As if one new barn wasn’t enough, now we’re working on two barns. After Will came home with five new bottle calves, and we got such a good deal on several more, we suddenly were bottle-feeding nine calves! That is fine, but winter’s coming and the goats would not be too happy sharing their cottage with eleven partly-grown calves this winter. Talk about crowded! So Will has been shuttling work between the new barn and a 12×20-foot “stable,” adjacent to the horse training ring. First, he took Old Yeller down and leveled off the site so water will not stand in the stable or the area around it. Then he dug holes for the six poles and two days ago I helped him set those poles. Because it was 90 degrees plus…and dry as a bone, the dust was a foot thick down there. It was not a pleasant afternoon, but the posts got set and plumbed. Today, he is placing the flat-sided tamarack support beams for the rafters, notching them in to the upright posts. Luckily, we have some large tamarack logs so we won’t have to buy rafters. We’ll be sawing them with our Hud-Son bandsaw mill. I’m looking forward to that, as I really enjoy sawing boards with it!
Meanwhile, I’ve been canning up a storm following our severe frost last week. Now they’re calling for a bad freeze (down to the low twenties!) on Wed. night, so the tomatoes and even peppers in the hoop house have to come in to the house. So we’ll be picking up a storm very soon. Today I’m canning up blackberry jam from some blackberry puree our friend, Carl, sent (frozen) from Washington. So far I’ve done three batches, with enough puree for one more batch. Boy, is it good! Thank you Carl!
I just had to show you this photo of one of our Giant Marconi sweet peppers. We’ve always grown Giant Marconis because they are very productive and quite early. But this one is huge and fire engine red. We are so impressed with the results of our hoop house. — Jackie
Zelda,
Yep, I’ve used Agribon, but this year, our peppers were all done, and there was no reason to keep the plants going. Around here, when it’s time, it’s time. NOTHING will keep our crops alive much longer here in Northern Minnesota. I know products, such as Agribon, work well in many areas, but here, it not only freezes solid in late October, but gets down to zero most Novembers and the frost goes down two feet soon after. Thanks for bringing up that product for others who live in more hospitable climates, where late fall/early winter…or even all winter…growing IS possible.
Jackie
Zelda, I googled up those covers and from the user comments they seem to work quite well! Although I live on the Gulf Coast where vegetable gardening is done by July 15th or there abouts, they would definitely be useful for fall gardening in my zone (9a). Some users also noted that the covers helped againt certain plant diseases and bugs. Thanks for the tip!
Jackie and any others who have a hoop house or high tunnel – you probably don’t need to pull your plants when temps hit the 20s. You can layer Agribon frost blankets inside the tunnel. Because of the weight, you’ll need to put in simple wire or plastic pipe supports, hoops or rectangles. Make them to fit over each group of plants. Agribon50 protects plants growing in the open down to 24 degrees. Agribon30 protects down to 26 degrees. Either should protect tunnel plants down to 20ish. You can layer a lighter weight of Agribon, like a floating row cover, with the heavier cover on supports over it. Floating row cover will keep frost off the leaves. Remember that the soil in a tunnel will retain heat for a while (usually several months) and keep the temp up under the row cover. Growth and ripening will be slowed. Agribon50 has 50% light transmittance; Agribon30 has 70%, plus your light loss from your tunnel plastic but you can remove the heavy blanket on warm, sunny days. Eggplant, peppers and tomatoes are perennial plants. If you can keep them going through the winter, you have a huge jump start on the following year’s production. You can also grow cold tolerant varieties of each. And the row covers will allow you to seed and grow cold tolerant leafy crops most of the winter. If you have berries, frost blanket on hoops over your berry plants can give you fresh fruit into November in a cold climate. If your fruit trees are in a cage for protection from critters, frost blanket over the cage will give you a longer growing season for fruits to ripen. Another useful product if you can do the initial investment used to be called TufBell and is now sold under the name Dio-Betalon. It is high tech and wonderful as a floating row cover or low tunnel cover. My pieces are original TufBell and 4 to 5 growing seasons old. I use it during the growing season for low tunnels because it protects plants during times of extreme temperature fluctuations (plants won’t overheat or freeze), you can water through it, it transmits at least 90% light, and it stands up to strong winds. You put it on and forget it, no ventilating needed. And it does not deteriorate or break down over time as quickly as plastic does.
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