Traffic Jam

When I got to the greenhouse today, a flock of turkeys was pecking its way across the field to the south. Then three deer appeared and made their way toward the turkeys. One of the younger deer took a sniff of one of the turkeys, resulted in a very brief confrontation. That moment passed the the two groups went to ignoring each other.

I spend my time worrying about whether the little heater can keep up with the overnight chill. The official coldest temperature for the city was 18 degrees the morning of the 28th. The inside temperature bottomed out at 35.8. Since the thermostat was at 45, obviously it can't keep up but it can make a difference. My conclusion based on about six nights when it got really cold is it can keep the inside about 15-18 degrees warmer than the outside. Here's how everything stands with perhaps two more weeks of heat, going clockwise starting in the northeast corner:

• The pea plants look nice but the pods are only gradually appearing.
• The sorrel has been transplanted into a pot and I'm going to bury and mulch one of the mum pots in its place. This seems the best way to overwinter the mums, and if it doesn't work I buy new mums. Sorrel is not in my long-term plans.
• The late-planted radishes are having varying degrees of success, with some looking good and some nearly dead.
• I thinned the carrots again and got some very small ones that were almost edible. I hope we get a few good ones by mid-November.
• I'm confused by the beets. The tops are lush, but I can't see any decent-sized beets forming. I will provide more spacing for both beets and carrots next year.
• The three geraniums in hanging baskets are looking overgrown and tired. They need a good trim before they are put away for winter in my brother's tunnel greenhouse. My one potted geranium finally looks like it is recovered from last winter, which it spent in bad light in my garage getting infrequent waterings. I took cuttings from all four and so far the potted one is the winner.
• The cilantro is lush and abundant. I don't know what to do with it all.
• With the harvest of the first batch of radishes, that opened up a spot where I will bury and mulch the second mum pot.
• Hopefully the unseen allium bulbs are developing roots and will flower next year.
• I had four basil plants in the planter. When I thought I had killed one of my potted plants at home, I potted one from the greenhouse. (The original one recovered, but it is huge and needs lots of water.) The other three are looking rough and will die soon.
• The two sage plants, despite living in the shadow of the tomatillo, look healthy. I might dig them up next spring to change their location, but will keep them in a planter.
• The tomatillo. What should I say? Since the fruits are enclosed in a husk, I can't tell if any of them are ripe. I guess they are ready when they fill out the husk, which they don't seem to be doing. And its hulking presence seems to be shrinking as the weather is getting colder. There will be no tomatillo in the greenhouse next year.
• The broccoli looks extremely healthy but I don't see anything that looks like a head. Maybe they are too close together and are blocked from the light by the tomatillo.
• The petunia pot looks great. I don't want to just leave it in the greenhouse when I turn off the heat, but the only place I have to put it in the heated garage doesn't get much light. I took four cuttings, which might be doing something. I can't tell yet.
• The chives in the greenhouse look OK, not great. The two pots on the back patio at the house haven't been deadheaded all year. It's time to chop them down and stick them in the unheated shed, where they will survive just fine and come back in the spring.
• I killed the bean plants. They had run their course. I probably won't plant them again because my wife hates green beans. HATES green beans. This was a donation, and the "soil" in the big pot is hard, hard clay that I will not attempt to re-use.
• In the garage, which is now heated to 55, I have most of the potted plants in the south windows. The seed room has the cuttings from the geraniums and petunias, and sprouts of parsley, rosemary and thyme. I haven't been able to get the mint to sprout, so I planted all 12 cells of a seed starter with just mint on the 26th. The seed packet says 7-28 days. I want at least six mint plants: Three for a greenhouse window box, a couple (in pots) in a barrel planter outside, and at least one more potted. The only thing on the heated mat at the moment is the mint starter. Nov. 1: We have mint sprouts in two cells after six days.
• The house plants, which are aloe and "Greek oregano" are in the process of being evacuated to the garage, joining basil and regular oregano pots. I have space for all of them but some may not get much light. Triage. My sister gave me the "Greek oregano" maybe 25-30 years ago. It is a succulent, very aromatic, but the images of Greek oregano on the interweb have more pointed leaves, and AI says it is not a succulent. However, it might be a Cuban oregano, which is a succulent. Most of the images I have found on the internet support this idea, so henceforth I will call it Cuban oregano.

That's everything. This isn't quite the end of the greenhouse year, but it is the beginning of the end. I learned a lot in the shortened three-month growing season after the greenhouse arrived. I know what I want to do next year when the greenhouse season will be more like seven months (mid-April to mid-November). I have my garage seed room with heating mats for seed starting in March, leading up to transplanting in the (heated) greenhouse in April and May. (Our official last frost average date is June 9, with possible frost as late as June 25!)

Flowers will be more prominent -- zinnias, marigolds, nasturiums and others instead of just geraniums and the random petunia. Tomatoes and peppers will occupy the East Wing of planters, and nearby will be two hanging baskets of strawberries! Outside, on the east side I will try doing two hanging baskets of peas suceeded by cucumbers. On the west side and at our house we will have Supertunia baskets. Because of the deer, everything outside either has to be unpalatable to them, or hung high. Every web search I do for "deer resistant" says nothing is 100%. I'll probably move the two-foot oak barrel (which had the bean pot this year) outside and plant a deer-"resistant" bee balm as the centerpiece, surrounding it and also filling the greenhouse window boxes with zinnias, marigolds, mint, rosemary, thyme and bunching onions. I hope the deer hate them.

Here's a couple images of the Cuban oregano that spent a couple months in the greenhouse. About 10 years ago I stuck a cutting in the ground next to my house in South Dakota, and over the summer it developed into a thick mounded ball. Cold weather killed it immediately, and I haven't been able to replicate it since. Usually the indoor pots struggle to get enough light during the winter. With a full summer in the greenhouse next year I'll see what I can do in a large pot or even in the outside barrel next to the bee balm.

Peas

I finally saw some peapods yesterday. And I found what I believe is a volunteer marigold in the petunia pot. I replanted it and we'll see how well it does.

We had light snow today, but the temperature was still high enough for the vents to open slightly and the flakes were trickling through. Jesse showed me how to screw the vents closed for winter, but I'm not sure whether I will do it.

I received the new temperature controller for the heater today. Ultra-simple controls, and it allows setting an on/off range so it doesn't cycle on and off so frequently. It set it at 39.5 on and 44.5 off. Now as long as it isn't as cheaply made as the previous one, I'm all set.

Baskets

I got a deal on 16-inch Coco Coir (coconut fiber) baskets during Prime Days, so now I have 10 of them. Along with two 12-inch baskets and three hanging geraniums, I potentially have 15 hanging items next year. I put four high hooks in the greenhouse today, so now I have 14 hooks installed. I'm short one hook. There are two cross beams (visible in the photo), higher than the side hooks but lower than the high hooks, so those would pick up the overflow if it occurs. I probably would bump my head on them all the time, but of course the crowding would only occur in April-May. Sometime around the start of June, as many as 10 of the baskets will go outside, both at our house and at the greenhouse.

The Coco Coir baskets are empty for now.

I was looking at the two brackets that are on beams at the back of our house. To date, they have been high enough to keep deer from getting to the geraniums, marigolds and generic petunias we have had there. But if these mutant petunias are as prolific as claimed, I should raise those brackets a foot or two. (I'll also add two brackets in the front and perhaps two more in the back.) I've seen a deer getting up on its hind legs and trying to steal seeds from our bird feeders more than five feet off the ground, and I think I have a trailcam image of it. While I search for that, here's another example. Everything needs to go as high as possible.

The petunia cuttings have been moved to the seed room in the garage. The leaves have spread too much and I've given up on the humidity domes, so will just make sure they remain moist. I forgot to do that with the basil plant in the garage window. It looked very droopy, but after dumping lots of water on it, it looks better six hours later. We have a basil plant in the kitchen, and I still have four plants in a greenhouse planter. I might dig one up tomorrow for another backup, but there is only so much space in our garage.

Cuttings

Here I go with the tunias again. I've spent way too much time lately reading and watching videos about petunias. I know my current petunias are not Super, but they look healthy and I did throw a couple grains of fertilizer at them a few days ago. I decided to take some cuttings and see how far into the winter I can make it.

I wanted to use clear plastic cups for the cuttings so I could see the growing roots, if any. I found some hard plastic cups in the cupboard and decided to drill holes in the bottom. A big drill bit cracked the bottom of the first one, but it was still together enough that I used it. I used a much smaller bit on the next three. They still cracked, but not as badly. (Next time, get flexible plastic cups.)

Some interweb sources said the soil doesn't have to be anything special for petunia cuttings, so I used extra garden soil. I ran it through the soil sifter to take out the larger chucks of wood. I put those in the compost bin, which needs more brown stuff. After I filled the glasses with soil, I soaked them thoroughly. I then attacked the petunia pot, taking cuttings 4-6 inches in length just below a leaf as the YouTube videos suggest. I peeled off the lower leaves, made a hole in the dirt with a pencil, and inserted the cuttings. The first one I took was spread too wide, but I was more careful selecting the other three and I inverted a small cup on top to act as a humidity dome. I guess we will see if a humidity dome makes a difference.

The four cuttings are still in the greenhouse, but I will bring them home to the garage seed room eventually. I don't know if I will have the patience to nurse these through the winter. It's probably more of a proof of concept for next year.

My other project today was finishing the shelves above the bench. In the early part of the week I stained three 12x48 pine boards, and today I attached them to the brackets. I know the shelves are very close together, but there isn't a lot of wall space above the bench. This image shows the shelves bringing order to the space, with the four petunia cuttings front and center. Or actually a bit to the right.

Next, mums. I've been debating what to do with the two garden mums I picked up in August. Some interweb sources suggest sticking them in the cool, dark corner of an unheated garage. Our garage is heated to 50, doesn't really have a dark corner, and doesn't have a lot of excess space. All of our stalls have a car parked in them. Mums are supposed to be hardy to Zone 5, which we are ever since global warming kicked in, and I'm thinking now I will bury the mum pots in the greenhouse planters. I can't do it now because there is only one unused spot, where the radishes used to be. Something else needs to go away so I can bury both pots. "Could you please tell the sorrel I want to see it in my office..." As mid-November approaches, the sorrel may get dug up and accidentally end up in a neglected pot. (I'm also thinking about accidentally putting the tomatillo in a wood chipper. It takes up way too much room.)

As I mentioned before, both mums have been deadheaded and I've been waiting to see if new blossoms put on a show. One of the plants has a few orange blooms scattered around the lower part near the pot rim. The other one has nothing. I presume the flowering mum was yellow in its earlier incarnation because the other one was purple. There are still some tight little buds on both plants and something might yet happen.

Drone

Outside temperatures in the mid-50s are excellent for the greenhouse. It gets up to about 80 with the windows closed and the sun shining in. The automatic top vents are open on days like this, so there is some ventilation. If I open the windows and door, it's a pleasant 70.

At this point I'm patiently (?) waiting for the beets, carrots, broccoli and peas to mature, which all look really healthy but are not ready to harvest. I wonder if I crowded things too much or if it just takes that long. The beets and carrots have been growing for two months, and the other two for about six weeks. The tomatillo has dozens of fruits, but they don't fill out the husks yet. No matter what happens this year, we will not have one of those next year. It takes up way too much room.

I didn't have the right screwdriver to finish installing the shelves I've been working on, so that will be finished tomorrow. I did put up all of my remaining small hooks, but I figure I will have to put four big hooks in the highest beams to hang all the baskets I have. Most of these baskets will end up outside during the summer, but in the spring they need to be in the greenhouse to get established. Assuming I still have three geranium baskets next year, I will have a total of 15 baskets. In addition to the geraniums, right now I'm planning for eight petunia baskets (four outside at home, two outside on the west end of the greenhouse, and two inside), two of strawberries (inside), and four of peas succeeded by cucumbers (two outside on the east end of the greenhouse, two inside). With months to go before planting starts, this is subject to change.

Speaking of video, here is one that I shot with my drone on Tuesday, along with some stills. It has been a mild autumn so far. My electronic devices tell me there still hasn't been a hard freeze, and the little heater easily has been able to keep it at 40-42 overnight. I was hoping to get my replacement thermostat today, but now Amazon says Monday.

All the windows and door are open.

Facing west, Red Lodge Mountain.

Panorama, Red Lodge to the left, airport in the middle. The greenhouse is not really visible, just below the airport.

Winter goals

As the weather has gradually gotten cooler, I've been plotting out what to do over the winter to be ready for when the Northern Hemisphere inevitably turns back toward the sun. I'm not planning on heating the greenhouse past mid-November, so for anything that can't tolerate freezing, I need to use our garage, which is heated to 50 degrees.

I already have basil, oregano and a few houseplants in the garage windows, and we have a garage closet that is now my seed starting area. I hung an LED light and have been trying to sprout rosemary, thyme, parsley and mint as houseplants. The first attempt started mid-September using small clay pots, and failed completely. I tried again with plastic pots Sept. 28 and now have little sprouts of rosemary, thyme and parsley, but no mint yet. Finally, on Oct. 16 I went all-in, using a 12-cell seed starter tray (3 cells each), official Miracle Gro seed starting potting mix, and a heating mat.

Also on Oct. 16, I took cuttings from each of the four greenhouse geraniums. There are two identical reds and two unrelated pinks. I stuck those in plastic pots and put them in the seed starting room under the light but not on the heating mat.

I deadheaded the mums about three weeks ago hoping the buds underneath would produce a new crop of flowers, but they really haven't. In a few weeks I will trim them back to see if they will go dormant and overwinter in the garage.

We have three pots of chives, and the smaller one might end up in the garage window. The larger two will get trimmed back and stuck in the unheated shed. They have always bounced back in the spring.

The seed starting closet in our garage. Clockwise from top, geranium cuttings, rosemary, mint (not yet), the seed starter tray, thyme, parsley.

I have four more 12-cell starter trays and another heating mat. When spring arrives, I will try to start broccoli, pepper, tomato, zinnia and sunflower seeds. As May rolls around I might devote some of the baskets to cucumbers. I am undecided on whether to sprout marigolds and nasturtiums with seed trays, or just direct seed. I'll probably do some of both. The Supertunias and other mutant petunias mentioned in the previous post have to be bought as plants.

I will direct seed green onions, beets, carrots, peas, radishes and cilantro when the time comes. I'm not sure when to turn the greenhouse heat back on, maybe April 15 give or take a few weeks. There is a plan, and we will see how it comes together.

Speaking of peas, I really need to start writing down when I plant stuff. I planted peas in September, what date I'm not sure. They all sprouted nicely and maybe 10 days ago started producing flowers. No pods yet, but there is still plenty of time. The peas are in the northeast corner, and the other photo is shot through the window facing west. For the chaotic way the greenhouse layout evolved after getting a very, very late start on planting, I'm happy with it.

Except for this one bloom, the mums have not bounced back after deadheading three weeks ago.

Oct. 23: I thought I labeled the seed starter tray. I did not. Two of the four rows have sprouts after one week on the warming pad. I'm guessing they are thyme and rosemary, but will have to wait until they get bigger. If this guess is correct, I'm not getting any mint to sprout. I want some to plant outside next year because I think the deer will not eat it, so I would really like to get this to work.

Three of the geranium cuttings look like crap with yellowing leaves, and one looks pretty good. I did label those, so I know the good cutting is from the one that I overwintered in a pot in my garage last year. The bad ones are from the donated hanging baskets. I might just do more cuttings from the good plant. My petunias look so good that I'm thinking of doing cuttings from them also.

Tunias

As mentioned previously, we had some ordinary petunias and marigolds in hanging baskets in our back yard before the greenhouse was delivered at the end of July. They survived, but did not thrive. I put the marigolds in the greenhouse's outdoor flower boxes, and stuck the petunias in a pot inside. The trevails of the marigolds vs. the deer are detailed elsewhere, but I wanted to comment on the petunias. Online sources say to fertilize petunias for them to reach their full potential, but all I have really done the past few months is water them. They are not flowering prolifically but they look healthy, and will survive another month until I pull the plug on the greenhouse heater.

So what about next year? I've been reading and watching videos about Supertunias, which is a branded line of mutant petunias sold by Proven Winners from Michigan. Supertunias flower profusely and look to be an excellent choice for hanging baskets. Three different colors in a 16-inch basket could be spectacular. But the list price is $10.99 per plant. As I alluded to by calling them mutants, these are highly-engineered hybrids. They cannot be grown from seed because they don't produce seeds. You have to buy the plants, which might be available in the big-box stores in the spring, or to get the best selection can be ordered online from Proven Winners. There are several competitors to Supertunias (ColorRush, Wave, Durabloom), so I will probably spend a ridiculous sum next year to make huge hanging baskets of Frankentunias. And I promise to fertilize them.

On YouTube, "Up North Garden w/Corey" has a number of videos on growing massive plantings of petunias, including this one:

Panic time

The sun can raise the temperature of a greenhouse well above the outdoor temperature, but after the sun goes down, the inside and outside temperatures converge. This time of year when the lows are a few degrees either side of freezing, that is a problem unless you take countermeasures. There are all sorts of things you can try that don't require electricity, and if you are interested do a Google search on "greenhouse heating methods." But I opted for the electricity. We haven't had a hard freeze in southern Montana yet (unusual), and the little heater I bought for the greenhouse has been able to keep up with the 30-something outdoor temperatures, maintaining 41-42 degrees inside. (Fahrenheit of course.)

A side benefit of the AC Infinity fan I have installed is it has an app that (in addition to controlling the fan) allows me to monitor the temperature and humidity remotely. I have gotten in the habit of checking the app frequently, particularly as the weather has gotten cooler. This morning at 4:25 AM, it showed the temperature plunging from 41 degrees to 37 degrees a few minutes later. It didn't go back up, which I took as a sure sign that the heating system had chosen that moment to fail. It bottomed out at 35.8 degrees at 6:01 AM. It was a clear day so the temperature started rising in the greenhouse after the sun rose at 7:35 AM. Most (but not all) of my current plants are cold tolerant. Fortunately, there was no apparent damage even to those that are less hardy.

I quickly determined that the heater itself was still operational, but the separate thermostat controller had failed. The display still worked and I was able to cycle through the options, but it simply would not turn on the heater. So I removed the controller and plugged the heater directly into the outlet. Temperature control via the analog dial is complete guesswork, and I have it set on 1.5. I will monitor the temperature tonight with the AC Infinity app and might have to take a midnight ride if it turns out that it is set too low. I have ordered a new controller, different brand of course, but it won't be here until next Thursday.

This is a picture of the Chinese-made Buyplus heater, controller (the green item), and a stand-alone digital thermometer that came in the package. I ordered them about two months ago and the Amazon return window ended after a month. So far I have been happy with the heater itself, and the digital thermometer is handy in that it gives me the 24-hour high and low, but the controller failure makes it impossible to recommend this package.

Update Oct. 18: The analog setting of 1.5 kept the temperature from dipping below 37.2 degrees last night when the outside temperature reached 32. I bumped it to just over 2.0 and will see if that will maintain above 40 degrees until I get the new controller. Also, I put the stand-alone thermometer outside on the north side of the greenhouse. AC Infinity already tells me the high and low temperatures inside, so this will report what is happening outside.

Update Oct. 20: The new setting has kept the temperature no lower than 41.7 the past two nights. I'm wondering if I should leave this heater as-is, and hook the new controller when it comes to a second heater set a few degrees lower as an emergency backup. Less than three months into my greenhouse experience I've already had technology failures of the ventilation fan and the heater controller. A backup heater seems like a good idea.

Why We Fight

As I mentioned in my first post, one of the reasons to get a greenhouse rather than garden outside is the deer in this area eat everything. At the Spruce Lodge location, there were six regulars this year, three adults and three fawns. As I was pruning geraniums there today, three of them were lounging around and not the least bit concerned by my presence. I could see the message in their eyes, "I dare you to leave that door open." The first image is from today (the middle one is a fawn), the next two images are from August when the fawns still had their spots.

Greenhouse gadgets

I love my gadgets. I was probably the first one on my block to have a flatbed scanner connected to my computer, circa 1991. The greenhouse is no different. I have added a heater, a temperature control for the heater, a device to measure how much electricity the heater is using, the irrigation system, three extension cords, a set of three soil sifters, hooks, a 7-in-1 soil tester, a garden hose mount, 25 four-foot stakes, clamps to attach the stakes to the planters, shelves, a compost bin, a seedling heating mat, tomato cages, plant labels, seed starter trays, and 10 hanging baskets. And that's just from Amazon. I haven't gotten quite as much stuff at WalMart and Home Depot, but I have been a frequent visitor.

October 8

Today, a gloomy day

A flock of 10 turkeys wanders by