I don't know how close I have come to Eliot Coleman's prescription but then, I read the book quite some time ago and we all have different circumstances. One thing, I built my greenhouse 20 years ago to grow plants in containers. I wanted lots of starts for the spring.
A movable greenhouse would be nice. As I understood it, Mr Coleman has or had one on rails so it can be moved over plants growing in outside beds.
It took awhile for me to realize that it is the harvest in the fourth, winter season, that is emphasized. Coleman's greenhouse is in Maine and our, his and my, location means a winter with a low sunlight angle and brief daytime hours. Supplemental lighting as well as heat is needed for proper winter growing. I'm providing neither but it's the harvest that matters and there are some vegetables that I enjoy during any season of the year.
The bok choy and choy sum alive and green in my greenhouse beds right now make tasty stir-fries. I'm more interested in stir-fries than salads, no matter what the season. This is the first winter I have had lettuce out there. I must say that I've tried some of the vegetables in my outdoor garden that Coleman suggests and care very little for them. Arugula and purslane are near the bottom of the list of my preferred greens.
Summer growing in the greenhouse isn't what I understood Coleman was writing about. The idea was to start things outdoors. I have started seed in the summer garden and moved those plants indoors in the fall. Timing is very important with that schedule and so is something we cannot control - the weather.
Outdoor starts are preferred but all of the greens in my greenhouse this winter were started in a flat of soil mix. I had to pay attention to the needs of those seedlings during the heat of an unusually warm October but things worked out okay. There were more than enough plants for my 9' by 20' greenhouse.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/winter-greens.17881/
Steve
