Growing in a Fall Greenhouse

So long, so long. It has been so long since we did an update on the greenhouse. I wanted to. I thought of it many times, but there were all those bushels of tomatoes, oh and the tomatillos, peppers, eggplant...... So I canned and processed and preserved because they weren't going to wait for me to do a blog post. There are just a few small baskets of roma tomatoes from the big garden that are not quite ripe yet left now so I can sit here, grateful for all the harvest that God provided, and do a blog post on the greenhouse.

Aswad eggplant

Oh just look at all that tomato goodness!

You can see the tomatoes have no idea that it is in the low thirties every night outside. They just keep on growing. They have reached the ceiling and are now bent over on top to grow up along the ceiling until there weight causes them to fold over. On the right side of the picture are the tomatoes I started from cuttings. Some are the ones I did in the blog post on instant tomatoes and some of them I did about a month after that. They all have tomatoes on them and are growing like weeds to catch up with the others.

We call it the tomato jungle. We all have enjoyed watching everything in the greenhouse grow but especially the tomatoes. Their like weeds! I envision us doing school out here, all nice and warm while it is snowing outside. We'll see how well we can keep it warm when the temps really start to drop but a girls got to dream right? Anyhow we are so grateful for getting this far into the fall. It has been a very fun learning experience.

Now come through this little passage, through the tomatoes, to see what is on the other side of the tomato jungle. It's a tight squeeze but I'm sure we can make it.

A zucchini! When the threat of the first frost came I started moving plants in the greenhouse. Chives, eggplant , flowers, herbs and zucchini. I really like zucchini. I know they are not the best at being transplanted, especially at such a big size but I thought I'd give it a try anyways. It would die outside in the frost so what was there to lose. I'm so glad I did! It took a few weeks to really settle in but we now have a zucchini. Every squash has to be hand pollinated. We have pollinated every female bloom but they kept getting end bloom rot until this fabulous little guy. Yeah!

Well it didn't end up frosting so I brought a few more in and look, new leaves and two baby zucchinis that we will pollinated as soon as the flowers open up.

Right next to the zucchini we have one of several Balsam plants that were saved from the frost as well. These are and easy and fun flower to grow from seed. I planted them one year and have had them come back from seed ever since. That's the best kind of flower. Cosmos do the same thing and make beautiful bouquets.

Beside the Cosmo is a Mexican torch flower. You didn't think this girl was going to keep a greenhouse through the cold months without trying to keep flowers in there too did you? I got to try. Wouldn't you?

Now here is the other side of the greenhouse. Bell peppers galore. The blooms are starting to slow down now but they are loaded with peppers. When they tucker out they will be replaced with cool weather crops.

Among the peppers are several eggplants. One of them has a baby eggplant on it. They did really well when I transplanted them in there and had lots of blooms that I tried pollinating. They are like tomatoes and peppers. They have perfect blooms with the male and female parts and are considered self pollinating. Well nothing was happening with their blooms so I thought they needed a little help like the peppers and tomatoes I shake them to imitate the wind which gets the pollen from the anthers (the male part) on the stigma (female part) for pollination. That didn't seem to do anything for the eggplant so I left them alone and prayed. Now we have a little eggplant growing and the other eggplants are starting to bloom again. We will see what happens.

This is some of the basil I started from cuttings. I just planted them last week. They are coming around and soon we'll have fresh basil again.

A tray of cool weather crops ready to be integrated into the greenhouse as the warm weather crops are phased out. Ideally we would have tomatoes and the like all year round. That is certainly the goal.  In the meantime  the winter is a great time to grow cole crops, no cabbage worms!

Here is some of the lettuce, Buttercrunch, that I have started to bring in. You can't see it very well in the picture but there is dill growing down the center of the planter.

And more lettuce, little Gem, under the tomatoes. It will shade them down here and keep them closer to the cool temps lettuce likes best. If the sun is out at all the greenhouse heats up pretty quickly and we have to vent the heat. We don't want the lettuce to get too hot or it will bolt- go to seed. When that happens the lettuce gets bitter. Not good.

Now look at the bottom of this picture. You see that in front of the lettuce? That is celery. Celery from celery we already harvested and processed. If you keep the bottom, lets say inch of your celery stalk after using the rest, you can replant it and a new celery plant will grow. We started ours in water first. It is amazing how fast they grow! You take a look at it the day after you start them and new leaves have already shot up in the middle. So, at the kids request, we started some and planted them in the greenhouse.

I forgot to mention the cucumbers that are planted behind the tomatoes that were started from cuttings. These are an English type cucumber called Telegraphed Improved. They don't have such a thick skin and they have a perfect crunch. For a while they had so many male blooms. Oh, let me tell you first that cucumbers, like squash, have male blooms and female blooms. They are pollinated by bugs that visit the male blooms, pick up some pollen as they are eating their meal, then they head over to a female bloom for seconds or thirds or whatever, and some of the pollen falls off onto the stigma and pollinates the female bloom. We are the little bugs in the greenhouse and pollinate all the cucumbers.

Now back to the male blooms. Like I said at first they were loaded with them. Now they have them but they usually die before they open up. I'm not sure what they deal is. Maybe it is to humid for them? Cucumbers are supposed to like a lot of humidity. Maybe because it is cooler than they like at night? I have to do more research on this. If anyone knows what the issue is please share!

Probably didn't expect to see theses feathered friends in the greenhouse. They actually play a very important role in the greenhouse. Plants need CO2. They use up the carbon and then release oxygen. They clean the air for us. The problem is that as it gets colder we won't be opening the greenhouse up as much in order to keep the heat in. The plants will use up all the CO2. That is where the chickens come in. They exhale CO2 just like you and me. Not only do they provide CO2 for the plants but we built a compost pile right in their pen. They scratch it up and help it decompose which creates heat. Heat that we will need as it gets colder. And the roosters themselves make heat as well! The greenhouse has it own little dynamic ecosystem. So many things working together and benefiting one another.

I didn't get any picture of it but we have also built a thermal mass in the greenhouse to help regulate the temperature. This is how it works. We filled some barrels with some water. They collect heat during the day when it gets so hot in there. Then at night they release the heat back into the air when the greenhouse needs more heat. You see, it absorbs some of the heat when it is hotter than it needs to be and gives it back when it is cooler than things like. We have eight in there now and are adding at least six more.

The actual earth in the greenhouse acts as a thermal mass too. Working just like the barrels. We are adding brick paths for the same reason. Every little bit helps.

Some of the harvest from the greenhouse for the Fall Season week 8 CSA basket.

We are so blessed to be able to have a greenhouse. I know God has helped with it every step of the way. May we always be receptive to all His teaching in all matters greenhouse and otherwise!

I hope you enjoyed your greenhouse tour! Let me know what you think in the comment section below. Do you have a greenhouse? How do you heat it? I'd love to hear what you are up to.

Eat organic, eat local, and know where your food comes from.

​P.S. If you enjoyed this post then consider signing up for our monthly-ish (I'm a busy mama of 7 kiddos!) newsletter. It' will keep you up to date on new blog posts, GMO news, recipes, you know, all that kind of good stuff.