December 17, 2015

Good morning, I t goes without saying that there will not be no Friday deliveries on December 25. I will send my email out early and would like all orders placed by Thursday by 10AM (earlier would be best), so I can put orders together for Saturday the 26^th pick up at the market. It is so hard to believe that another year has bit the dust.

Wind events always bother me. I find it difficult to manage out in the wind. For starters it makes my ears ache. Ah but such is life in far west Texas. Like up in the NW if you do not work in the rain, you don't work very much. So I try to cope. It is a work in progress.

On a positive note, with the wind along came a dramatic cool down and the sky remained cloudless. This was absolutely perfect for my temporary greenhouse. On one of several trips to the garden to make sure all was well, none of the rocks had moved. I have seen steady winds with strong gusts actually walk rocks off the fabric. It is more difficult for the wind to move a pile of rocks as opposed to single rocks. Ah that learning curve.

This has been perfect to further test my fabric covered greenhouse. Even though the outside temperature was cool with a high temperature into the forties, under the covers it was a nice comfy temperature. I don't have a thermometer underneath but I did feel quite nice to my hand. I am sure that if there was only greenhouse film over this bed, there would have been a need to vent. This was not the case. Even last week when there were some days hitting the high seventies, this combo kept the internal temperature down to tolerable temps.

And the real nice thing I did not have to open the structure to vent excess heat. This would be a problem during the wind event.

I have two of these structures and I am thinking I may add another over my lettuce bed. With the fluctuating temperatures of late, the moderation that this structure provides should help the lettuce be more productive. With this structure I am also trying to see if winter seed germination is improved.

This winter as long as there is sunshine between the weather events the greenhouse should be very doable. I only plan to use this on the greens beds. It would have the potential to boost the other winter greens production too but I am not sure how it would affect their quality. Veggies like cauliflower, broccoli and especially carrots develop there best flavors when it is cold. Spinach just does best in a cool to cold environment. Higher temps would boost harvests but this added warmth could also cause the spinach to bolt.

Every year has bee different, this one most likely will be too. It would be nice if we have cool weather with sun just to see how this structure works.

Winter veggie update: I am not seeing any heads developing in the broccoli or cauliflower. Trimmed the broccoli raab leaves from off the ground. This should help prevent aphids from having a “warm” area to go forth and propagate. No flowers here either. I am beginning to see some buds on the Brussels sprouts. Garlic is up and doing quite well. The bulb onion seedlings were a little slow but have come up and are looking nice. The carrots, kohlrabi, turnips and beets are doing fine. I am getting weekly harvests. It is looking like there will be sweets for several more weeks. I am optimistic that there will be butternut squash into March. I am curious how big of a harvest I will get with the sun chokes. This was the first full year with irrigation and the plants responded accordingly. Some very nice plants. It was fun to watch the flowers mature. They are a sunflower. Once the seeds matured a decent sized flock of Texas goldfinches moved in an ate the seeds. Seems like this is an annual event that I look forward to.