of Broccoli Soup Recipe

4 T. butter or margarine

1 1/2 c. chopped broccoli

1 1/2 c. chopped carrots

1 c. chopped celery--Add more if you like a lot of celery taste

1 medium diced onion

20 oz. chicken broth

1/3 c. flour

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

2 1/2 c. lowfat milk--you can replace evap milk with lowfat and use total 4 c. milk

salt and pepper to taste

Melt margarine in Dutch oven. Add vegetables and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes or till veggies are tender. Add chicken broth and allow to begin to boil. Stir in flour gradually, then slowly stir in milk. Salt and pepper to taste.

You can add more veggies to make a heartier soup and you may want to add ham and cheese too.

Enjoy this tummy warmer.

Waiting for Spring

There's not much you can do about hurrying up nice spring weather for planting. Let's face it. You are chomping at the bit after looking through those seed catalogs and you are ready to get some dirt under your nails. Alas, after looking out the window or walking outdoors, you realize there is no way that spring is close. (unless you live in a Southern state..)

So what do you do to chase away those can't-garden-blues? Now is the time to prepare for gardening such as:

1. Clean out pots/containers that you will need for transplanting.
2. Inventory for transplanting--such as germination mix, soil, ingredients for mixing soil, cell packs, warming mats, lights.
3. Clean and sharpen tools.
4. Find that soil report from the extension office.
5. Look over your journal from last year and make notes for improving this spring's garden. If you didn't keep a journal, look into ways of keeping one for this coming year. It can be a spiral book for jotting notes or something you use online. Decide what will work best for you.
6. Go through photos from last year and organize them into digital folders that make sense. Group photos of the tomatoes in one, beans in another, etc. You may even want to play with making a movie of your garden using Movie Maker or other programs.
7. Look for recipes you want to try this year using your fresh garden produce. (and please feel free to share them here for all of us. It's fun to experiement.)

Waiting for spring to arrive will drive many gardeners to start planting seeds indoors too soon. Oh yes, we are guilty of getting too anxious. Know when you can actually set out transplants in your zone without worrying about a heavy frost killing them. Then backtrack from that date so you can figure out by reading the seed packet the dates for planting the seed indoors. Seeding too soon can lead to plants overgrowing while waiting for the optimal planting weather.

Before you know it you will be out in the dirt again. Oh, maybe you should add to the list--buy some Ben Gay and and a hot pad for your aching back!