Greenhouse project: The box is open!

This is getting really exciting! Yesterday, while I was out, my wonderful husband finished digging out the 560cm x 410 cm x 20 cm hole in preparation to the building our our greenhouse. So with the area ready, we FINALLY allowed ourselves to open the boxes containing the pieces for the greenhouse frame. WOOHOOO we're getting somewhere!!

We found the pieces we needed and put the base together. After using it to carefully measure where to dig for the 6-pillar foundation, we proceeded to dig those 6 holes, which needed to be about 60 cm deep. It was really excited to see the base "in place" for the first time. It was equally exciting to dig the 6 holes. It finally feels like we're doing something constructive and getting closer to our goal!

"Drilling"

Drilling too. 

"Drilling" the holes was fairly easy at first. It goes well with the drilling tools. However, it is impressive to feel the different layers of soil as the holes get deeper and deeper. At some point, we hit a very compact but beautiful layer of clay! I couldn't resist taking some of that pretty clay and putting it aside in a plastic bag. Maybe I can do something with it a bit later on. Some of the soil layers are pretty difficult to drill through, especially towards the end of the day when we both were starting to feel pretty exhausted. 

Am I that exhausted??

Nooo of course not! I'm just trying to free an annoying big rock that refrains us from drilling any deeper!

Ah, but no matter the layer of compact soil and clay and the rock obstacles... by the time we came in for dinner at the end of the day, all 6 holes were drilled and we were pretty proud of ourselves!

Greenhouse base placed over the 6 holes for the foundation pillars

We expect to pour the cement in the holes tomorrow! If all goes well, the base should really be in place before we start the new week. This is perfect, as it will dry/harden before we have time to take further steps. But once the base is solidly anchored in the cement pillars, we can safely mount the rest of the frame! How exciting is that!!!

It looks like I might have my greenhouse before the end of the season after all. hehehe  :)

We have a square!

Spring arrived at long last! The snow is gone and Spring flowers are bringing life onto the landscape again with their vibrant colours. Temperatures went up rather suddenly some days ago and we have been enjoying some beautiful sunny days.

Crocus

Between work, school and homework, we have been able to come out and do some more on the greenhouse project. The area for the "building site" has been carefully measured and marked with very visible orange cord, which Tiana found quite interesting!

Tiana couldn't resist!

We then removed the grass layer. It was getting very exciting when we started seeing the actual "square" where the greenhouse will stand!

The grass is removed on almost all of the area on this picture. 

Now that the grass is removed and the area is clearly marked, we could start digging.

Digging... The area here is clearly visible.  Note that the  greenhouse will be smaller than the area on the picture. We added 50 cm all around for paving stones. 

More digging... 

We need to go 20 cm down on the whole area. It is hard work, but it's also a lot more fun than cutting down trees and digging out roots! We did about 1/3 of the digging step in one afternoon. The rest will need to wait to the weekend. The "hole" will eventually be filled with sand (possibly two kinds, in layers) and paving stones will be layed on top as floor in and around the greenhouse.

With the good weather finally here, I am looking even more forward (is that possible) to the greenhouse being up and usable!
We'll get there... :)

Updates

Greenhouse project

Last weekend, we finally got the area for the greenhouse cleared. Stumps, bushes, shrubs, rocks, as well as old fence panels and posts that had to be removed have been removed, and we now have a "blank canvas" to work on. This means that as soon as we have time and decent weather, we will be able to take more fun and constructive steps towards our goal!

Blank canvas... Ready for more interesting steps!

We did have a little bit of protest from Kashew, who did not seem to agree with us removing her scratching post. :(  I must say, though, that she has many other "scratching posts" in the garden, and probably even some out in the forest nearby. So I do believe she'll be alright. ;)

Sorry Kashew. :( I promise I'll grow catnip for you this summer. 

We are hoping the weekend will bring good weather. Next steps include removing the top layer of grass on the area, digging out channels for water hose and electricity wire, digging out holes for the foundation posts and moving sand onto the area as an underlayer to the future paving stones. 

It's going forward... slowly but surely!

Windowsill gardening

While the greenhouse project is a lot of work, my preparations to the gardening season must also be given some care. This will be my second summer with a real vegetable garden, and I still have a lot to learn. One of the things I am trying to get a good balance on is what to sow indoor and when. Reading on the seed envelopes is a good start, but judging how the weather will turn and how much time will go before all those small plants can come outside can be one big puzzle. 

I have in any case sowed many things, and we will see what happens. Learning by doing... trials and errors. I'll get there!

I was having the issue that my seedlings were looking for light, even though they are sitting right by south or east windows. This resulted in long, thin and week seedlings... and a good deal of disappointment. 

A good friend of mine who is also into gardening gave me a couple of good tricks. One of them consists of making a shield with aluminium foil for the light to reflect on. This gives a more evenly distributed light around the young plants and helps them grow stronger. 

Aluminium foil shields - Light traps!

I was amazed at the difference in amount of light on my plants after I installed the shields! Now I do not have to turn the plants many times a day to try and get them to grow straight! 

Another good advice my friend gave me was to also consider the temperature in the room. Seeds need warmth and moisture to sprout, but seedlings can tolerate cooler temperatures. After sprouting, they can be moved to a different location, like a spare room, where the balance between light and lower temperatures will actually make the plant grow at a slower rate, which will hopefully allow for stronger, healthier plants. When the weather allows it and the plants can come outside (or in the greenhouse!) in the heat and full light, they will pick up their growing. So I have been preparing a new "nursing station" in my bedroom, where we always keep it quite fresh.  I already had trays there with seeds and seedlings, but I now organized it differently. I have not yet moved the plants around, but the place is ready with a light shield and all! When I have a moment, I will move the sprouted stuff in the bedroom, and the not-yet-sprouted stuff in the dining room. 

Thank you my friend for good and valuable advice.  :)

The stump is out!

The good weather has finally arrived. A lot of the snow has melted away and it smelled like Spring outside yesterday and today. At last, my husband and I were able to move a little bit forward on the greenhouse project. 

After over 12 hours of sitting in dirt and mud, digging, clearing and cutting roots, the stump from the tree we cut down in the beginning of March is finally out! The following picture doesn't do justice to how complicated and hard work it actually was. The many roots were big, and often closely crossing one another, making it very difficult to clear from soil and cut free. But the joy we felt when we finally cut the last root was worth all the energy used and resulting body aches!

We finally tipped it down! All the roots are cut free. 

Now we have a crater!

So that is one step closer to being able to put the greenhouse up! I thought I would have it by the end of March... now I hope it will be up before the end of April! Next step is to remove yet another tree :(. The evergreen by the fence needs to come down, as it will be too close to the back of the greenhouse. 

Greenhouse status: Snow almost melted. Tree and stump gone.  

Happy Easter!

Our Easter break has been mostly cold and snowy (except today!), so we have not been able to really work on the greenhouse project. However, we had a lot of indoor hobby time, so I decided to make this little thing as an Easter present to my friends' baby girl. 

Knock knock, what's in the carrot?

Peek-a-boo, teeny tiny Bunny!

Happy Easter, everybody! :)

note: Based on a pattern by Ana Paula Rimoli. 

Inexpensive Solutions

When comes time to start sowing for the new season, whether it be for a vegetable garden or for flower beds, sowing pots and trays should not be complicated, and they should not cost too much. Garden centers sell plastic pots, paper pots, mini greenhouses, trays of all sizes, etc... But in my opinion, they are pricey, and usually unnecessary. There are other, cheaper solutions, and they are easy to find, as long as one knows what to look for.

Grocery stores are an absolute gold mine for gardeners who don't want to spend a fortune. There are so many containers and lids that can be put to use in the sowing season.

A bit of recycling

Yogurt, grapes, ice cream, chocolate goodies, meat, cream cheese and slush are only some examples of foods that come in very interesting containers. Some can be used as pots, others as water trays. Some lids are also excellent as water trays.

There are however a few things to remember when using recycled containers. First, every container and lid should be cleaned and disinfected before use in gardening. Also, holes should always be pierced in the bottom of sowing pots. This allows the excess water to escape and helps prevent the seeds from rotting.

When that's in place, you're good to go!!! Here are a couple of pictures showing examples on my use of recycled containers.

Chocolate goodies container used as sowing pot for romaine lettuce, placed in an ordinary water tray

Family pack ground beef container used as water tray, containing pots from plants I bought in previous years. 

When the containers are made of transparent plastic, it becomes even more interesting. They can then be used as mini greenhouses... as long as there can be aeration with the help of holes / spaces / openings.

Mini greenhouse dome made with a q-tip container. 

From left to right: 1) Ready-made fish filet containers on top of eachother;  2) Dip and lemon containers that came with the fish filets - also on top of eachother; 3) A slush cup. 

The fish filet containers make perfect trays AND perfect greenhouse domes, as well as the smaller containers that came with it. The slush cup makes very effective individual mini greenhouses. They could even be used in a kindergarten or school group, where each child would have its own little greenhouse by the windowsill or on the terrace. Not only do they make pretty cute greenhouses, but their dome already has a hole in it to allow aeration! How perfect is that. :)

Grapes containers also make excellent mini greenhouses. There are already holes in the bottom and top of the containers, which provide both an escape for excess water and decent aeration. The lid often "snaps" on so it's easy to keep the greenhouse closed. It can be open when the seeds have sprouted. Sometimes, I also cut the lid free and use the container itself as a greenhouse dome.

I find it fun to be on the hunt for usable containers, and it also makes me feel good to recycle items this way. It makes my gardening hobby that much greener. :)

Status on the Greenhouse Project

It's snowing on little Denmark and inevitably on the location for our future greenhouse. The "All-stop" continues while my backyard looks like January in Canada. I don't remember ever saying that I was missing the snow after I moved here!

*sigh*

I can't deny it's pretty, though... but the last snow falls are never as pretty as the first in a season, especially when one has a big project laying in the garage, just waiting to be taken out and up!

On the plus side, my chili plants (2 kinds), my tomato plants (2 kinds) for the greenhouse (ha.. right) and my herbs are all doing their growing job on the windowsill. If the plants can be this optimistic, so can I!

I hereby place an order on sunshine for next week. Thank you.

;)