Hello all, I am in PA in the United States and am a long-time gardener of edible crops. I started a blog on Substack about my garden to talk to people about gardening but don't have much of an audience there so I thought I would reach out here, too. I am mostly looking for gardening friends and to bounce ideas off of everyone! Thank you for welcoming me and I look forward to our conversations and reading about everybody's gardens.
@Oleri Gardening just checked out your garden it’s a doosey. Your greenhouse is huge How well does it protect the plants from diseases and insects. I am a curious ole soul. And any heat or water system as well as pro lighting? Looks like a gardeners Dream house .
@Pacnorwest Thanks! The greenhouse is pretty big at 16' x 48'. It doesn't really protect the plants from insects and diseases... but maybe does? It mostly protects them from extreme weather like strong winds, hail, freezing temps, and dumping rain. Because the plants don't get stressed from the extreme weather, they may be protected from the insects and diseases that like to take advantage of stressed plants so that's why I say maybe. For watering, I just use four 100' soaker hoses connected to a four-way water meter that can turn on and off automatically. It's really low tech! Downside is that I have to replace the hoses every couple of years. No lighting at all except for a few solar pathway lights that come on at night and help in case I need to grab something for dinner after dark. I love the greenhouse, but it has its costs as well as its benefits which is why I use raised beds or in-ground beds outside of it as well. For example, the poly traps some heat in the summer so I must use a shade cloth. Even then, inside the greenhouse is typically 5 degrees F warmer than outside. It also traps some moisture, which can exacerbate fungal issues or encourage slug activity. The greatest benefit to the greenhouse is extending the growing season. I get a few weeks extra on both sides!! I'm very grateful.
Welcome @Oleri Gardening , I do have fruit trees and I grow Summer salads but that is all really as I love my flowers too much. I also love my greenhouse in the Winter and can happily snuggle myself up in there with a mug of Hot Chocolate and my classical music playlist and still get to enjoy my gardening fix .
Hi Oleri, Welcome to GardenStew. You will find us a cheery group, always with a helping hand and we really get excited about pictures!! Jerry
@Oleri thank you for answering all my greenhouse questions. Very nice you can extend your garden seasons and since you’re a seasoned gardener maybe you can share some growing tips . I bet your freezer is full of veggies. From looking thru your garden site you have a lot of space used well and veggies galore. Greenhouses really can be more difficult in some ways to control insects. I have a tiny greenhouse 3 shelves in a surround design. It was a kit, my son and I built it. I can cram in tons of seedlings and over winter fav plant collections and start seedlings. It’s to hot to keep plants inside in summer. It has auto fans/vents and auto thermostat, grow lights for flowers and green plants and hose water. See pic…
@Pacnorwest I love that! Getting a few weeks head start in spring is super valuable, especially when you start your own seedlings. I just added 9.6 lbs of bell pepper to the freezer today since I removed the peppers from my hoop house.Tomorrow I'm freezing jalapenos, poblanos, and anaheim peppers. The freezer is a bit out of control but it's a good problem! I'm having uploading pictures -- I keep getting a message about my files being too large but they definitely are less than 3 mb and the pixel dimensions are much smaller than is required, so I'm not sure how to show you. Your greenhouse sounds like a dream, especially with the automatic vents, fans, thermostat and grow lights. My hoop house poly tunnel is unheated but I just added two fans to both circulate air but also blow some of the hot air out during the summer and it definitely improved the conditions in there. I would love a solid, heated poly greenhouse or something like that for seedlings and/or overwintering plants, but don't have the room or money for it right now. However, I have plenty of everything else so I am definitely not complaining. I am very grateful. I am a pretty good veg grower but honestly know next to nothing about growing plants for aesthetic/ornamental purposes like many of my friends. I'm sure you all will have plenty to teach me there. The best I did this year was grow a small pollinator bed with a hodgepodge of flowers. Next year, I am hoping to add a small but perennial and native flower garden and include a chair and table maybe so I can have a place to sit down and catch my breath when I'm working hard in the summer. That will push my boundaries as a gardener and force me to learn something I know nothing about.
Very nice group of pepper plants and I enjoyed your pepper plants along with your bountiful harvests. Your hoop houses are perfect for growing veggies . Nice photos showing how well the plants and harvest . I like the slide show format too. About picture size ask google how to down size with your system. Some will allow a special request to sizing. Large medium or small. Every pic upload is different . With my system uploading from IPad I first click on upload photo on the bottom of this page. Then goes to my photo library. At the bottom of my photo library there is an ‘option’ box -referring to sizing. Click on options the sizing screen pops up - large , medium, small. Click on medium , it is the common size for the forum or large can also add photos. Then click back to photo library, click on the picture your posting . It will upload the photo to the size you requested and will no longer send error message. It took me awhile to figure that out. It’s seems every site is different. Some sites allow multiple pics to uploaded while other sites only one at a time.
@Oleri Gardening this vid popped up in my weather app. Hope the drought is not in your area. Never heard of a drought in PA before.
@Pacnorwest It isn't an extreme drought where I am, but there is a moderate drought. Thankfully, we are set to receive some rain in the upcoming week!
