Agribon squirrel deterrent

I have been placing Agribon cloth directly on the beds to deter the squirrels from digging in the garden. It seems to be helping. There was only one minor incursion since I started the practice.

Squirrels

Well, the second challenge of the year has appeared (the first being near hurricane force winds). When I checked the garden beds this morning, I found that a curious critter, most likely a squirrel, had been digging for something, in the process digging up some seedlings. I will try covering the beds with Agribon cloth and see if that does the trick, if not, I may have to make full chicken wire cages like I did with the old frames.

Update 5/2/2018: Each night, I have been placing Agribon directly on the garden beds to discourage more digging by the squirrel. The cloth is light enough that it doesn't harm the seedlings. This appears to have been mostly successful (one morning it appeared that a squirrel had gotten under the cloth, but it didn't do much damage).

 

Second kale harvest

I harvested some kale again this morning, taking advantage of the green leaves before the bolting process gets too far along. I notice that the leaves are very crisp compared to summertime kale. The weather has been nice enough the last two days that I have left the ends of the greenhouse open even at night.

 Almost all of the peas have popped up through the soil now. I will have to put up a trellis soon. In the "Center frame" photo, overwintered garlic, parsley, ramp and kale are visible; peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and mizuna are up and coming.

This past weekend, I repaired the damage to the greenhouse from the windstorm a couple of weeks ago.

Second kale harvest

Center frame

Greenhouse open

Cold Weather Continues/Greenhouse Monitoring

As the cold weather continues with regular nighttime temperatures below freezing, I am happy to have plants starting in the basement and greenhouse to remind me that spring is very near. Of the seeds that I planted in the greenhouse, only the mizuna have appeared above the soil. In the basement, just about everything has sprouted, with the tomatoes, chard, arugula, choi and zinnias the furthest along. I haven't seen any peppers or cilantro yet. I think they need a higher soil temperature to germinate.

In other news, I finally have some monitoring setup in the greenhouse. I put together an Adafruit ESP8266 Breakout Board with a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor. I can now keep tabs on the greenhouse temperature even when I am away by checking on my phone. It will also send me an email alert if the temperature goes above 80 degrees. Here are links to the monitoring dashboards:

Current Temperature and Humidity:

https://io.adafruit.com/porterea/dashboards/greenhouse

History and Graph of Temperature:

https://io.adafruit.com/porterea/feeds/temperature

The next step is to add a sensor on the outside of the greenhouse and then to add a soil temperature/moisture and ambient light sensor. Maybe a motion activated camera as well to photograph any visiting varmints.

Mizuna sprouting

WiFi Temperature and Humidity Sensor

Greenhouse Sad House

We sustained some 70 mph winds overnight and yesterday. Unfortunately, one of the metal arches of the greenhouse taking the brunt of the wind came loose. Thankfully, everything else held up and I was able to gather the plastic and recreate a sealed environment. I will use longer screws next time to hold crossmembers down and screw the arch sections together. Today we are having a regular blizzard with no end in sight for the freezing daily lows. One way or another we will make it through...

Greenhouse Clean House

The seeds that I started in the basement are doing well. First to appear were the alyssum, zinnia and choi/tatsoi; tomatoes, lettuce and chard are popping up now.

One 6' strand of incandescent rope light was only able to raise the temperature of the two trays to about 71 F while being on constantly, but that was sufficient. A higher temperature might lead to quicker and more thorough germination though. It is good to know that a single strand can safely heat two trays of seedlings without a thermostat.

In the greenhouse, I have been able to maintain the temperature around 80 F on sunny days by opening the ends. This sunny morning at 10am the temperature in the greenhouse was about 60 F after an overnight outside low of 27 F. I opened both ends of the greenhouse as the temperature is supposed to climb near 40 today and 50 tomorrow.

In the greenhouse, I planted about 200 Super Sugar Snap peas this morning after sprouting them for several days. I can fit about 80 peas in an 8' bed, planting them in two rows about every three inches apart. On Saturday, I also planted about 32 lettuce (salad bowl, black-seeded simpson, and coastal), mizuna, radish (easter egg, daikon), spinach, beets, and carrots.

Winter survivors

Greenhouse open for ventilation

Seedlings in the basement

Lettuce

Mizuna, Radish and Spinach

Beets and Carrots

First harvest (a lacinato kale that was starting to bolt)