last year I made a 9 by 12 A frame greenhouse with 2 by 4's. I covered it with 2 layers of plastic. I kept some tomatoes and a few other plants in it all summer till they died in the late fall! The ground was pretty good on the floor f this greenhouse and it seemed that most of the weeds were gone and no new seeds from the summer got inside!
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This past weekend I decided to put in a 4 by 6 lettuce bed. The ground was ok but lots of hard spots and small rocks.. Idecided to dig ut a 9 nch layer of ground on the south side about half the greenhouse south side!. Not only did I dig it out but I strained all the dirt and mixed in some composted manure and sand. The dirt looked great fairly moist and just right after being strained. All the rocks and old roots were strained out!
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I ended up with about 20-- 5 gallon bukets of this great mix. The rocks and soil lumps I put in one of my potato new beds and had about 3 wheel barrels full!Potatoes grow good in that type of soil! I made a raised bed inside the green house using vinyl siding against the wood frame and in the middle use a double brick for the wall 6 inches high! It looked great. I put a layer of dry leaves at the bottom and cover everything with about 6 inches of strained soil. I cover the lettuce seeds with a 1/2 inch layer of strained soil and mixed in a few carro seeds.. I even got alot of exercise!
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I did it the hard way about 5 hours and ended up with 6 five gallon buckets of strained soil left over for more of my seed flats that I will put in next weekend and use that at the bottom of the flats! I plan on putting in another 15 flats of tomatoes and peppers! Its nice when you do something that covers three different projects at the same time! Now I will have a great lettuce bed for years to come! The temp in the solar greenhouse stays in the upper 30,s even on the coldest days and in the 80most of the sunny days! I will report on this project later! I am going to put a cole crop bed in next to trans plant later! Try straining some garden soil it looks great and just mix in what ever you have on hand! Any questions?
Applestar --I have several strainers but the best one is a old commercial window protector about 15 inches by 2 feet with 1/2 inch screen! I have 2 of them! The screen is bent around a metal frame so I wired it tighter! I place it on a plastic 5 gallon box and just shake it side ways and in seconds 2 large shovels of garden soil slide through and leaves me the lumps roots and stones that I throw into another container to use in a new garden area or for a tuff crop like potatoes that don't mind lumps!
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Finer strainers I use for my top 2 inches of seed flats! Is amazing how nice garden soil is when strained and add to with sand or any peatmoss or bought mixes! I sometimes add a little blood meal and have a great growing media and the worms love it!
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Finer strainers I use for my top 2 inches of seed flats! Is amazing how nice garden soil is when strained and add to with sand or any peatmoss or bought mixes! I sometimes add a little blood meal and have a great growing media and the worms love it!
Last edited by Bobberman on Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MichiganFarmer
- Full Member
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:18 am
- Location: Northern Michigan
Right now, we have too much snow to the point I cannot even open the door to the greenhouse. We just built our greenhouse last year and do not have anything in it yet, but we are really looking forward to getting an early start in the spring. I will have to read up on the lettuce growing, because we do not want to heat our greenhouse at all. I'll have to keep a path to the greenhouse as well next winter.
Get yourself some 50 gallon drums of water in the greenhouse to keep in there all year long and you will extend your season several months in spring and fall with no additional heat. I have 500 gallons or more in my main one It works!MichiganFarmer wrote:Right now, we have too much snow to the point I cannot even open the door to the greenhouse. We just built our greenhouse last year and do not have anything in it yet, but we are really looking forward to getting an early start in the spring. I will have to read up on the lettuce growing, because we do not want to heat our greenhouse at all. I'll have to keep a path to the greenhouse as well next winter.
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MichiganFarmer
- Full Member
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:18 am
- Location: Northern Michigan
Excellent idea! Will have to look into that. Thank you!Bobberman wrote:Get yourself some 50 gallon drums of water in the greenhouse to keep in there all year long and you will extend your season several months in spring and fall with no additional heat. I have 500 gallons or more in my main one It works!MichiganFarmer wrote:Right now, we have too much snow to the point I cannot even open the door to the greenhouse. We just built our greenhouse last year and do not have anything in it yet, but we are really looking forward to getting an early start in the spring. I will have to read up on the lettuce growing, because we do not want to heat our greenhouse at all. I'll have to keep a path to the greenhouse as well next winter.