But the night time temperatures don't!
Usually by this time of year, I have made up all my containers and I've started hardening them off to sun. Instead, it's been into the mid to upper 20s overnight for over a week-with no sign of edging higher. I've got four flats of annuals that I am pretty much starving, awaiting transplanting into bowls, pots and other containers....the baskets at the big greenhouse are getting some size on them which is nice-but still, it needs to WARM UP overnight! Grrrr!
Typically, we can count on "green" by Mother's Day. The first week of May will bring us the birch buds and a faint tinge of green-but not this year. I just now have buds showing on my raspberries so they are slow too. Very frustrating if you are a gardener!
On the other hand, I've been able to get my greenhouse cleaned out ahead of time. I have clean benches and all the pots and whatnot are tucked underneath them, ready to use. I have bales of potting mix there, and have one barrel scrubbed and filled with water. The other barrel still has some bleach in it-it had quite the mess inside since it was my manure tea maker. Over the weekend I picked up some bare root strawberries, and with my son's help, got them planted into hanging bags. There are three of them down there-cold or not, and they seem to be growing nicely no matter the overnight temperatures.
I am still gathering information about heating the new greenhouse. That's the biggest stumbling block to getting that erected, as it turns out. I have explored a lengthy list of options-from natural gas unit heaters, to wood, coal, masonry, or multi-fuel boilers, to a variety of passive heating designs such as subterranean, solar, and combinations of all sorts. Each has their pros and cons, and hardly a one is "just right" for my situation. I am not heating a house-and could hardly afford anyway-so the geothermal option is out. I could probably get away with a simple wood or barrel stove if I could rig up a water jacket and circulate or store the heat in some fashion. The amount of cubic space to heat is substantial (over 11000) but it's not a house and I only need the heat for maybe three months, tops-March, April, part of May. No way can I justify a multi fuel boiler starting at over eight grand, lol! And, I only need about 40 degrees worth of heat too. As it turns out, finding people who "get" what I am trying to do, is pretty difficult. Just yesterday I learned of another possibility, so I will be pursuing that too......I know for a fact the wood stove we have in our own home, would easily heat about half the space (which would be 24x30) but gosh darn it, the newer super efficient wood stoves are expensive! Oh well, I will come up with a solution eventually, I am sure of it.
The planting and seeding is beyond crazy. I had this idea to try a new thing to sell, and I am out of space! Again! And no room at the commercial greenhouse for one more single flat either, lol Over 150 flats delivered, with at least another 30 to go. In just over a week, I need to start the leaf lettuces too-and I am full up and then some. I may end up moving the tomatoes into the house so I can have room under the big light. In the midst of this shuffling flats, my car has developed what seems to be a wheel bearing issue. Just what I didn't need, as I need my vehicle, lol! It holds 9 flats even with the dogs that go with me every day. The trucks? None!
So here we are, first week of May, and I am in a holding pattern. It's the pits. Just like finding that a moose visited my raspberry patch sometime in the last few days. All the big canes got topped neatly......sigh
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