Project Greenhouse

After a long winter of mediocre, but expensive, grocery story produce, and a few 80-degree days in March (really...80 degrees!) my thoughts have already turned to my garden.  I didn't enjoy this winter as much as usual.  For one thing, we didn't have much snow.  Not much snow means not much cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, which means we didn't get out to play nearly as much as we would have liked to.  For another thing, this was an unusually warm winter for us, so the ice fishing season was a lot shorter than usual too because the ponds defrosted a little sooner than usual.  Our winter weather has just been plain weird around here this year.

At this point, I have to add a footnote of sorts.  My daughter recently married a guy who is an avid ice fisherman.  (He's so cool, he took my grandson smelt fishing very late one night.  My grandson won't forget that fun soon.)  Anyway, my son-in-law had a rather dilapidated, disintegrated ice shack, so for Christmas, she thought the perfect gift for him would be a new ice shack, built by herself (because this is MacGyver's daughter, after all.)  She started in November and worked on it when she had free time, and it turned out really nifty.  However, the poor guy never got it out on the ice.  That's how weird this winter has been!  But here's a picture of her ice shack.  She did a really nice job, and I'm very proud of her. 

 Here they are in front of the ice house.  Cute, huh?

Back to my greenhouse...

No snow also means it didn't take until May to melt the piles of snow around the house, so I was able to get out and do a little raking when we had those really warm March days.  In the course of conversation with a neighbor, I learned about a guy here in Maine who grows produce in his greenhouse all year 'round.  Even when it's really cold.  My neighbor loaned me the book about him.  

I don't think the economy is going to improve very soon, and I definitely don't think groceries are going to get any cheaper, so the idea of building a greenhouse where I could try my hand at growing greens all winter was very appealing.  Fortunately for me, MacGyver thought it was a good idea too and got on board with my project. 

It still needs the rest of the pvc support frames, the plastic, and some doors, but this is as far as we got this weekend.  If all goes according to plan (and I have to read some more about when to plant the winter crops) we'll use the two beds in the middle all winter to grow some nice salad greens in cold frames.

Charlie, our steer in the background there, kept us company most of the day.  He likes to be near the action.  After we finish putting it together and get some crops in, I'll update this.  For now, it's very exciting to have this much done before black fly season.  Even though winter has been off, I can't imagine the black flies will be off too.  With my luck, they'll be worse than usual.