Herbs in the Garden

Archive for March, 2010

My Cattle Panel Greenhouse

At home, besides my medicinal herb garden I also have a kitchen garden. I start almost everything from seed or cuttings, so I have a nice little ‘homey’ greenhouse to work in.

The greenhouse at home is unheated except for heat mats in raised grow beds, so most seedlings and starts go into the greenhouse around late March. Around here nothing goes into the ground before mid May-except peas- and we wait until the guys down the road have quit spraying in their fields.

This greenhouse is a nice size for home growing. It’s also a cheap affair, my “Cattle Panel” lean to.

The whole thing is a mere 16′ x 15′- and is attached to the back of the potting shed….or as I like to call it-the Mental Health Center.

There is a small mist system for cuttings, and an 8′x 16 shade house for the 100* months of July and August- it’s also a cattle panel job.

Here is the shade house frame, completely naked and without flooring. It will have it’s top on and have landscape fabric laid down by early summer.  See? Nothing fancy. The LP tank for heating the potting shed is to the right.

Oh sure- go ahead and laugh at how ugly they are, but these things have held up through snow storms, straight line winds that took out a goat barn -WITH the goats in it- and more. Since I am in the middle of open fields I need sturdy. The metal arches wired together does the trick.

New plastic is definitely due this year on the greenhouse-I’ve gone 5 years on this bit and it is showing it’s age…and it was just a 4 year plastic.

The fact that the cats insist on climbing it doesn’t help with rips and tears, so until it’s replaced, all I can say is thank goodness for repair tape!

OK Gang,

Here is an uber-simple way to start growing herbs early-without a greenhouse and without a lot of snazzy garden gear. Perfect for those of you that garden in cooler (and cold) climates this mini greenhouse is completely portable.

Herb Seedlings in a Tub

Here’s what you need to make your own movable mini-greenhouse/ portable cold frame :

A clear plastic tub-preferably more than 6″ deep for herb headroom

Some containers- or pots. Recycled containers are good.

Potting or seed starting mix or potting soil

Looking through A Seedling Tub

The How To:

Moisten your soil mix, and load up for containers.

Read your seed packet planting instructions and plant seeds according to them!

Place containers in the tub..or tubs.

Set outside on sunny days in a protected area. Prop the lid up, set it sideways on the tub, or take it off altogether-if the weather is warm enough. If you see condensation forming ,it’s too hot in your little greenhouse!

Make sure you give those seedlings some air, or you’ll end up with fungal diseases.

They will dry out in the sun and seedlings do need to be kept moist. Touch the top of the soil-if it feels dry gently water.

Depending on what you planted-you should see seedlings before long.

Bring them in before the temperatures dip in the afternoon. Rinse and repeat!

Recycled Containers In a Tub Mini Greenhouse

Yeehaw!

There are buds. Buds on things that share the herb garden. And there is actually supposed to be sunshine today as well.

That means Spring is here-despite the below freezing night temperatures. Robins have been spotted as well-which makes it all official.

You can see grass greening up which is beyond thrilling. I’ll enjoy it while I can, since I know perfectly well that our lovely Midwest has hellacious Spring storms that can bring tornadoes, ice and snow. Sometimes all at once.

Here is a dwarf Forsythia about to bloom as well.

Kind of brightens up the dull fields behind, don’t you think?

I really love reading old herbals and books about plant lore.

Some of it is really fascinating from an herbalists view point, and some is wildly funny reading by today’s standards.

Here’s one from an 1884 Plant Lore book:

The Herb of Oblivion, or Herb of Forgetfulness.

It was rumored to be found in parts of Switzerland, France and other areas  in Europe.

If you stepped on it, your memory would be lost immediately.

If you had the misfortune to be traveling at the time, you would be lost and would wander about…even if you knew the road well  only a moment before.

About now I was really getting into the tale.

I wanted to know the name of the mysterious herb.

Sadly, the story ended rather abruptly.

The final sentence-

The author reported that no one could remember the name of the herb!

And that completely broke  me up

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We can’t avoid it.

There is going to be weather.

All around the world there are climate changes occurring.

Various groups have been screaming about climate changes for years. Unfortunately, not all weather changes are in line with the cries of the Go Green, Ecological, Scientific, Impending Doom of 2010,2011,2012, and possibly the Don’t Wear Deodorant Groups.

Before you start emailing me about my lack of political correctness be aware that I myself may fall into several of those categories…

Here in the Midwest the weather has been weird this year…really, the last few years. Just plain weird.

I am sure it has been the same for many of you, so I won’t whine or complain about it and the destruction of my little ol’ herb garden.

I really just wanted to share my new ”Cover it all” gardener’s weather greeting. When I meet you on the street uttering this greeting,  please know this is my attempt to cover all of the ‘weathers’ and give a shout out to our climate change organizations. So here goes:

“My Goodness, we’ve had such hot-cold-wet-dry-solar-flare-el-nino-blizzard-green-house-gas-tornadic-mini-ice-age-la-nina-pole-shifting-weather-lately, haven’t we?”

Yes, it’s a mouthful.

Please tell me, is there ‘anyweather’ (my new word) I have forgotten? Let me know.  I think there’s room for another in the same breath.

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