Transplanting Greens

The plug trays were overflowing with greens, so Kelsi spent the last 2days transplanting them all. Hours of time were spent in this massive transplant.

Our plants don't normally get leggy, but some have gotten so big that they have done just that.

Bok Choy

We have all the transplanted greens underneath row cover in the greenhouse. 

This shelf is 16feet and is already loaded with hundreds of plants. We are going to be adding a new shelf in the near future I guess!

Most have transplanted very well. There are a couple wilted plants, but for the most part the plants are doing excellent!

To see this years planting list you can go HERE:

Thanks for reading! 

The Greenhouse is Ready!

I spent today getting the greenhouse ready for spring. It took a while, but it's good to have it out of the way.

I set the strings for the floating row cover on each side. Typically we only have one side of the greenhouse covered, but it looks like it is going to be a busy year for our seedling business.

I took some time to replenish the raised beds in the greenhouse with some fresh compost. 

Before tilling in the fresh compost, I found some seedlings still hanging on from the winter. I had planted a ton of lettuce in the fall, but I was too late and they never really grew. There are several plants that stayed at that small size over the winter, and are apparently growing again. I pulled them out and quickly put them in a raised bed that has been freshly watered and loaded with compost. It amazes me that there is growth in the greenhouse already after not being watered for 3 months and dealing with freezing temps. These are some strong lettuce plants I guess!

We also have a couple of onions sprouting up from an onion that we planted from our pantry that had decided to sprout. We planted this guy at least 4 months ago and it is coming up strong.

The large tomato bed at the end of the greenhouse became overrun with grasses. They sprouted through the bottom layer of bricks and traveled to the top. This choked out our carrots last year and gave us a pitiful harvest. I had to completely empty this box in order to eradicate the grass and their roots. This box is 16cubic feet. So it was a huge loss in terms of soil. I had to dump it in the field. Luckily for us, we have a hundred cubic feet or so of fresh compost to replace it with. I still have to putt down some sort of weed barrier before refilling it.

I didn't do all the work alone... I had some help from my pal Julies.

Seems kinda silly that our greenhouse is ready for the first few trays of seedlings and I am wearing my rain boots because there is 3inches of snow on the ground still. At least we are ready I guess!

Our digital thermostat has died, so we need to replace it. If the temp is good for the next couple days then we are going to send the onions outside and free up some room at the grow station. It is pretty crowded in there.

Thanks for reading!

Yellow Pear: A Force to Be Reckoned With

When I was driving home from work yesterday I noticed something on the roof of the greenhouse. It had been a long night shift and I was tired so I forgot to check it out before I went to bed.

When I woke up, I went outside to pick some tomatoes for work.

There it was again. Hmmm.....

This is our tomato bed in the greenhouse. 3 tomato plants, all of them taller than 7ft. The highest point inside the greenhouse is 8ft4in. 

This is the yellow pear. It has grown to the roof, wiggled it's way through the plastic liner and popped out of the top. That is more than 10ft of vertical growth. It gets better.

The parts that haven't made it out of the top have fallen over on the shelf next to the tomato bed. This section of the plant is more than 11feet tall. We use companion planting in this bed. We planted lots of carrots around the tomato plants. I am not sure if that has helped them grow so tall or if it is the heat and protection of the greenhouse. Either way, we love the results.

The carnivorous plant Herman is also growing very well. Soon it will be as tall as the tomato plants.

Have your tomatoes ever busted free? Tell us about it.

Thanks for reading!

First Tomato of the Season!

Tonight Kelsi and I picked our first ripe tomato of the season. Forgive the photo quality, it was getting dark. This tomato came from the greenhouse, so it is probably 2-3 weeks ahead of the same plants that are outside.

It is a Tigerella tomato.

Sweet, but a little sour too. Just the way I like them.

It is one of the more beautiful colored tomatoes that we grow. The next one that ripens up I will photograph. These photos didn't turn out that well.

Let us know when you get ripe tomatoes if you bought one of these tomato plants from us.

Thanks for reading.

First Broccoli of Our Gardening Career!

Last week we picked this bad boy from one of our giant broccoli plants in the greenhouse. We are pretty happy because we have not had the best of luck with them so far. Last year the plants got really leggy and just fell over.

This year we had 4 giant plants in the greenhouse. Two of the plants had huge heads on them which quickly turned into hundreds of little flowers. We fed those plants to the chickens. 

 The plants we put outside are laughable as well, since the spring here has been pretty poor for growing.

This may be the only broccoli we get this year so we'll take it!

For Dinner This Week: Bok Choy

We grew some delicious Bok Choy in the greenhouse this year!

Check out how big those leaves are!

Some of the leaves are even bigger than my head.

That being said. With a big harvest of Bok Choy in hand, it was time to make dinner. The bok choy went from the greenhouse to our mouths in less than an hour. Can't get much more fresh than that!

I choose this recipe from allrecipes.com. Delicious spicy bok choy in garlic sauce.  

The sauce is really the best part.

After sauteing the bok choy, you cover it with the sauce.

We served the recipe over brown rice. This is the best recipe for bok choy we have ever had. Spicy, sweet, and mouth watering. A complexity of flavors in each bite. I strongly recommend! 

What is your favorite bok choy recipe?

Thanks for reading

Growing Vegetables in the Greenhouse

The great thing about having a greenhouse is that we can grow beautiful plants earlier than possible outside. 

Such as the case with this beautiful Tigerella Tomato. 

We planted a lot of rows of carrots in the tomato bed for companion planting. Buy the book Carrots Love Tomatoes to learn more about what plants grow well together and plants that actually help each other grow. Great resource. We plant by this book.

This is our broccoli bed. We have six huge plants growing in here. We are getting better at broccoli. Last years crop failed big time. But we are learning. If you look closely you can see a couple potato plants coming in between the two plants on the left. Oops.

The leaves are massive!

Hopefully the heads grow pretty quick before the plant decides to go to seed.

This is our cabbage bed, which is also doing quite well.

Minus the little nibble marks from the slug, these plants are doing very well.

They are even starting to form heads!

Bok choy is new to us this year. It is one of my favorite veggies, so we had to plant it. It is doing well.

The plants are huge, although the picture doesn't do a great job of capturing the size.

Unfortunately, the plant grew very tall and appears to be going to seed. The stalks don't seem thick enough yet to eat.

Do you grow bok choy? Any thoughts to share?

This is the massive bok choy leaf.

A bunch of sunflowers anxiously waiting to go out side!

Lettuce bed, We are almost out of lettuce already!

How is your garden and greenhouse doing?

Thanks for reading!