Winding Down

It is ten days before the heater shutdown, but the greenhouse is already pretty much ready for hibernation. Not much remains to be dug up, and only a few more plants have to be evacuated to the garage. Here's the complete list, clockwise from the far left corner.

• Snow Peas: There are enough pods to have one good stir fry sometime next week, and we'll see if they keep producing when the heat goes off.
• Sorrel: Not one of my favorites so I wished it into the cornfield. (See the original Twilight Zone, "It's a Good Life.") Actually we don't have a cornfield, but there is a field where it ended up because it was too big for the compost bin. Its former spot below the fan is now occupied by a straw bale which I will be using for mulch.
• Late-planted radishes: Some look OK, some do not.
• Carrots: They aren't going to be huge, but we will get some. A few will be allowed to overwinter so they can produce flowers and seeds next year.

• Chives: I trimmed the two large pots and will leave them on the ground at far right for the winter. There is an untrimmed pot on the bench at left that might end up in a garage window. I also stuck some dried chive heads in one of the outside window boxes and maybe they will sprout in the spring. The plan is to have the chives share the box with mint. We will see who wins.
• Beets: Maybe we will get some of edible size. Maybe. The greens are lush and I've used them in omelets a few times in place of spinach.
• Geraniums: After getting haircuts, the three baskets went to their winter home. I have one pot that will overwinter in the garage seed room.
• Cilantro: Still a lot to harvest from the planter, and those plants are not going to seed. The crop in the pot bolted a long time ago and is dried out, but there are very few seeds. I still have plenty of seeds from previous years.
• Mums: I followed through on my plan to bury both pots in the planters. I took the soil temperature next to one of the pots and it was 52 degrees. It will be interesting to see what it is in January (if the greenhouse isn't drifted shut). One buried pot can be seen in the middle of the right planter, and the other is directly below the camera. I will trim the foliage and cover them with straw about a week after turning off the heat.
• Allium: Unseen, hopefully establishing roots. I have scattered some straw as mulch.
• Basil: Two plants remain in the dirt. I will trim off the last of the good branches and compost them before shutdown day.
• Sage: Both survived after almost being smothered by the tomatillo. They take up a bit of room themselves, and I think next spring (assuming they survive the winter) I will leave one where it is and put the other one in a pot.
• Tomatillo: I wished it into the cornfield. See previous post.
• Broccoli: Tall and not producing heads. They have a bit more space now because I thinned them and killed the tomatillo, but I wonder if it is too late.
• Petunia: Still in the greenhouse a few more days until I get additional grow lights for the seed room. I'll give it a trim and try to root some of the cuttings.
• Marigold: I have that little volunteer marigold plant that I dug out of the geranium pot. It will end up in the garage somewhere.

I finally got around to placing trail cameras, one outside looking toward the door, and one inside sitting on a little pot in the lower center of the above image. I'm sure deer and turkeys will show up on the outside one, and moose and bear also have been known to frequent the neighborhood.

The seed room in the garage is getting crowded, and it will have to make room for just a few more items. I'll probably do four more petunia cuttings, and maybe the volunteer marigold will get to spend some time in there. The crunch will come March and April when I will have to find room for dozens of seed starts. This image shows some Cuban oregano and aloe on the sides, seed starters in the back with parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme, and the geranium and petunia cuttings at right. Eight of the 12 cells I seeded with mint now have sprouts, so I took the cover off and turned off the heat mat. I set up a cheap fan in the middle just to keep the air moving. The garage is currently heated to 55, but this time of year will get warmer than that during the day. My latest check of the room was 61 degrees but humidity only 22%. That's what happens when you live in the West at altitude (5,800 feet). We have a humidifier attached to our furnace that keeps humidity at 35% inside the house, but the garage has its own Hot Dog heater which doesn't have a humidifier. The new grow lights will be on the floor to the right, and the petunia and geranium pots will have their winter home there.

Not pictured are the plants in the garage windows and inside the house. These include three basil, several Cuban oregano, several aloe, an oregano, and a Christmas cactus. The two small garage windows are my only southern exposure. If I had to design the house all over again, we would have an attached greenhouse on the south side of the house. Oh well.

I doubt anyone will ever read these blog posts. They are for my benefit. I can go back and read them and plan for the future. If someone finds them useful, great.