Archives December 2007

One of the challenges for zone 4 gardening is dealing with the effects the cold weather has on the plants. Not the ones in the greenhouse but the ones in the beds. Winter Greenhouse and Garden Chores are a necessary job in the gardening business.

When we have a good amount of snow, as we do this year, the plants are insulated from the cold. A good cover of snow will dampen the effects from a cold snap, and by cold we mean in the neighborhood of twenty below zero of lower. All the perennials we have in the permanent gardens are suppose to be hearty to at least 30 below but when the ground is bare all bets are off. So at least we are covered for now.

The other plants we are concerned with are the perennial stock in the raised beds. These are last years starts put up in one gallon pots. One of 3 things will happen to these plants,
They will survive all assaults and we will have a nice crop for spring sales.

The cold will kill a certain number of them and we will need to start from scratch.
The voles will eat the roots, killing some of the plants.
The good news is with the snow cover the pots will be protected from cold and freeze thaw that can kill the plants.

The bad news is the snow cover provides a hiding place for the voles. Last year we tried to use straw to bed the gallon pots but the seed in the straw fed the voles. They gathered the seeds and buried it in many of the pots. While they were there they ate many of the plant root systems. This year we have decided to forgo the straw and let the show do the work. We shall see in the spring.

One thing is for certain. We will be starting a number of popular perennials this year, to cover ourselves in-case the plants die or are eaten and also to provide a new stock for the 2009 season. It pays to plan ahead.

The weather men were all excited as the forecast of a snow storm blared from the TV, radio and Internet. You would have thought that we had never seen snow before. Shoot I can remember Decembers when we got over 100 inches of snow. When we were kids there was always plenty of snow. And nobody had snow-blowers. My parents shoveled the snow by hand.

But every winter we endure the first heavy snow of the season just like we have been doing for many years.

I can remember one winter they were shoveling out the drive and we were on a snow bank looking down on the top of the car.
Anyway I digress. I really like blowing snow so today we went out and did everything including around the greenhouse. I really don’t know if it is important but I like to keep the snow off the plastic if I can.

It really shows the insulating properties of the double layer plastic when there can be snow and ice on the top and its 75 comfortable degrees inside.

We have gravel beds around the outside of the greenhouse where the summer plant racks sit. This way we do not need to worry about trimming weeds under the plant benches. We made them by securing 1 inch by 4 inch larch boards in the ground using 2 foot lengths of 1/2 inch conduit. The board are parallel to the sides of the greenhouse and 3 feet out. Then we put landscape fabric down and then pea gravel on top of that. It is the same 1/2 inch gravel that serves as the floor of the greenhouse.

The original design was to make the benches just wide enough to cover the gravel so the snow blower wold not pick it up when going around the outside. Unfortunately there is not enough room for the snow blower to keep a safe distance from the plastic. If we were to contact the wiggle wire the snow blower could rip the plastic and I don’t even want to think about changing it in the winter. I am not sure the mending tape would work either.

At any rate we plowed a nice wide path to the greenhouse and a 4 foot swath all around. After all its winter and we never know when we will get a real snow storm.

The snow is finally here and the days are getting shorter. We are fast approaching the shortest day of the year know as the winter solstice. The shortage of light is thought to cause depression in many people.

It is also thought that bright light can help to alleviate the effects of a long winters night, but as it turns out there is a bit more to it than just bright light. Apparently the timing of the light is important. An article at Web MD points to studies that indicate the best time for bright light is in the morning.
It seems this will help to reset our internal clocks, thus helping us cope with the effects of light deprivation.

This may explain the euphoric feeling when working in the greenhouse during a bright winter morning. I used to think it had something to do with the extra oxygen that the plants start producing in the morning. If the temperature is below 80 degrees in side the vents do not function so all the extra oxygen is trapped in the greenhouse.

I think it would be fun to test the concentration to see if I am right.
Anyway now it seems that the light may have something to do about it as well.