Wow that was a close call this morning. My thermometer said 35, but my car was covered in ice. Garden has a little bit of frost damage.

So it is time to harvest all the frost tender things, before the weekend.

Looks like a strong possibility of frost/freeze this weekend, including Friday night.

I was wondering how cold it got at your place. It dropped to 40F here in Conifer yesterday morning, 44 this morning. Looks like we are suppose to get to 40 again this weekend, so you may have another frost.

It dropped to 36 here this morning at thermometer level and a bit cooler at the garden level (frost on the tarp). I'll expect the same tonight.
Then I expect low 30s for about a week. Then dropping below 30 around the equinox.

I've harvested my frost tender stuff. I hope to clear out the remaining things in the outdoor beds over this next week or so.

I turned on the frost protection heater in the greenhouse. I'll let the tomatoes ripen until the end of the month. Then I'll probably harvest everything ripe or not.

it dropped to 28 degrees here this morning.

I hope all you Bailey gardeners managed to harvested your frost tender veggies this past week or found a way to keep them protected.

Hello there CooknThyme. We just got a greenhouse put over our garden, although the cover doesn't fit that well I'm curious about your " I turned on the frost protection heater in the greenhouse. " frost protection? I put a CO2/Propane heater inside, but its pretty powerful. I'm guessing you may have some heating pads, like a plug in heater that cuts the cold this early in the season. Its basically a tubular framed greenhouse, with a green cover for now....I'm trying to get ideas for a more permanent structuring next year....I have some old tempered glass paneling and will try sourcing other material to build something around the frame in the spring. For now its going to extend our growing season for the garden. Thanks. David Urich

I use an electric radiant heater that is plugged into a thermostat (that gives me better temp control and lower electric bills than what can be achieved with the heater alone). This works great for me because my greenhouse is well insulated.

This time of year I have it set to keep the GH above 40 (it comes on at about 42) because I am trying to get my remaining tomatoes to ripen. It will only be set up for a couple of the weeks, so the electrical usage is not really noticed.

In the spring, I set it up in mid April when I transplant my tomatoes in there. Then I set it to stay above 35 (it comes on at about 38). I usually leave it set up until the night time lows are ~45, which is typically mid-late June.

My greenhouse is a geodesic dome from "Growing Spaces" (https://growingspaces.com/). It is designed to be able to grow all year round in our climate (altho I have not grown a winter crop in several years now). It has polycarbonate panels that have an R value better than 3 pane windows. (BTW, I personally would not use glass for a GH up here). All seams are caulked. And there is below ground insulation around the perimeter. It also has a 400 gal water tank for thermal mass. Because of the design, it is pretty easy/cheap to heat.


You might want to take a look at this thread:

https://www.pinecam.com/forum/viewtopic ... greenhouse

I hope that was helpful. Feel Free to ask more questions...

I guess we are lucky as our outside temp has not dropped below 34 in the big greenhouse we have held at 40 but the wife does watch many of the weather models and we have an Acurite weather station that tracks our personal weather at the house and sensors in the two greenhouses and the hoop house.

I thought she would pull all of the tomatoes in off the plants in the hoop house many times but no she said she was rolling the dice .

Rarely will she have me put a heater in the big greenhouse but in spring we do cover things with row covers and sheets.

One thing I will say is many of the green tomatoes are showing color now she is definitely the one who tracks stuff.

The last bed of potatoes she will be harvesting this weekend and I think the first of the garlic is going in tomorrow or Wednesday.

what size dome do you have? this is my dream to have one of their domes

Mine is 12ft in diameter. I bought the kit in 2010 for a Spring 2011 delivery. They don't offer that size anymore as far as I know. The smallest now is 15ft.

Originally I wanted the 15ft, but the Park County Bldg Dept was giving me hell saying I had to upgrade my septic before they would give me a permit to build the greenhouse.

Which made no sense to me since the GH and septic were not connected in any physical way. Then they said they would not grant any type of building permit until the septic was upgraded (because it was installed years before there was a building dept in Park County).

Park County requires a permit for any structure larger than 120 sqft (which the 15fter would have been). I was okay with paying the permit fee but not spending the money on a new septic system. So GrowingSpaces offered me a 12ft one, so I could avoid a permit and dealing with the county.

Funny thing is, 7 years later I had to get a new septic system anyway (long story). It would have been a cheaper system to do it back when I had the GH built. Oh well.

I highly recommend the GrowingSpaces greenhouses.

oh yeah, I had not even thought about building permits and stuff. I guess I should do that homework BEFORE I start the campaign with my husband.

I am going to see if we have another short summer like we had this year and if we do, then I'll start having a good reason to have one. My flowers/plants are doing so well right now. you know usually by this time I would have had to cut back all of my salvia as the blooms would have been spent and wait for the second crop to come out, but this year.... all of my salvia have stayed in beautiful bloom with no tending. the pollinators have been very happy.