Not really a greenhouse...

[sn0wwhite]

Hello, I'm new to gardening and this site. (First post)
And I had my first garden this year and started chicken keeping. The chickens are great
And the garden did ok, but I think I can do better next year.
Since I've let the chickens into the garden now this fall to turn
It and help fertilize it, I know I will need a better way to keep them out in the spring.

I'm in Minnesota and also built a chicken coop this fall. I enjoyed the project so I'm thinking
Ahead to what to do next and I'd like to make NOT a full glassed in heated greenhouse, but
perhaps more like a framed garden with a heavy duty plastic covered walls and roof so that
I can start my growing season earlier and extend it later in the fall, but roll up or remove the
plastic for the main of the summer but have it covered by chicken wire to keep the chickens out.

Is this doable? What would you call that? What considerations do I need to keep in mind? Can you direct
me to threads of anything that sounds like that?

 

[897tgigvib]

Howdy Snowwhite. Welcome to the forum. Make sure you keep your login stuff.

Lots of new folks forget their password or username.

Yes, a small greenhouse is very doable. Make it stout. I think Digits has made several like you're thinking of.

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome Snowwhite! Glad you joined our great group of gardening friends here. I think you will enjoy it and learn a lot from others as we will learn from you. Sorry I can't help you with that greenhouse but there are others here who I'm sure will. We have folks that live in similar zones to yours.

I'm in a very mild winter area so I don't have that type of expertise.

Mary

 

[digitS']

Sn0wwhite!

You must be thinking about a fairly small garden if it is both fenced against the chickens and covered with plastic part of the year.

A hoop house built out of cattle panels may be the right direction. If you search youtube there are lots of those on there with folks showing you how they put them together. Most of those wouldn't keep a chicken out if the plastic film was taken off but I can imagine wrapping them in chicken netting probably under the heavier wire.

I have a greenhouse that remains covered but it is essentially unused during most of the year. Beside it are two garden beds. Both are covered with construction grade plastic film over pvc pipe during the spring. That type of plastic will not last more than a couple of months because it is damaged by sunlight. Set up in March, it will begin splitting a little by mid-June. I take it to the dump after pulling it off.

UV-resistant film will last for several years and isn't very expensive but it is quite soft. Either type can be damaged by something like wire, very easily. It may be best to simply fence your garden with wire netting and build a hoop house with pvc pipe and plastic film on the inside of your fence each year.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Welcome to TheEasyGarden, sn0white!

I am always happy to meet new gardening friends. I live in south-est, central-est Wisconsin. It is supposed to be a zone 4-5 area. Where abouts are you in MN? (zone and general area is enough). I have chickens (4th year this time) and a 6X8 Harbor Freight greenhouse as well as a garden shed with 16 feet of windows facing south. I am hoping to grow some cold weather veggies in the shed this winter if I can keep the unheated metal building from cooling off too much on our cold winter nights.

This ancient old lady gardens (alone) in raised beds on a small part of her 30 acres during the growing season and always enjoys 'hearing' from other gardeners.

 

[sn0wwhite]

Thank you for the welcome and answers so far!

I have an 8x12 raised garden bed that I made this spring.
I think I'm in zone 4b - just south of Minneapolis.

This year I tried tomatoes, green peppers, beans, carrots, cilantro, peas, lettuce, beats, pumpkins and cucumbers. I know, WAY too much, but I'll explain.

Tomatoes - did well, but mostly ripened in mid October when we took a week vacation and while I remembered to get a chicken sitter, I forgot to ask him to pick the tomatoes. The chickens got to eat them when we came home because they'd frozen on the vine.

Green Peppers: one plant in the corner that grew well, but then got buried by the tomatoes.
Beans: I didn't realize the vines would be battling the tomatoes. We got a nice meal, but then they got big too fast and I was busy building the new coop and didn't get them in time and then they were wood.
Carrots: They grew the tops, but nothing on the bottom that I could find.
Cilantro: What was I thinking? It seemed to grow great, but I was thinking of making salsa and it was ready WAY before tomatoes and green peppers were so I did nothing.
Peas: A very small row. We had nice fresh peas with one meal.
Lettuce: I liked this one. I cut it, we ate it, it grew back and we did it again. Very nice salads.
Beats: I planted too close together, but we got 2 very nice meals.
The pumpkins and cucumbers never came up at all. So I put down more beans there later and had another vine battle.

I don't want to garden all winter long, I'd just like to get some plants in earlier than late May and not have to rush them out in the 3 good days in October.

What about plastic panels over the roof? Could they stay there year long if I opened the sides, or would I burn everything out? My backyard faces South/South West and gets full mid morning sun, but by late afternoon spotty shade starts to move across it.

 

[so lucky]

I don't have any advice on greenhouses (wish I had one) but I wanted to welcome you to the forum. You will find lots of good advice on here, and we have several zone 4 and zone 5 gardeners, to help you with climate-specific issues.

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome snOwwhite! I can relate to the tomato adventure. I have to try to get short season tomatoes to ripen before first frost and seldom succeed completely. I would love a greenhouse or high tunnel just for them, but so far other priorities keep cropping up.

I concur with digitS about the cattle panel covered with plastic. The downside of the panels is the rough ends of the steel that can be hard on your plastic. But they make a very sturdy "house". If you keep a thermometer in whatever structure you have you can monitor when to open the ends or roll up the sides.

A few years back I grew my peppers in low tunnels and though the temps got high in there opening the ends tempered the heat enough. They were pointing into the prevailing breeze, so that helped.

It sounds like you had a good start on the gardening learning curve!

 

[897tgigvib]

Smart Red, you aren't ancient or old!

 

[897tgigvib]

Snowwhite, we all of us have a learning curve! oh yea!

For each of the things you grew there is a lot of experience here.

In general, a difficult thing to do is not to plant things too close together.

Beans do not like to grow near tomatoes, though there will always be exceptions that usually involve pruning the tomato plant.

Carrots are tricky. Try growing them with each carrot plant 6 inches from the next one, and to find the right time to plant them for your climate, plant a few seeds what seems to be a month too early, and then plant a few more each week for until about your season's middle, maybe a bit after that.

Same thing with Beets. Beet seeds each make about 3 plants, so pinch off 2 of them after they all sprout.

Peas you need to find the right time to plant too, so do the succession planting with them also. You need to plant plenty of peas, but once you get the timing of planting figured they'll grow and produce much better. You can even start peas 6 weeks before last frost, but cover the seeds with plastic at first.

Cucumbers take some room to sprawl, but room can be saved if you give them some fencing to climb on.

Pumpkins really take a lot of space, especially noticeable in a small garden. Might want to make another place for them as they will try to take over the world by conquest.

Yep, Cilantro is fast, but it can be dried. Also, they make really cool seeds that are an herb flavoring of their own! Try planting a plant early, then another couple not so early, then plant a few at early/mid season for fresh leaves.

Just give your Peppers more elbow room.

You have a good start!