You have to help me understand something.

15 years ago

What I do not understand is, how somebody who loves gardening, SFG in particular, can quit gardening when Jack Frost shows up? Winter gardening in a GH is as enjoyable as gardening outside in the summer. In the middle of winter, nothing beats trudging down to the GH, stripping down to your T-shirt and working amongst all that greenery at 80 deg or better, and looking outside at a foot of snow. After you are finished working playing you pick enough greens for tonightÂs salad and have a BM. I do not recognize any usernames on this forum as posting on the GH forum. Do any of you have a GH and where do you post?

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

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Comments (15)

ribbit32004
15 years ago
Nope. No GH here. Granted, it's my first year seriously trying gardening more extensively than a pot or two here and there. That and I barely have enough sun exposure to maintain what I've got growing already.

I'm still going with fall crops, but possibly looking forward to the winter as a recharge. Time to forget about the destructive bugs and the heartache of failed crops and move on to the bliss of planning the next year (over and over again)and just hoping that I learned enough not to repeat the same mistakes or to better handle them if I do.

Kind of like why the summers remind me why I need to teach. I get rejuivenated, make new lessons and attack the new school year head on.

I just wish the winters were shorter, and we have a fairly short, mild winter down here to begin with. However, peer pressure is a powerful tool....convince me I need one, and tell me how I can camouflage in my front yard(strict HOA rules) and you could win me over to the GH side.
anniesgranny
15 years ago
No GH here. For me, wintertime is for playing with my friends. Four-wheeling in the desert. Games of "Hand & Foot" every night except Tuesday and Friday, when it's Bingo. Saturday night dinners in Lake Havasu City, at Montana Steak House or The Golden Corral. Potlucks and desert cookouts. Poker runs. Weekend yard sales where I buy something I don't need and really don't have room for. Taking care of my cactus gardens and my "rabbitat" (rabbit habitat, natural desert landscape). Hiking up our mountain (a must do each year), walking every morning, this year with the puppies. This winter I'll add building and painting birdhouses to that list! Next spring, I'll come back to my northern home and build my garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden
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medontdo
15 years ago
yes, in the beginning stages of getting that baby set up, only now we are in high gear. well, that high gear can get with all that's going on with hubs now. and the rain. but YEP!!! LOL
and the gardening wont stop just because the snow or frost has hit. i plan to put my sfg in there for a test to see if it will grow, and the kids and i will keep an eye on it and watch and see what will and won't grow. and then there's the inside stuff, that's been outside all spring/summer/fall. LOL
~Medo
engineeredgarden
15 years ago
No gh here...haven't put alot of thought into it, actually...Would be great for starting seedlings in. It would be neat to be able to go into a protective environment like that during freezing weather, and just tend to the plants. I'm sure my wife wouldn't be too thrilled about that idea, though.

EG
carolynp
15 years ago
No gh here, lol, this was my first true sfg. I still haven't given up gardening over the winter, though. I have two egg shells full of dirt in the kitchen right now waiting on seedlings. I have to gather my leaves and get a serious compost operation started in my yard, lol. I have to design my garden space next year. I agree that gardening never needs to stop, but I'm not certain a gh is essential for that. I think that if I had even a small gh, I could grow tomatoes through the year. I'd love one, but I don't see it in my immediate future.
anniesgranny
15 years ago
I have a tomato plant sitting on the floor right behind me, three plastic shoe boxes and a dishpan full of lettuce and mesclun, plus one plastic shoebox full of tiny carrots on my laundry room plant shelf. Does that count as winter gardening? I'm going to try to keep them all alive through the trip south, and repot them when I get there. The greens will probably bolt from the heat, but the tomato should love it!

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden
Yoshimi Dragon
15 years ago
Someday I am not only going to build myself a GH, I'm going to build one for my mom so she can have her orchids and whatever else she wants. Problem is, the things are kinda pricey, and I'm just not there yet.

Having said that... I usually have some garden (or indoor plant) activity happening during the winter, and this is my first year with an outdoor/winter SFG. Even with the outside stuff, I'm taking in cuttings of herbs and such... my kitchen table is my GH!

Granny, you need to blog about "Granny and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Plants". When I was in college, I started a couple rose plants from the roses my parents got me for my junior recital, and those poor shoots traveled Southwest airlines and Amtrak with me halfway across the country. In a massive oversized Taco Bell cup, nonetheless. They made it until a nasty collision with my hatbag... Just gorgeous fragrance and color, I wanted to give one to my mom for her rose garden and keep one for me... Oh well.
anniesgranny
15 years ago
docarwen, I will blog :-) Will be doing a photo shoot of the trip. Wondering what I'll do with an entire vase of sweet potato slips that I've removed from that one plant I brought inside. I'm sure I don't have a container large enough, but maybe, if I can keep them alive (they've all started getting roots) I can build myself a SWC when I get there and at least grow one or two slips. I don't think they will make it through the freezing weather the first night out, though. Unless I put them in a plastic bag and take them into the hotel with me....

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden
sinfonian
15 years ago
No gh here and no room for one. But I'm gardening this winter in the dark, cold and wet PNW with hoop covers. Does that count? Hehe. I must say I hate the dark most. I can't see a thing and am getting tire of humming REM's Gardening at Night hehe

EG, you have the room and skills, build one! Hehe then build me one on my roof where I have room. Hehe
engineeredgarden
15 years ago
Sinfonian - everytime I construct something outside, I look up at the gargantuous oak trees around the property, then think - "with my luck, that 80 ft tree will fall right on top of this thing." Yeah....every single time! I can just hear it now....An oak tree falling onto my newly constructed gh in the middle of the night....sounding like a garbage truck being dropped from the top of the empire state building...No thanks! Hee Hee, I have enough trouble sleeping.
If you don't mind me taking a saw, and cutting a huge hole into your roof - we can build one up there no problem!

EG
anniesgranny
15 years ago
Well, sheesh EG...if it was good enough for me it should be good enough for you. For every tree that falls there is more sunny space for a garden!

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden
medontdo
15 years ago
heck, a few years ago, one of those danged tree's fell on the side of the house! but my car was out there, so it actually hit that first, but it shook the entire house, when your house is dark, its winter, everything is ice, no electricity, and you hear the crackling, then the falling of something, then the shaking, then the..........what the.......total bassss sound!! in total darkness!! LOL that is the freakiest thing, and especially when your afraid of the dark. LOL
awww come on EG, afraid of a little ol tree?? LOL **onrey giggle**
had to bring in ALL of my tropicals, and tender perennials, hubs said ohhh don't worry they're fine, notice that he's not the gardner. so when i was dumping everything into bigger crates to make them more space kinda like a big "container garden" well the dirt was freezing my hands!! so later he tells me, i want to get another gun. i'm thinking and the only thing i can come up with is that he don't use the ones he has now and they take up space. dummy me!! LOL
so as soon as the rain quits and it gets a little warmer. just a bit. i am back out and working on my gh!!
the room is "supposed to be" the kid's school room. its been taken over. LOL ~Medo

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sinfonian
15 years ago
OMG Medo! You have one supportive family to have all those plants hanging out in your rec room, hehe. My wife wouldn't understand, even if it was for a short time.

Great pics though.

EG, saw away. And I've got 150 foot trees that could fall on my house one day. But I don't let it stop me from living here... and it shouldn't stop you from building something you could rebuild in a snap. Cop out! hehe
engineeredgarden
15 years ago
Granny - You can keep your tree that came crashing down onto your garden. I assure you, one day - i'll be posting photos like that...it's bound to happen sooner or later..

Sinfonian - Yeah...I could build anything back....but someday, i'd like to just "relax"...ya know?

Medo - that's alot of plants in the house! My cats would have a field day with those....stupid indoor cats.....

EG
bettyinga
15 years ago
No gh here either but it would be nice...We had a couple of light frosts so I've been covering my sfg with plastic to protect my lettuces but last night I gave in and cut all of it. I still have onions, cabbage, broccoli and collards but I am battling the cabbage worm - I think! I finally found a little green worm in the center of the cabbage - he no longer exists!

You have to help me understand something.

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