Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Extending Your Growing Season - Both Spring & Fall

Today I want to assist many of you who are wondering how to extend your growing season for a few more weeks. For some it may be too late, as in high elevations like Randolph, Utah, where it was below freezing more than one night in August, but most of the lower elevations in Utah and around the country are still frost-free as I’m writing this article.

How can you deal with the special challenges of living in colder climates? Several difficult weather conditions make successful vegetable gardening an “iffy” proposition, unless you learn how to protect your plants against them. The Mittleider gardening books, available at www.foodforeveryone.org, are excellent sources of information on this topic. Let’s discuss briefly what these challenges are, and how you can successfully mitigate their negative effects.

First off, many places have late spring frosts, which keep us from getting started in our gardens – often until mid or late May. Second, many of us have strong winds throughout the growing season that buffet our plants and dry everything out. Third, others of us face the scarcity and cost of water. And finally, we often have early crop-killing frosts, usually followed by several weeks of mild weather that could support continued growth and harvesting.

So how do you handle the shorter growing season with unseasonable frosts, the constant drying winds, and the lack of water? Let’s deal with the wind first, since the solution to that also helps reduce the other problems. To protect your garden’s tender plants, build solid fences or plant trees and shrubs between your garden and the prevailing winds - but put them far enough away that you do not shade your garden! Always remember that growing vegetables need direct sunshine all day long. This means that you also want to place your shade trees so as to leave the garden in full sun.

Some of you do container gardening, or raised boxes. When these are subjected to hot winds they are difficult to keep cool and moist. Consider either larger Grow-Boxes - we recommend 18” or 4' wide and up to 30' in length - or growing in the regular soil. Remember that Dr. Jacob Mittleider promises “a great garden in any soil, in almost any climate.”

Next is watering. You will save ½ or more on your water usage by following these procedures. And it’s amazing how much heat and wind plants can handle if they are properly fed and watered. First, make certain your Grow-Boxes or raised Soil-Beds are accurately leveled, and that Soil-Beds have a 4” ridge around them. Then apply 1” of water right at the soil surface (not by sprinkling!) before your soil becomes the least bit dry – even every day in the heat of summer if needed. This will place the precious water right at the plant roots, and waste none. Finally, automating your watering using ¾” PVC pipes, with 3 tiny #57 holes every 4”, will make watering fast, easy, and efficient.

Extending your growing season is accomplished in two ways. Next February and March we’ll discuss the first, which is how to grow healthy seedlings in a protected environment and transplant them into the garden after the danger of frost is past. The second thing you can do, even right now if frost hasn’t already killed your garden, is to make "Mini-Greenhouses" for covering your plants. By themselves they are good, but with a small heat source they can extend your growing season in both Spring and Fall even more, often by 4-6 weeks.

Use PVC pipe, bent in a capital “A” shape, but with a 6” flat top, to fit your bed or box, and covered with 4 or 6 mil greenhouse plastic. This provides some protection against frost at night, and will warm the plants on cold days. Cover the edges with dirt all around when frost threatens, and open up when it gets warm. More details are at www.foodforeveryone.org in the Gardening Techniques and FAQ sections. © 2006 - James B. Kennard

Jim Kennard, President of Food For Everyone Foundation, has a wealth of teaching and gardening training and experience upon which to draw in helping the Foundation "Teach the world to grow food one family at a time." Jim has been a Mittleider gardener for the past twenty nine years; he is a Master Mittleider Gardening Instructor, and has taught classes and worked one-on-one with Dr. Jacob Mittleider on several humanitarian gardening training projects in the USA and abroad. He has conducted projects in Armenia, America, Madagascar, and Turkey by himself. He assists gardeners all over the world from the http://www.foodforeveryone.org website FAQ pages and free Gardening Group, and grows a large demonstration garden at Utah's Hogle Zoo in his spare time.

Gardening Books, CDs and Software are available at http://www.foodforeveryone.org

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Monday, October 27, 2008

Simple and Inexpensive Mini-Greenhouses for Containers and Soil-Beds

It’s not too early to begin preparing for early spring planting! By covering your containers, which we call Grow-Boxes, or Soil-Beds with “Mini-Greenhouses” using PVC arches and greenhouse plastic, you can be in the garden with cool-weather plants by the end of February or the first of March. They will warm the soil and protect your plants from light frosts. This is often enough to extend your growing season by several weeks in both spring and fall.

Pictures can be seen in the Photos section of the free MittleiderMethodGardening Group. Invitations to join are on every page of the Food For Everyone Foundation website at www.foodforeveryone.org. The pictures show arches over Grow-Boxes, or containers. Following are instructions for building a jig and then making PVC arches for 18"-wide boxes or soil-beds.

Materials needed:

11 - 5' lengths of 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC pipe - to be placed 3' apart in each bed or box to be covered.

6-mil greenhouse plastic - 5' wide and 33' long - one for each bed or box to be covered.

For Grow-Boxes only - 3 10' lengths of 3/4" Schedule 200 PVC pipe, cut into 24 15" pieces for each box to be covered. Plus 22 2 1/2" nails and small 2" X 4" block.

One 30" X 30" (or bigger) sheet of plywood, plus 6 - 2 1/2" nails.

One heat gun (to heat and bend pipe).

With a pen, make 3 marks at the top of the plywood sheet - one in the center, and one each, 9" to the left and right of the center. Go down 9" on the plywood and make 3 marks exactly corresponding to the first 3. Draw lines from the outside lower marks to the top center mark. Place marks on both lines 10" up from the bottom. Go down 27" from the top of the plywood and make 3 marks corresponding to the others. Draw lines between the 9” and 27” marks. Make marks 2" up from the bottom of both 18" lines. Drive nails into the 4 upper marks, leaving 2" of nail exposed. Drive nails into the marks 2" up from the bottom of the 18" lines, then drive nails 1" to the outside of these nails. This is the jig for bending the PVC pipe.

Cut 5' lengths of 1/2" schedule 40 PVC pipe. Mark them at 18" and 28" from each end. Place one end of PVC pipe between nails on one side, with the end at the 18" mark (2" below the first 2 nails). With heat gun, heat PVC pipe at each spot where PVC pipe encounters a nail, and carefully bend the pipe to fit the jig. Allow to cool before removing pipe from jig.

For Grow-Boxes, place 15" pieces of 3/4" PVC adjacent to the Grow-Box at each end and at 3' intervals on both sides. With a hammer, and using the small 2" X 4" block of wood, hammer the PVC into the ground until the top is level with the Grow-Box. Pre-drill a hole through the PVC pipe 2" up from the dirt, and hammer the 2 1/2" nail through both pipe and Grow-Box. Bend the nail over on the inside of the Grow-Box to avoid getting scratched later. Slip the 1/2" PVC arches into the 3/4" PVC holding pipes until they encounter the nails - about 6" deep.

For Soil-Beds, just push the 1/2" PVC arches into the ground at the peak of the ridge on each side of the Soil-Bed - again about 6" deep.

Lay the 6-mil plastic over the entire box or bed, centered, with 18" overhang on each end. Fold excess plastic to avoid a messy appearance. Place dirt on both sides of the plastic to hold it in place, as well as at the ends.

Whenever the weather is above 50 degrees, open the ends, and when it is above 60 degrees, lift the plastic from one side and lay it in the aisle.

You must watch carefully to ensure that it doesn't get too hot in your mini-greenhouses. A thermometer in at least one bed is a good idea, in order to measure the temperature and make necessary adjustments. Note also that brassica's (cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) can grow in cooler weather than the warm-weather plants. Tomatoes, corn, peppers, etc. must be near 70 degrees or above to do well. © 2006 - James B. Kennard

Jim Kennard, President of Food For Everyone Foundation, has a wealth of teaching and gardening training and experience upon which to draw in helping the Foundation "Teach the world to grow food one family at a time." Jim has been a Mittleider gardener for the past twenty nine years; he is a Master Mittleider Gardening Instructor, and has taught classes and worked one-on-one with Dr. Jacob Mittleider on several humanitarian gardening training projects in the USA and abroad. He has conducted projects in Armenia, America, Madagascar, and Turkey by himself. He assists gardeners all over the world from the http://www.foodforeveryone.org website FAQ pages and free Gardening Group, and grows a large demonstration garden at Utah's Hogle Zoo in his spare time.

Gardening Books, CDs and Software are available at http://www.foodforeveryone.org

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

What direction should I face my Greenhouse?

Q. In "Grow Bed Gardening," Dr. Mittleider says, "In the nothern hemisphere, face the length of the building east and west. This gives the broadside a southern exposure and all plants get the maximum light when the days are short and the sun is farthest south."

In "The Mittleider Gardening Course," he writes, "If you have a choice, orient your Grow-Boxes north to south so the shadow changes as the sun moves from east to west."

These two statements appear to be contradicting each other, in that the greenhouse is supposed to be facing one direction, while the actual garden is built with rows going the other direction. Is this right, and if so, why is the garden different than the greenhouse, and how important is this anyway?

A. Strictly speaking both statements are correct. We believe that somewhat more light gets to the plants in a greenhouse with the long side facing the sun. And in the garden we prefer rows running north and south. However, over the years Dr. M. has determined that the direction - of greenhouses and rows in the garden - are not so very important. What is important is that there be no shade, either from fences, trees, shrubs, or buildings, or from other taller plants.

Just take care of those things and then orient your greenhouse and your rows whichever way works best for you.

More often than not it's the layout of the land and the watering situation that dictates the best direction for both greenhouse and garden soil-beds or Grow-Boxes. The greenhouse needs to be level, and if changing the direction makes that primary goal much easier or less costly, then you should do it.

If there is a prevailing slope to the garden, you will want to orient your soil-beds or Grow-Boxes in such a way that the water source is at the high end, and the rows will have a fall of no more than 1" in 30'.

This often requires putting your beds or boxes rows across the slope, rather than following the slope. The extreme example of this would be a hillside, with level rows terraced into the hillside.

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