A Greenhouse Raisin' In Photos

Anyone else out there have an amazing husband?  When I say I have an amazing husband, I mean, wow...  His skill and completely selfless generosity floors me.  One weekend, I asked him for some help to build a little cold frame out of PVC pipe, and what does he give me instead?  A wonderful 10'x12' wood framed greenhouse!  I'm a blessed farm girl : )

Having a greenhouse has completely transformed my confidence in the gardening department.  I'm one of those people that has always felt intimidated at the prospect of growing my food.  No doubt, a large garden requires a fair amount of labor, and I've always feared that nothing would grow, or I would do it wrong.  I'm also what you would call a "researcher."  Being driven to research and learn is not a flaw but I can sometimes take it to a point where I intimidate myself!  Anyways, with the greenhouse, I now know that I can provide my vegetable starts with an optimum environment, and can then transplant only the most robust and healthy plants into the garden space.

My husband and his dad completed this project in just three days!  They have experience and knowledge in the construction department however, so I hesitate to call this particular project a DIY type venture, unless you also have experience or knowledge about building a structure from the ground up.  I've posted a lot of pictures here, however, in chronological order, so that the process and steps can be seen, and perhaps give you an idea of how things went together.

This was a pretty frugal project especially considering the awesomely useful building we ended up with!  My favorite feature of the greenhouse is, without a doubt, the floors.  On our property, we have an above ground pool that is surrounded with a redwood deck.  We have decided that we would like to remove the pool (consumes too much energy, it's laborious and expensive to maintain, and it attracts aggressive wasps and hornets like crazy!), and so we are slowly taking it apart and repurposing all of the salvageable materials.  The floor of the greenhouse is made of 2x6 redwood planks that we pulled from the deck, which saved us A LOT of money!  We also opted to use an inexpensive 6mm plastic sheeting to cover the greenhouse.  Eventually we would like to change this out to a more permanent and durable material, but for now (and hopefully through next growing season too!) it works fantastically and allowed us to build a functional greenhouse NOW.  We also already had a lot of the hardware and all of the power tools on hand.  Overall, I believe we ended up with about $200 in the lumber and concrete blocks we used as the platform, $60 for the 6mm plastic sheeting (we bought a 100'x10' roll), and $30 for the door.  The door was an awesome find.  We are lucky to have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in town.  This store is a DIY-er's dream!  It stocks reclaimed and leftover material's from Habitat for Humanity's building projects.  The door was reclaimed, all glass, with a sliding screened in window, that works perfect for ventilation.  

And here's some views of the inside.  We still need to install some tables around perimeter, and since the greenhouse is 10 feet wide there should be enough room to install a long narrow table down the middle too. 

Amendments for Your Forest Soil

This is going to be a short post... I honestly don't know much about how commercial potting soil is made.  I do however know that forest soil, like we harvested the other week, has so much rich organic matter and beneficial microorganisms that it doesn't need much, if anything, added to it.  So, I am going to approach this topic the same way I approach most things here on the farm: with frugality!  The things that I added to my forest soil were chosen because they were cheap and/or I already had some. 

First I'd just like to remind you what my beautiful forest soil looked like:

This is so very important to have fresh in your mind, because I don't want you going out and comparing what I'm writing here to some other blog post or article that describes creating potting soil from scratch.  WE ARE NOT STARTING FROM SCRATCH!!!  Just look at that stuff!  Forest soil collected in the way I described (see link above), is full of already composted organic matter and green waste, and is just LOADED with the microorganisms that commercial soil amendment companies attempt to synthesize.  If you chose to start your seeds the way I am doing this year, please know that you do not have to add anything to it.  You just might want to, to make it just a smidgen better, and to make sure that all the nutrients your veggies need are in there. 

I chose to add two additional ingredients.  Just two.  That is it.  And I would say that my amendments account for less than 15% of the entire mixture.  I added worm castings (vermicompost) which I got on sale at a local garden supply store, and kelp meal that I already had on hand. If you find that your forest soil is rather dense, sticky, and/or doesn't have many little pebbles, (indicative of high clay content) then you may want to add a small amount of sand to loosen it up, and help with drainage.  Use your best judgement and experience to come up with a mix that has a nice texture. 

Here is how I put it all together: 

I first found a large container.  You don't want to have to mix a new batch every time you sit down to start seeds.  I used an old 13 gallon trash can, and I hosed it out before I started.  Next, I added 6-8 inches of my forest soil, about 1 inch of the worm castings, and then a very generous sprinkling of the kelp meal.  Now it's time for the fun part!  Last, I dug my hands in and mixed it all up very well.  I continued in layers like this until my container was full. 

And there you have it!  Rich, nutrient dense and frugal seed starting soil!  Enjoy!

P.S.  Have you checked us out on Facebook yet?  We've got lot's of fun posts going up over there every day, and invite you to join us on this fun homesteading adventure!

Harvesting Forest Soil for Starting Seeds

I had a very interesting conversation today.  In involved commercial compost and potting soil, and human bio-waste.  That's all I'm going to say about that...

If you are like me, with a gigantic pile of unfinished compost at sowing time, you have been calling around to local garden centers and landscape supply outlets to ask about organic compost and seed starting mediums.  By now, it seems like most people are aware of the very misleading "organic" labeling on most bagged soil amendments.  For example, Miracle Grow brand "organic"potting soil has the synthetic fertilizer, ammonium phosphate, in it.  Right on the back of the bag, in the world's smallest font, it says that it is not to be used by certified organic growers.  Then to top it off, I had the aforementioned conversation.  Needless to say, I no longer had an interest in any type of commercially produced compost or potting soil.  You must even beware the compost created on site by landscape supply centers.  These composts are typically only made of green waste, then they just sprinkle on some compost activator and call it good.  Sounds harmless right?  Well, in most cases the green waste is dumped there by landscapers and tree trimmers, so you are at risk of introducing toxic pesticides and herbicides into your garden.  So what are you to do, when it seems like there are no options?  Look to nature.  She always provides!

When you walk around the forest, no doubt the ground looks like this:

I mostly have oak woodland around here, so you see lots of oak leaves and twigs.   The forest floor in a pine forest may look a little different than this photo, but that doesn't matter.  It is what's underneath that top layer of leaves (or pine needles) that you want.  When you scrape off that top layer of whole or only partially broken down leaves, you should find this:

 

Isn't that soil beautiful!  I found this black, rich soil only 6 inches down or so, right around the base of a large old oak tree.  I chose to harvest soil from around the base of a tree because there was a natural clearing where no plants where growing.  Often times the natural mulch around the trunks is too thick for delicate forest grasses to grow through.  When you hold this soil in your hands it is light, fluffy, and smells of the Earth.  It is teaming with beneficial microbes and nutrients.  Since it is from nature, and nature is a genius, it is sprinkled with lot's of little rocks which is great for aeration (read: one less thing you have to add to it!).  It is so ALIVE!!!  What could be more perfect for starting your seeds?   I took only what I needed!

 

When I was done, I thanked the forest for this bountiful, rich gift, and for saving me money!  I also took the time to cover my tracks and replace the top layer of leaves I had pulled back.  The forest soil is a precious resource to new plants and the animals that feed on them, and that top layer is there to protect it.

In my next blog post, I will show how I used this forest soil to start my seeds, and some things you can add to further enrich it and give your plants a great start!

UPDATE:  The post about turning your forest soil into a good seed starting medium is up on the blog!