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This is old information that I moved here for now; I eventually remove it or update it in some way. I started to make a gardening in Maine website, but realized there is so much good information available from so many good people that it really does not make sense.
The following is from when we lived on Peaks Island, 2003 to 2009:
This page is mostly about our greenhouse experiments, and the associated garden experiences. We also have a "regular" vegetable garden and plenty of flowers and herbs, here on Peaks Island, Maine. We have a good, long, winter, so we're hoping to significantly extend our growing season, but without using much supplemental heating energy.
The special greenhouse materials came from a kit by Hobby Gardens. Their kits are a good deal for the quality of the materials. It did take a lot of additional lumber and a weekend of work to get it all together.
A good supplier of greenhouse and organic garden supplies is Peaceful Valley Farm. They have a good deal on an automatic vent opener, and lots of other great stuff.
Although we really like Fedco Seeds, and of course, Johnny's, even Burpee's and lots of others, we just found out about this seed supplier, which we also really like: Pinetree Garden Seeds. Also of course, FEDCO Seeds.
We put the greenhouse together in the Spring of 2003. It's a 12' by 12' hoop house, with doors at the north and south ends. We are trying various systems and plantings to see how they do. It is primarily used for growing vegetables-- greens in the early and late seasons, and hot weather stuff during the summer. The remaining section of this page provides an occasonal history on our greenhouse experience, through 2009.
There may someday be a photo from when the greenhouse was first built in April, 2003. An important constraint on the greenhouse (and with our whole garden for that matter,) is that it is built essentially on ledge, actually on a prepared clay-fill leveling layer with a filter cloth floor. All the gardening is done in containers on the floor. There is also a nice cobblestone path through the middle.
The first summer, it was basically used for the tomatoes and sweet peppers, and it worked great. The peppers were in one gallon pots, and the tomaotes were in 5-gallon buckets. They all needed to be watered every couple of days. The tomatoes started coming at the end of July, and kept on until October. The plants didn't do much at the end of that time, and died with the cold weather by Thanksgiving.
We tried to use the system popularized by Eliot Coleman in his books about winter gardening in Maine. Basically, he plants lettuce and other greens in Sepember and October, and harvests them in January through March. His plants are in the soil and covered with floating row covers, all under hoop greenhouses.
Because our greenhouse has a floor, everything is planted in containers on top of the floor. There is a 2-foot width of 2" blue board insulation around the inside of the perimeter of the greenhouse. All of the containers are covered with wire hoops and floating row cover fabric. There is an automatic vent in the form of the top panel of the south door, that starts to opens when the temperature gets to about 70 degrees F, and is very open by 90 degrees. Also insulated the north wall and door with 1" rigid foam board.
We planted various greens every week or so, and they were looking good by November. By the end of December, it was getting well below freezing in the greenhouse at night. We harvested one good crop, and then hoped for the best when the weather got really cold.
In our case, it didn't work too well. During January, the nights got down to minus10 or 15 degrees F, and the greenhouse temperature was only a few degrees warmer. In the daytime, the greenhouse warmed up to close to 80 degrees F, although the plant containers covered in fabric were not quite so hot. At any rate, the containers were frozen, and virtually everything died except the very cold hardy plants (spinach, mache, and claytonia).
In the middle of February, we added fifteen 5-gallon buckets of water covered in black plastic, and a lot of one-gallon milk jugs with black-colored water. Compared to plain water, the black ones got noticably warmer in the sun. There is about 100 gallons of water for storage mass; it could probably use 200 gallons.
Cleaned up the dead stuff, and planted more spinach and lettuces, and brocolli.
We left the small carrots that were started last fall; another experiment.
Meanwhile, in the house we started some tomato plants at the end of January, and progressively added peppers, and lots of flowers.
March 20, 2004: In these photos, the biggest stuff made it through the winter. New little spinach to the right of the bigger stuff is doing good. So are some new oriental greens in the box to the top left. New lettuces are not doing much in the mostly empty spaces.
The first tomato of 2004: a "Legend" variety:
Photos have been lost for now.
December 2004 update:
All the greens mentioned above did great, and we harvested until the outside things were growing, and the tomatoes got moved into the greenhouse--maybe that was April, mostly because they were getting too big for the house. We also kept a lot of peppers in the greenhouse, in fairly small containers, and they did great all summer and into October, even.
We started picking tomatoes at the end of June this year! They continued through the summer until early October, and then basically died out, not exactly from the cold, but the cold nights didn't help any. The peppers got killed by a frost in the greenhouse in late October (the tomatoes were gone by then).
New greens were planted at the end of September and early October, and we started eating them in November. At Thanksgiving, they were all going strong. We also added a little more water storage, so we'll see how long it keeps things from freezing this year. Hopefully, the kale and spinach will make it through the coldest weather, and be good in the Spring. Happy growing!
January, 2008: This just shows the water jugs and 5 gallon buckets that contain water for heat storage. They're pretty well frozen by this time of year, of course
Here is an update from November 7, 2009. We've had some frost, but not too much. The outside kale and cole crops are still fine, but nothing tender has really survived. The greenhouse has only gotten as cold as 38 degrees. It still has tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, but not for much longer. The greens are all fine, of course. Here are a few photos.
In the greenhouse, some summer things going by, and new greens coming in.
Frost outside, and a cover over some outside kale and stuff.
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