Snow and a new puppy
Looks like the high tunnel will stand up to a fair amount of heavy snow, slides right off.
Here she is, no name yet. Maybe Echo, or Asia, or Joey?
Seeding Spinach for a Spring Harvest
The soil temperature in the high tunnel seems warm enough to germinate spinach seed, so I sowed a short row last Thursday; lets hope I'm getting better with the six-row seeder. My plan is to get the spinach picked before its time to transplant peppers or eggplant in June. I'll do another half row of spinach in a week or so, and then it will be time to get the early potatoes planted around the first of March.
Winter Harvest in the High Tunnel
At this point in the season I think we’ve learned what is a good cold weather, low light crop for our location, and what is not. Despite a slow start last Fall, our high tunnel and winter harvest (yes, very Eliot Coleman) has been a huge success. We're in USDA zone 7, I suppose, with an average winter low of 0 to 10F. We’ve had nights below 10 this winter, but not many, and under the row covers inside the high tunnel it’s stayed considerably warmer. Still, even under the row covers the plants freeze, but without the wind and snow to damage them they’ve done well, thawing each morning as the tunnel warms. Some varieties have fared better than others. I was going to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, but I’m not sure that really tells the whole story, so I’ll put them into three categories: great, good, and not worth the trouble.
Great (no freeze damage)
Spinach, Arugula, Chard/Beets, Mizuna, Cilantro, puts on new growth even in the lowest light. Kale – Toscano and Winterbor, great for harvest, but little new growth. Carrots – Napoli, great for harvest, and a fair amount of root growth. Mache – A very slow grower, and it may not be worth the trouble.
Good (very minor freeze damage)
Salad Turnips – Tokyo Market, Hakurei, Radish – Shunkyo, Crunchy Royale, Daikon – Oharu, Miyashigie, Rouge d’Hiver – Romaine Lettuce, Tokyo Bekana, Curly Endive, Komatsuna, Pak Choi
Not worth the trouble (significant freeze damage or too little growth)
Sylvesta - Green Butterhead Lettuce, Flashy Trout Back – Romaine Lettuce, Radicchio
Rouge d'Hiver
Purple Mizuna, Daikon, Turnip, Cilantro, Tokyo Bekana
Happy New Year!
It's January, and there is still a lot happening in the high tunnel.
Moving day for worms
I’m new to vermiculture, raising worms that is. I got started last March, thanks to a friend willing to part with some of her worms, thanks Lib. At this point my bin has too many worms, so I hope to gift some soon.
This is how the bins normally look, stacked one inside the other. The top bin is for worms and fresh food, always covered, worms are shy and don't care for light.
Most of the time the middle bin is empty, but now I'm moving the top bin to the middle, worms and all. The old middle bin, now empty, moves to the top position, and gets fresh food. The top and middle bins have holes in the bottom to let the worms climb up to get the fresh food, and the holes let the worm juice flow through to the bottom bin. In a few months most of the worms will have migrated to the top bin, I'll harvest the worm castings, and the middle bin will be empty again.
The bottom bin is the sump for the worm juice.
More than five gallons of undiluted worm juice. Good job worms!
Fresh eats for the red wigglers.
Buttonhooks
Buttonhooks are handy tools. Yesterday, my old cow Gert (Gert is the brown cow in the photo below) got a piece of wire wrapped around her hoof. I’m not sure when or how this wire ended up in the pasture, but it must have been some time ago. The wire ran around her ankle twice, went under the wraps and down between her toes, under the hoof and up the back of the hoof, looping again through the wire around the ankle. I was amazed it could get that way on its own, and it was not going to come off easily. My squeeze chute is currently at its other home, so I had to crowd the cows into a pen, and get Gert locked in an alley. Of course the leg with the wire was on the inside of the alley, and I had to get down on the ground and work from under the fence boards. After she got tired of kicking each time I touched her hoof, I was able to work the wire loose, and unwrap it with the buttonhook.
Happy Winter Solstice!
I'm looking forward to longer, and warmer days. We had a low of 16 degrees inside the high tunnel this morning, but the vegetables stayed warm enough under their row covers.
Here's a warmer shot taken late last summer. Our bull Nabisco is spending some quality time with the Longhorn cows next door. I think there may be some belted Longhorns running around the pasture next spring.
Six-Row Seeder Update, Carrots and Spinach
Carrots were my first attempt with the six-row seeder, and I think it worked out okay, but just okay. I need to do better with the starts and stops.
Spinach was my second use of the seeder, and I still had problems at the end of the row. I'm still getting growth in the high tunnel, despite the short days and cold nights. These pictures were taken a little over a week ago.
