Planting in the Vegetable Greenhouse
Fresh, organic produce will soon be growing in my vegetable greenhouse.
As my outdoor grounds crew continues with fall chores around the farm, attention is directed toward planting my vegetable greenhouse. I love this greenhouse - its construction several years ago was inspired by Eliot Coleman, an expert in four-season farming. It uses minimal artificial heat - in fact, most of its energy comes directly from the sun, and it successfully grows a variety of cold-hardy crops. In late summer, we solarized all the raised garden beds, then fertilized them a few weeks later. This week, the first seeds of the season were planted.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
-
- Soil solarization is an environmentally friendly method of using the sun’s power to control bacteria, insects, and weeds in the soil. Last August, we covered the raised beds with large tarps to trap the solar energy. Soil solarization works best on heavy soils containing clay, loam, or mixtures of them.
-
- The tarps are removed several weeks later. This photo was taken in mid-October after some of my tropical plants were moved indoors for the winter.
-
- Before planting, it’s important to feed the soil. I always say, if you eat, so should your plants. For these beds, we use Garden-Tone – a natural and organic fertilizer for both cool and warm-season vegetables such as lettuce, kale, tomatoes, beets, and turnips, plus herbs such as basil, chives, sage, rosemary, parsley, and oregano.
-
- This fertilizer is long-lasting and provides slow-release feeding with bio-tone microbes.
-
- Ryan sprinkles the fertilizer generously over each bed. Always do this prior to planting.
-
- Ryan finishes with a good spray of water.
-
- This week, we were ready to plant our first seeds. We always plan for kale, swiss chard, chervil, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, and many others. I share my vegetables with my daughter and grandchildren, but I also like to grow them for my delicious green juice.
-
- Seeds are available online and at garden centers. Many of my seeds come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds – I’ve been using them for years. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/
-
- Ryan and I work together to decide where everything will be planted. We also plant in succession, meaning we stagger the plantings, so there is always something growing and something to harvest.
-
- Ryan labels wooden markers for the different crop varieties. I am so fortunate to have the room to plant many different vegetables indoors during winter.
-
- Ryan uses this bed preparation rake from Johnny’s Selected Seeds to create furrows in the soil. Hard plastic red tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows.
-
- It’s a cleverly designed tool for making multiple straight rows in one pass. The depth of the furrows depends on the amount of pressure placed on the rake as it moves through the soil. Ryan goes over several beds.
-
- Larger markers are also made to identify what bed contains what vegetables.
-
- The markers are placed at the ends of the assigned beds, so they can be seen from the footpaths.
-
- Ryan sprinkles the seeds in the furrows. These raised beds were designed for easy reach from all sides.
-
- The seeds are very small – it’s hard to believe these tiny seeds produce such beautiful vegetables within weeks. These are kale seeds. The ‘Toscano’ variety is an Italian heirloom, also known as “dinosaur” kale. It has extra-dark green, non-curled but heavily blistered leaves that are rich and tender.
-
- Ryan places the smaller markers at the end of each row indicating the plant variety.
-
- Ryan also plants cutting celery, Apium graveolens var. secalinum. This leaf celery has a bold celery flavor. It is also easier to grow than standard celery. It makes a versatile ingredient for salads, soups, stews, and vegetable medleys.
-
- And this is chervil ‘Vertissimo’. This is a winter-type herb with dark green leaves. It has a mild, sweet anise flavor and is popular for salads, micro-greens, and garnishing.
-
- The furrows don’t have to be deep. In general, seeds should be planted at a depth of two times the width, or diameter, of the seed. A seed that’s about 1/16-of-an-inch thick should be planted an eighth-of-an-inch deep.
-
- These are carrot seeds. ‘Sugarsnax 54’ yield long, slender roots. The dark orange carrots develop quickly and are sweet, tender, and smooth. Carrots are high in beta-carotene, an antioxidant and an important source of vitamin-A.
-
- Working in an assembly line process, Ryan fills all the beds with seeds before backfilling.
-
- Turnips also have very small seeds. ‘Hakurei F1’ produces smooth flat-round, white turnips that mature early and are best harvested young – when they are up to two inches in diameter. The flavor is sweet and fruity, and the texture is crisp and tender.
-
- This is a tine weeding rake, also from Johnny’s Seeds. It has multiple uses, which vary depending on the amount of downward pressure put on the handle. This model is for working in tight areas such as greenhouses or raised beds. Ryan carefully backfills all the filled furrows with soil.
-
- Most of the energy in the greenhouse comes from the sun through the big windows, which can be programmed to open for ventilation or cooling, when needed. In several weeks, we’ll have gorgeous, nutritious vegetables to eat, share and enjoy – I can’t wait.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
