Tag Archives: greenhouse

POLITICAL & CLIMATE CHANGE

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Political & Climate Change

It’s difficult to be cheerful and optimistic when you watch the American election. Neither candidate, Trump or Biden are young men at 74 and 77 respectively. Neither looked in the best of health. I haven’t been following their campaign but I have heard the President talk on TV many times before. And I just want to turn him off. I’ve just listened to former NYC mayor Rudi Giuliani speak on NowThis News about the corruption of the Democrats on mail in vote fraud. It is very distressing, watching all this. I shall stop right now.

It is a f’ing frightening time in the world now. I hear no talk of climate change on the political stage. Theres no talk of plans of how to slow and reverse climate change. The politicians are only interested in attacking each other. As for our news, it’s all Covid and then the elections. We’ve been bombarded with our own provincial, civic and now the U.S elections. What about the other stuff happening in the rest of the world? What about our planet? Does anything else matter any more if there is no earth?

Oh, let me pull back to my corner of concern – growing food. It is something I/we all can do. It is my passion along with sustainability. I shall adopt Patrick Dolan’s approach of one yard revolution at a time. I love all his videos. They are a wealth of information and enjoyable to watch. Today, I learned some new vegetables to grow – claytonia and Egyptian walking onions. Claytonia is also good for cool weather. I’ve just discovered West Coast Seeds online this year. They have a wide selection of Asian vegetables being on the west coast where there’s a large Asian population. They have the claytonia, jade dragon bitter melon and winter spinach. I’m eager to try them out.

The door to our greenhouse went up today. Needs some fixings but everything is all closed in. We have a couple of warm days left. Can’t believe that tomorrow’s high is 18 degrees Celsius. Then there’s snow on Saturday. No climate change, eh? Oh, whatever!

MISTAKES MAKE GREAT TEACHERS

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Mistakes Make Great Teachers

It’s no wonder I failed NaNoWriMo both times I tried. Writing can be strenuous and I am seldom an Energy Bunny. I have my bright moments but I burn out quickly. My plate is rather small. I can handle only small portions. I try to do them daily. I will not crank out an amazing novel this month. I won’t be able to total up to 50,000 words by month end. That would entail writing 1,700 words daily, an impossible task for me. I tend to be a Hallmark card writer – short and sweet.

Short and sweet works on a busy day. It doesn’t have to be creative or poetic. Just get to the point. Put down the facts. I can analyze and deduce at a later date. Yesterday was such. I was very tired but I pushed through to post here. It’s a recording of seeding the vegetable greens. It showed what kind of greens, the temperature in the greenhouse and the date.

My mental list for today was a 7 am swim. I cancelled it at bedtime knowing how tired I was. I don’t have to do everything. It will give someone else a spot to swim instead of me just not showing up. I’m learning to be more thoughtful and methodical in this Covid time. It was a good move because getting up during the night caused me considerable back pain. Was it the shovelling of dirt and lugging it to the greenhouse? Did I worked out too hard in my morning exercise class? I obviously didn’t do either right. Not hip hinging but bending over incorrectly.

It occurred to me the water might have been beneficial. But I can’t second guess myself. The quiet time of nothing to do in the morning was heaven, the best rest and pain reliever. The tylenol didn’t hurt. Time out also allowed me opportunity to view some videos on greenhouses and growing vegetables in cold climates. Not all videos are equal though. Some are boring because the presenter was long winded. Some took forever to get to the jist even though there were interesting and useful information. My favourite guy is the OYR Frugal & Sustainable Gardening. It helps that he is a musician and has a cat. Have a look for yourself.

I now know that I already made mistakes seeding in planters instead of right in the ground. Things freeze easier in planters. Our raised beds in the greenhouse are not yet made. I was in a hurry. I felt the march of time towards winter. But no worries. Making mistakes is probably the best teacher. Besides, we have no idea what will happen in the greenhouse this winter. We don’t know what this winter will be like. Having both, seedings in planters and the raised beds will give us simultaneous comparisons. All is not loss. There’s much to be gained from mistakes.

I’ve taken some temperature readings in the greenhouse over the course of the day. Keep in mind, we do not have a door yet, just a sheet for the covering. It will make for a quicker loss of heat once the sun goes down.

TimeGreenhouse TemperatureOutside Temp.
7 am2C1C no sun
9:24 am7C2C
10:50 am25C7C
12 noon34C10C
4:40 pm20C14C no sun

That’s it for my day. No heroic deeds but a few steps around the neighbourhood. It’s a nice habit to get back to. How strange our weather. It was a balmy 14 degrees Celsius. I sat in the sun and meditated with my little monk when I got back. Then I harvested basil from my desktop garden, chopped them up and infused with olive oil in an ice cube tray to freeze for future use. A nice, aromatic end.

MY MENTAL LIST OF THINGS

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Lists are helpful, even if they are only in my head. Some things I just can’t do like writing them down. So what was on my mental list today? Seeding my greens in the greenhouse. November will give them a month to get establish once germinated. And what better timing now that we have a mild four days. A time crunch gives me that incentative to get it done. That took priority over lunch dishes this afternoon. Now the planters of greens are seeded, watered and under row covers for the night. The temperature this afternoon was 80 degrees fahrenheit but who knows what it will do overnight. Will have to check and note what it is first thing in the morning.

Getting the greens seeded was my main concern. The greenhouse still needs a door and raised beds. They are in the making. We will be all closed in for the winter. Other things like the rock wall for heat retention can wait.

I’m in the after supper time. I’m tapping, recording my day. It helps to track my growing endeavours – what and when I plant and how they do. I have a garden journal but I forget to write in it. This makes me more conscientious and accountable. It keeps me walking my talk. I almost cancelled my walk this afternoon. But I didn’t. Fatigue can always be an excuse. I got up off the couch, put on my coat and shoes and walked. It was actually more restful than resting. Lesson learned.

Now I’m done for the day. Tomorrow is another day.

WHAT NOW, THE DAY AFTER

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What Now, The Day After

November 1, a new month, the day after completing all 31 days of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. What do I do now, rest on my laurels? I’ve decided to blog on. I brush my teeth every morning and evening. Writing is another thing in my self care tool box. It is effective. I shall keep it. Besides, someone mentioned that it is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. It’s writing a novel of 50,000 words in the month of November. I had high hopes of writing one ever since high school. I gave NaNoWriMo a go or two. The first time I had a few chapters of 7,358 words. The second time 300 words. I still have the files on my desktop.

I didn’t know how hard words are to come by till I tried. I’m not aiming for a novel or 50,000 words. I haven’t lived up to the name of this blog yet – a thousand and two (words) , my daily goal. My goal for this November is to write each day concentrating on the progress of our greenhouse and food growing. But who knows where I will meander. Like Caroline Myss often says, this is an amazing time in history. I have to perk up, pay attention and make notes on EVERYTHING. And maybe, after this month, I can write that novel.

I had aimed to have fresh greens from our raised beds till end of October. I gave up too soon in the 3rd week in a cold snap. Had I left the crop covers on, the spinach and kale would be fine. And maybe the lettuce and Chinese greens, too. I harvested them, not wanting to lose all. But I see that the ends are still green and alive in this bit of warm spell. I shalt cry over spilt greens. I shall grow more. The herb spiral still looks pretty good, too. The basil, of course, bit the dust, but the lavender, thyme and oregano seems ok. I have them in pots inside just in case.

Our greenhouse is almost finished – 4 walls, roof, vents all closed up. Just missing a door. It’s pretty snug and warm on a sunny day. We’re been mostly lucky with the weather building it.There were a few cold days but it’s warmed up for the finishing stretch. I took this opportunity to fill a few planters with top soil to warm up inside to ready for seeding. It looks like we will have 4 days of warm weather before it dips again to daytime minus temperatures. I hope that’s enough time to help them germinate. It’s a grand adventure. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.