One Alaskans greenhouse

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal , do you mow a yard? If so and you bag the clippings; you have all the green inputs you would need to make great compost!

I do, but my yard has a lot of weeds, including the dreaded dandelion. I've always worried that my garden would turn into WeedLand if I added those clippings...?

 

[Alasgun]

In theory, the composting process is suppose to take care of weed seeds. I too have dandelions and it doesn’t make me one bit of difference! The bees like them and everything in my yard is bee friendly.

i cant say i’ve every “imported any weeds” into a garden bed with my compost and i’ve been using it every year for 4 years now.

 

[heirloomgal]

In theory, the composting process is suppose to take care of weed seeds. I too have dandelions and it doesn’t make me one bit of difference! The bees like them and everything in my yard is bee friendly.

i cant say i’ve every “imported any weeds” into a garden bed with my compost and i’ve been using it every year for 4 years now.

That's good to know, I've always wondered about weed seeds in the compost. I'm not sure about Alaska, but around here the dandelions are just so, so terribly invasive. The daisies are another invasive import, but they don't have that incredible spreading and take over tendency. In more bush areas, you see no dandelions, because the native plants out compete them all, but where there has been human impact they really try to take over. They'll replace every blade of grass in a lawn or bare spot in the right conditions. That's great that they don't cause you problems! Because I'm a seed saver, and I sell some of my seeds, pollinators are something I have to try to discourage for the sake of customers.

 

[Alasgun]

A little irrigation art for you this morning. Just showing how we keep everything watered. I’m using 6 gal per hour drippers on cukes, 2.5 gph on Tomatoes and 1 gph on beans. On the Celery and Parsley, i use .4 gallon drip line with drippers on 6 inch spacing.

And everything’s controlled by The Mother Board!

 

[Alasgun]

The tree hive wintered fine and they are quite active right now. This is my first experience with the Carnolians, as i’ve always used Italian‘s or Buckfast in the past.

A lot of study went into my hive body which emulates a large hollow tree section and is designed to be Bee friendly, not beekeeper friendly. I’d mentioned previously, i don’t intend to take any honey from them.

they started as a 4 lb package last spring and built enough comb on starter strips (no foundation) AND loaded it with sufficient stores to make it thru the Alaskan winter!

With this kind of activity, i’ll have to make another hive section before the middle of July!
the hive is 20 inch diameter and 24 inches tall.

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[ninnymary]

How many pole beans do you plant per string? I've always planted just one but am wondering if I can increase my harvest by planting more. Don't want to overcrowd them or tangle them up.

Mary

 

[Alasgun]

@ninnymary, i start 5 seeds in every 3 1/2 inch pot and usually end up with 3-5 of those looking pretty good, in my 4 ft wide greenhouse beds there are 6 hills, each with 3-5 plants. It will begin to look like knitted sweaters after a while, as they climb the twine and wander across the rafters but they are easy to pick and we “find most of them”

this year i gave the strings more space, making access easier for me.

 

[ninnymary]

@ninnymary, i start 5 seeds in every 3 1/2 inch pot and usually end up with 3-5 of those looking pretty good, in my 4 ft wide greenhouse beds there are 6 hills, each with 3-5 plants. It will begin to look like knitted sweaters after a while, as they climb the twine and wander across the rafters but they are easy to pick and we “find most of them”

this year i gave the strings more space, making access easier for me.

So 1 string per hill? Basically 3-5 per string? Want to make sure I understand you correctly.

Mary

 

[Alasgun]

This is a “last year picture” of the bean’s but it shows the arrangement better. My string is tied at the end then wound over the emt conduit right down at the beans then over the conduit straight above it then over to the other ceiling bracket before going back down and around again and again. i mentioned giving them more space this year, this was due to too much string that when grown over with beans made picking a problem.
it's the same arrangement this year just with wider spacing. Counting them it looks like there’s 8 or 9 strings for 6 hills This year.
this picture is from May 16th last year and you can see how full the trellis gets pretty quick! By the end of May it’s full and growing up against the ceiling. Then a 2 step ladder is needed to reach them all.
This arrangement will produce enough beans for us for the entire year. I believe we still have 2-3 bags of beans in the freezer with 3 meals to a bag!
i also grow a half dozen bush beans in the bed to the left. They produce earlier and it’s typical to have fresh beans by Mother’s day.
We are all about sq. ft. Production and never worry about anything tangling up.
it’s hard to make out in this picture but right behind the beans is another 4 ft bed where cukes grew, and grew and grew. Talk about tangling

this year i turned one bed toward the front door and am hoping for better separation. The right hand picture has 3 hills of cukes with 2 per hill and the trellis comes all the way out to the front door, giving them twice the space they had previously. Bear in mind, all the stuff on saw horses will go out once it warms up outside.

 

[Alasgun]

@ninnymary, so i just walked out and took a couple more pictures of the bean/ cuke trellis’s that show it a little better. In a couple month’s we’ll be banging our heads on all those nice “sweet success” cucumbers hanging down from the trellis. Pretty cool actually and always a way to impress visitors!