Wow! What a fun commentary! We never got into building greenhouses; we did have a couple of raised beds with mixed (very!) results. Finally, we decided our limited space here on the lake was not conducive to a garden, so we asked a semi-distant neighbor if we could use a small portion of their field. We spread wet newspaper to kill the weeds and covered it with beautiful, black topsoil trucked in from Ticonderoga.
It was a sometimes fun, almost always frustrating labor of love. We had a few good years and a couple of really not good ones and finally gave up. (It was actually the fact that we had to haul water in garbage barrels to the site because there was no water source there that was the straw that broke the camels back.)
So we now frequent the area’s farmer’s markets. Perhaps not as much fun, but the results are consistent-and the tomatoes are, I believe, less than $100 each……
I understand completely. I added two more raised beds, bought a yard of raised bed soil, 10 (64qt) bags of potting soil, and started with about $150 for Mr. Burpee. There are the usual Early Girls, Cherokee Purples, and Lemon Boys. But then I toss in some funky names, Gladiator, Atlas, Super Steakhouse. Usually just one plant of each, but they add up to 15 total. Add in the “never can resist” hot peppers and we have the beginnings of salsa. How does it expand? Can’t let the local growers go without. Hey, I’ve never tried that one! Wanted only two bell pepper plants, but they only came in 6 packs. Who throws out 4 pepper plants? Also just installed an irrigation system on the raised beds which can put out a gentle mist. Will it save money? No. But when the temperature hits 98 on Monday and Tuesday I can go stand in the tomatoes.
Wow! What a fun commentary! We never got into building greenhouses; we did have a couple of raised beds with mixed (very!) results. Finally, we decided our limited space here on the lake was not conducive to a garden, so we asked a semi-distant neighbor if we could use a small portion of their field. We spread wet newspaper to kill the weeds and covered it with beautiful, black topsoil trucked in from Ticonderoga.
It was a sometimes fun, almost always frustrating labor of love. We had a few good years and a couple of really not good ones and finally gave up. (It was actually the fact that we had to haul water in garbage barrels to the site because there was no water source there that was the straw that broke the camels back.)
So we now frequent the area’s farmer’s markets. Perhaps not as much fun, but the results are consistent-and the tomatoes are, I believe, less than $100 each……
I understand completely. I added two more raised beds, bought a yard of raised bed soil, 10 (64qt) bags of potting soil, and started with about $150 for Mr. Burpee. There are the usual Early Girls, Cherokee Purples, and Lemon Boys. But then I toss in some funky names, Gladiator, Atlas, Super Steakhouse. Usually just one plant of each, but they add up to 15 total. Add in the “never can resist” hot peppers and we have the beginnings of salsa. How does it expand? Can’t let the local growers go without. Hey, I’ve never tried that one! Wanted only two bell pepper plants, but they only came in 6 packs. Who throws out 4 pepper plants? Also just installed an irrigation system on the raised beds which can put out a gentle mist. Will it save money? No. But when the temperature hits 98 on Monday and Tuesday I can go stand in the tomatoes.
Thanks for that idea! I never thought about standing in the mister!