baby spinach harvest

The spinach was harvested when I did the final thinning from one of the greenhouse beds. I have more thinning to do, so we’ll have that to eat next week perhaps. When I thin spinach the first time I always leave it a bit close together so I can eat some later when I do the final thinning.

unthinned spinach

I also harvested more Golden Yellow pak choi, tatsoi, and various lettuces. Total haul for the week was 2.11 lbs. I have created a table with this year’s harvest totals and put it on its own page. That should make tracking a bit easier.

dark green tatsoi

This weekend I took advantage of the sunshine and warmer temps and worked on the cold frame beds. I harvested all the lettuce that was left, and replanted. The larger cold frame now has lettuce and spinach, while the smaller one is planted with curly endive and radicchio.

cold frame with lettuce seedlings and spinach

cold frame with endive and radicchio

The harvests are starting to pick up here, and it won’t be long before the first asparagus is ready. That will be a true sign of spring!

2009: salad greens planted in window boxes

I filled the containers with potting soil, to which I added a little compost and a dusting of high-nitrogen organic fertilizer. I also gave them an occasional drink of guano tea or fish emulsion fertilizer.

The lettuce grew so well in the window boxes that I decided to do it again this year. In late winter, I have some extra room in the greenhouse, so I can plant the window boxes and keep them in there. In the protected environment of the greenhouse, the plants grow quickly. When space becomes an issue, I will set the planters outside to finish growing.

2010 window boxes - salads to go

In the photo above, the center box is planted with arugula and Salad Bowl lettuce, while the box on the right is a mix of red Merlot and green Multy lettuces. For the leftmost box I planted a lettuce mix from Hudson Valley Seed Library, and in the long bottom box I planted some spicy mesclun mix I got from Johnny’s. I should be able to get 2-3 cuttings from the mixes before warm weather gets here.

If you’ve never tried growing salad greens in containers, or if you just don’t have room to plant them in your garden, you might want to try window boxes or other containers. Then you can have Salads To Go too!

our first soap

This recipe formed the base of our next experiments in soapmaking. For our second batch two weeks ago we added a few more ingredients, like shea butter, oatmeal and peppermint essential oil. It should be cured in another two weeks. Of course we are anxious to try it too.

But we’re not done experimenting yet – not by a long shot! Today we made our third batch of soap. This one will be strictly a hand soap. We’re calling it Happy Acres Citrus Coffee Hand Soap. We added some of our own recycled coffee grounds for scrubbing, some lanolin for an emollient, brewed coffee for color, and citrus essential oils for scent. I’m sure Lynda will be blogging about it over on Bloom, Bake & Create soon. She’s done an amazing job of researching for all things soap-related here.

getting ready to make soap

It takes a little over two hours from start to finish for one batch of soap, including prep time and cleanup. And we have found it to be a fun thing to do – so much fun in fact, we are already planning for our fourth batch of soap. I am thinking it will involve lavender, but I don’t know for sure.

So stay tuned for more adventures in soap-making!

January 2008 - snowy beginning

Inside the house, about half the floor space is occupied by benches, and the other half is planting beds. I attached metal shelves below the roof to hold flats of plants. I can squeeze in about 30 flats of plants on the shelves and benches.

Outside the greenhouse, I made raised beds along one side and the back. Measuring 4 feet wide by 28 feet long, they add 112 feet of growing space to the area. The other side of the greenhouse has 2 large trash containers that are filled with potting mixes, plus some plant stands. The photo below also shows the two large roof vents that open automatically when the greenhouse gets warm.

raised bed construction

A year after installation, the redwood is aging nicely, and the greenhouse is lively and full of plants in spring.

Spring 2009 - front view of greenhouse, with beds at left

Inside the greenhouse, one 3×5 ft bed and another 3×7 ft bed provide 36 square feet of intensely planted, year-round growing space. In cooler weather they’re home to a variety of greens, and in summer I plant part of the space in trellised cucumbers.

beds inside the greenhouse

I sent the following photo to my former IT teammates who are still working at the salt mine, so to speak. I told them this is how I had always imagined retirement – drinking my morning coffee and reading the paper in a nice warm greenhouse!

Ahh, I love retirement!

This is a do-it-yourself kit that I put together in about a week, with a little help from my wife. I liked the fact that this kit did not require a permanent foundation. The greenhouse sits on a base made from recycled plastic, which is then anchored to the ground.

assembling the end walls

The worst part for me was getting on the ladder to get the roof trusses installed, an event my wife couldn’t wait to capture for the ages.

attaching roof trusses

Once they were all attached, it was time to start attaching the side panels.

attaching the side panels

The last step was to attach the roof panels, which meant another harrowing session on the step ladder! Did I mention I don’t like ladders?

up on the roof

The finished greenhouse was well worth the effort. I was impressed with the construction and design of this product, and the instructions (including a video) were clear and easy to understand.

finished greenhouse

Thanks to my wife for photographing the construction effort, and letting me use the photos here. Part two will go into some of the finishing touches I gave it to customize it to our needs.

Our harvest this week was small but tasty. I had some lovely Golden Yellow pak choi and some dark green Tatsoi I picked. They went into a stir fry, along with a few mushrooms from the frig that needed to be used up.

pak choi and tatsoi

I also harvested some Simpson Elite and Multy lettuces from the greenhouse and cold frame. They will go into salads later this week. A bit of red lettuce would certainly have made for a more photogenic bowl of salad greens, but the reds all need a bit more time to size up. I’ll give them a few more days.

Simpson Elite and Multy lettuces

All total this week’s harvest weighed 1.4lbs, which is a small but nice bit of greenery to round out our meals. At this time of year every bit of fresh homegrown food is welcome, when we’ve been eating mostly veggies from the freezer and root cellar for about 5 months.

I am trying to clear out some space and make room for the seedlings I started in late January. They were started in a plug tray, and transplanted into cell paks about 3 weeks ago. They spent most of their time under fluorescent lights, and are now hardened off and ready for planting as soon as I have space for them.

lettuce seedlings ready to be planted

The weather is supposed to warm up a bit this week so I hope to be able to start planting these little babies in the cold frame bed as the ground thaws and stays thawed for a change. That will put me a few days ahead of last year’s planting. I’ve got so many seedlings ready that I may plant them more closely than normal and then harvest the thinnings as baby lettuce. I’ve already got spinach coming up in that bed, so we’re off to a good start on our March and April salads.

Be sure and stop by Daphne’s Dandelions and check out the other harvest reports there!