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Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
Thanks for your tips marshall. I have a lot to learn as I don't even have any idea what temps should be inside, etc.marshallsmyth said:
Got a new greenhouse!
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Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
lesa, I may just start with some lettuce. Loose leaf is a pain to wash, but I love it. Spinach would be another good one. I wasn;t planning on starting anything inside this year. I usually do, but they don't make it. They ususally get too leggy. This is going to be fun!lesa said:
897tgigvib
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Great Book!
Greenhouse Gardener's Companion
Available from a good number of seed catalogs
Greenhouse Gardener's Companion
Available from a good number of seed catalogs
kathiesgarden
Deeply Rooted
Hi everyone,
I too got a new greenhouse last year.
My unbelievably handy husband built it out of the framework of a 'garage tent' that we were no longer using. It's fabulous. This is the first year it has been usable, so I will have a lot of learning to do. Yesterday I moved my seedlings into it. Tonight we're supposed to freeze, so will augment with a little heater and some covering just because I don't know how low the greenhouse will get overnight and I don't want to lose my work so far.
I am new to this site, so bear with me while I get acquainted.
I live in Eastern Washington State (Spokane) near the Idaho border so we have cold winters hot summers and not much precip. (Opposite of Seattle)
Hello to everyone and thanks to Digit for suggesting this site!!
Kathie
I too got a new greenhouse last year.
My unbelievably handy husband built it out of the framework of a 'garage tent' that we were no longer using. It's fabulous. This is the first year it has been usable, so I will have a lot of learning to do. Yesterday I moved my seedlings into it. Tonight we're supposed to freeze, so will augment with a little heater and some covering just because I don't know how low the greenhouse will get overnight and I don't want to lose my work so far. I am new to this site, so bear with me while I get acquainted.
I live in Eastern Washington State (Spokane) near the Idaho border so we have cold winters hot summers and not much precip. (Opposite of Seattle)
Hello to everyone and thanks to Digit for suggesting this site!!
Kathie
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- #15
Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
Welcome Kathie! Sounds like you have jumped right in and are off to a great start! My greenhouse isn't up yet. Weekends have been so busy and nights are always too busy. Last night my hubby said, "well since my meeting got cancelled, I think I'll go start putting your greenhouse frame together." Then he stood in the kitchen talking and watching me make supper and cookies until supper was done. Hahaha! Oh well...the quality time was good and so was supper!
Weekends have been so busy and nights are always too busy. Last night my hubby said, "well since my meeting got cancelled, I think I'll go start putting your greenhouse frame together." Then he stood in the kitchen talking and watching me make supper and cookies until supper was done. Hahaha! Oh well...the quality time was good and so was supper! 
digitS'
Garden Master
Welcome, Kathie!
It is a friendly bunch here. Kathie has been casting around a little trying to figure out where she would fit in to a gardening forum. She was thinking that her 2,000 foot elevation didn't exactly qualify her as a mountain gardener and her 16" of precipitation each year (with most falling as snow) didn't qualify her as a desert gardener.
With humidity often below 20% on summer afternoons and daily temperature swings of 25 to 40, Kathie's part of the world sure isn't PNW maritime!
The "garage tent" suggests a fairly large frame for a greenhouse. You've got lots of air volume in there. I bet you could do like Eliot Coleman does in his Maine greenhouse and set up low plastic tunnels inside to protect plants from the cold. Two layers of glazing for the sunlight to pass thru but a fair amount of overnight, cold weather protection!
SHF's 6x8x7 is about the size of my 1st backyard greenhouse. Like Marshall, I'd worked for awhile in a large commercial greenhouse. My utility porch windows were darn near perfect for starting plants but just not big enuf! So, I built a lean-to greenhouse against the southwall of my garage. What a wonderful start to the growing season!!
I had a wide bench the length of the greenhouse and used it for flats of plants. I'm still using that approach in one a little larger. Kathie might be better off getting things right down on the floor (or ground), I'm not sure.
Summer ventilation is tricky, SHF. It is good that yours has 2 windows because on real warm spring days, you will probably want it nearly completely opened up. I had 2 windows and a door at 1 end and that really provided enuf for the sun-heated air to escape, even against a south garage wall. The wall really helped to hold heat but I found that I couldn't get much use out of the thing during winter months without pumping an awfully lot of $heat$$ into it! Since there was a small room - complete with a chimney for a stove - on the other side of the wall. I'd thought about cutting a window in the garage and . . . . but, that would still take a lot of heat and I never quite got a round tuit . . . Then . . . I moved - pulled down the greenhouse & took it with me!
I think that besides having MORE - what a greenhouse enabled me to grow better was peppers! Shoot! I remember setting out pepper plants that were only about 4" tall back, pre-greenhouse. And eggplant!?? Forget-about-it! Of course, these are heat loving plants and I had to provide supplemental heat - or, carry them back into the house every night. Yeah, I did a lot of that -- carrying things out of the greenhouse at sundown and carrying them back in after sunrise. And, sunrise doesn't mean - instant warmth! The things are just able to hold SO much heat with all that open-to-the-elements that is necessary for gathering light during the day.
Coleman does this - cool-season greens in the ground and covered with a plastic tunnel, inside the greenhouse. He called his book Four Season Harvest, NOT Four Season Growing. The winter crop was essentially grown during the warmer weeks of the fall and harvested during the cold weeks. Just an idea . . . and you've got JackB here to tell you about season-extension of warm-season, indoor crops like tomatoes and peppers.
Kathie . . . this rain . . . it's turning to snow . . .
Steve
It is a friendly bunch here. Kathie has been casting around a little trying to figure out where she would fit in to a gardening forum. She was thinking that her 2,000 foot elevation didn't exactly qualify her as a mountain gardener and her 16" of precipitation each year (with most falling as snow) didn't qualify her as a desert gardener.
With humidity often below 20% on summer afternoons and daily temperature swings of 25 to 40, Kathie's part of the world sure isn't PNW maritime!
The "garage tent" suggests a fairly large frame for a greenhouse. You've got lots of air volume in there. I bet you could do like Eliot Coleman does in his Maine greenhouse and set up low plastic tunnels inside to protect plants from the cold. Two layers of glazing for the sunlight to pass thru but a fair amount of overnight, cold weather protection!
SHF's 6x8x7 is about the size of my 1st backyard greenhouse. Like Marshall, I'd worked for awhile in a large commercial greenhouse. My utility porch windows were darn near perfect for starting plants but just not big enuf! So, I built a lean-to greenhouse against the southwall of my garage. What a wonderful start to the growing season
!!I had a wide bench the length of the greenhouse and used it for flats of plants. I'm still using that approach in one a little larger. Kathie might be better off getting things right down on the floor (or ground), I'm not sure.
Summer ventilation is tricky, SHF. It is good that yours has 2 windows because on real warm spring days, you will probably want it nearly completely opened up. I had 2 windows and a door at 1 end and that really provided enuf for the sun-heated air to escape, even against a south garage wall. The wall really helped to hold heat but I found that I couldn't get much use out of the thing during winter months without pumping an awfully lot of $heat$$ into it
! Since there was a small room - complete with a chimney for a stove - on the other side of the wall. I'd thought about cutting a window in the garage and . . . . but, that would still take a lot of heat and I never quite got a round tuit . . . Then . . . I moved - pulled down the greenhouse & took it with me!I think that besides having MORE - what a greenhouse enabled me to grow better was peppers! Shoot! I remember setting out pepper plants that were only about 4" tall back, pre-greenhouse. And eggplant!?? Forget-about-it! Of course, these are heat loving plants and I had to provide supplemental heat - or, carry them back into the house every night. Yeah, I did a lot of that -- carrying things out of the greenhouse at sundown and carrying them back in after sunrise. And, sunrise doesn't mean - instant warmth! The things are just able to hold SO much heat with all that open-to-the-elements that is necessary for gathering light during the day.
Coleman does this - cool-season greens in the ground and covered with a plastic tunnel, inside the greenhouse. He called his book Four Season Harvest, NOT Four Season Growing. The winter crop was essentially grown during the warmer weeks of the fall and harvested during the cold weeks. Just an idea . . . and you've got JackB here to tell you about season-extension of warm-season, indoor crops like tomatoes and peppers
.Kathie . . . this rain . . . it's turning to snow . . .
Steve
thistlebloom
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Hi Kathie! Welcome! I'm also in your neck of the woods, in NI, between CDA and Sandpoint. I'm waiting for the snow to settle down ( ? ) before leaving for work. This weather is messing up my schedule! Wasn't yesterday nice though?897tgigvib
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Howdy Kathie!
I'm actually new here too. I like this forum so much I'm phasing out my facebook.
Your new greenhouse. I used to work in a greenhouse in Montana, zone Mars!
First thing I think you'll want is 2 thermometers. Nowadays they make digital hi lo thermometers. (Keep the manual somewhere handy. Every time ya change batteries or daylight savings time it needs resetting, they make doing that all complicated). But the hi lo thermometer really tells the story! Have the second thermometer at a different place in the greenhouse, like in the sun during summer so ya know how hot it gets. You'll need at least a good fan to start with.
There are a lot of really good folks here!!! It's kind of like a big area behind the garden where neighbors gather, all the gardens in one big virtual neighborhood...
kathiesgarden
Deeply Rooted
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the warm welcome. I am glad to find some people with similar weather conditions and friendly forum. Yesterday was a little wild around here, the snow started falling around 8:00 am and lasted most of the day, Tuesday was glorious, though. I moved my seedlings out to the greenhouse on Tuesday (woops) and covered some of them and brought others into the house last night. Next week's forecast looks better. Thanks for the tip about two digital thermometers, I have one in there now, but two would probably be better. I will make coil heatcaps for the seedlings, cause it looks like I'm going to need them if I keep trying to rush the season.
Thanks again to all, look forward to getting my fingernails dirty.
Kathie :rainbow-sun
Thanks for the warm welcome. I am glad to find some people with similar weather conditions and friendly forum.
Yesterday was a little wild around here, the snow started falling around 8:00 am and lasted most of the day, Tuesday was glorious, though. I moved my seedlings out to the greenhouse on Tuesday (woops) and covered some of them and brought others into the house last night. Next week's forecast looks better. Thanks for the tip about two digital thermometers, I have one in there now, but two would probably be better. I will make coil heatcaps for the seedlings, cause it looks like I'm going to need them if I keep trying to rush the season. Thanks again to all, look forward to getting my fingernails dirty.
Kathie :rainbow-sun
