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