Like most gardeners, I have a ‘to-do’ list that’s a mile long- these are the vegetable garden projects I want to cross off that list in 2023.
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Related Videos:
How to Plant & Care for Strawberries: https://youtu.be/GQgcvKavyOs
Cool Season Gardening Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4zzslvkscX0DNlXMb4rGYbVxee3HpnmC
Garden Tasks by Month Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4zzslvkscX1g86hKHYHSQOqoELCGBmVb
My videos on hügelkultur: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4zzslvkscX1RlwSkq0X81wJxdR09toWQ
North Spore: https://bit.ly/GROWFULLY
00:00 Intro
00:29 New strawberry bed
01:05 Changing the fence layout
01:37 Creating a new access point/gate
02:38 Wider garden paths
03:14 Redoing the raised beds
04:45 Green Chef lunch
06:21 Building new beds
07:57 Planning for season extension
09:10 Heating the greenhouse
11:36 Redoing beds near the house
13:34 Projects at mom & dad’s place
14:01 Dad’s food forest
15:55 Windbreaks
16:25 Overall soil improvement
18:21 More hügelkultur & thistle problems
#zone6gardening #ohiogardening
39 Comments
Hey Jenna I have a passive solar greenhouse but there are aspects you could use in a smaller greenhouse such as heat sinks with thermal mass – mainly being water. If you have access to tidy cat buckets or even milk jugs. Fill those with water and place them all over the bottom levels of the shelves. They will warm up during day and keeping the inside cooler and then release the heat at night. Won’t solve your problem completely but I have a few 55 gallon drums I have filled with water and I place plants on top of those that I want extra heat at night. If the containers are painted black helps even more. Another thought is getting a solar generator like an eco-flow and a panel – soak up the sun during day to charge the battery and use that to run like a heat lamp at night. I did that and use it to run my grow lights after the sun goes down to give them a little more light as seedlings. Free energy! And when ya don’t need to it for greenhouse can be used for other things like camping.
My husband and I just finished two hinged hoop covers for raised beds. It has already made access so much easier, no more clip on and take off covers. I think more will be in my future.
One of our biggest projects is putting in a solar array in the goat pasture- we will have to fence it off from goats and we will be turning the area into an Ohio native meadow instead of grass – so little bit of color and beauty against the industrial look of solar panels.
Thanks for another awesome video. I started a second garden last fall and have been cautious about laying it out for long term use and not congest it – your videos definitely have helped. I also started indoor gardening with LED grow lights and for my first time starting seeds, I find it difficult to get the seedlings to grow past 1"-2" in the 72 plug trays. I used indoor potting soil and haven't started fertilizing as the seedlings I think are too small. I don't have dampening off issues but maybe not enough light. I did just increase the time from 12 hours to 14 hours. Maybe that will help. Schooner Farms is just down the road from me and Don is a great guy to work with. Thanks Again for the great videos.
Greenhouse heating. What can I say? My obession for the last 10 years. Its retaining heat energy that is most important. Generating enough BTU for a small greenhouse, let's say a 12 by 12 x 8 would be around 15000 btu to heat from around 20 F to 72F. That's slightly over a 1 ton unit of A/C. That takes into account that you do not have any heat retention with glass, plastic etc. Obviously all your surfaces should be double lined to maximize the loss. The truth is that double lining doesn't do much for you for retaining heat energy especially in your climate, Zone 8 and lower, OK.
Get on your knees if the greenhouse is a seedstarter. LOL. But no, serioulsy get on your knees. My latest greenhouse is cowpanel rolled with a roughly 4 and 1/2 foot height in the middle. The sun coverage does not change and the floor space remains the same but the heated space is reduced. Already cut your BTU usage 30 to 50 percent depending on your dimensions. Second make you a thermal blanket to cover the unit at night. I have used carpet underlay glued to bubble insulation available at your local home improvement stores. It doesn't last more than two seasons but it does work. I have a small electric unit like yours (10' x8' floor) and mine does not run constantly at night even when it is freezing. I run my greenshouse at night to 80 to 90 degrees for seed starting. Line your greenhouse ends on the north south of the sun. Why? Insulate them permanently on the ends because you are going to get your sunlight generally east to west during the day. Pay attention to solar farm layouts.
If you are really serious and you are young consider ground thermal heating system for your greenhouse. This does get into more calculations but they are out there. That's my goal. This brings your greenhouse or any other structure up to ground temperature depending on depth of thermal field. In my area if you go down about 4 feet you get 60 degrees year round. Heating up the house from let's say 50 or 60 degrees to the seventies with supplemental heater is a fraction of the earlier calculation of 1 ton.
This year I am making a thermal blanket by putting R19 insulation in a two sided tarp that I am going to sew together. I am hoping to get 5 years out of it. You can easily rig up a pulley system to get it and off. Love your videos.
I too am starting to rearrange my garden beds, I recently aquired a compact tractor with a 54" bucket so I need to make my aisles wide enough for my tractor. As for your upcoming raised bed hoops I've had a new experience with mine this winter. I have bug mesh covering my brassica beds and heavy snow and ice issures this year collapsed them 3 times. I'm considering making more ridged frames. The pvc tubes alone don't hold up to weight. Lastly, the cheapest and in my opinion the best option for heat storage woud be gallon jugs of water on the backside of your lower shelves. That area is difficut to reach so placing them there would be a good use of that space. Just put them around the entire perimeter of the greenhouse.
Wow you have so much going on! I’m jealous of all the space you have to use and experiment with in the two properties. The hugelkuktur reproduction of the serpent mound sounds rad!
I love how knowledgeable you are ❤️ We can all learn SOOO much from you!
I really hope you consider putting the hardware cloth under your new raised beds for rodent protection 👍
I would LOVE to watch you grow all kinds of mushrooms 😋
Near term projects for me: rebuild several rotted beds (pressure treated lumber maybe???), fix the soil in my one bed that always seems to underperform (got a bad batch of topsoil that evidently is clay soil), FINALLY get my lazy rear end to build a couple of cold frames. We'll see about that last one….
I have a 6 x 8 greenhouse and we just put a small heater in it today. It worked great last year. I tried so many things last year before putting in a heater but nothing worked, only the heater. We keep it set on low, just so it never drops below freezing.
A other plant idea for your “flower beds” is witch hazel. We are in the same zone and have very much appreciated adding witch hazel as an understory tree in our Japanese garden….
"and this kale that refuses to die", that made me LOL
Wow! Big plans! Looking forward to your progress.
Great video. You've really developed a ton of expertise, but it's cool that you put your mistakes out there for everyone else to see and learn from. Cheers to a great 2023.
Yo Jenna! Look at some video's on sand batteries. Ingenious idea for some real heat for not a lot of cost if you're clever… check it out… scalable as well
Hi Jenna, maybe you could put a cattle panel polytunnel over your existing green house(ses) – that would not change the available space on the insidie but put a rather big "air space" around it. I think, that would cut down the need to heat significantly.
Also, maybe you have room in a corner for something that actually produces heat: a compost pile. Sean from EdibleAcres has videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ks_Cgd9sb0&ab_channel=EdibleAcres and https://youtu.be/yMSCJdpl-CY) about one he made in his (much bigger) cattlepanel tunnel. In "the olden days" gardeners heated greenhouses by packing beds with layers of "hot" horsemanure. And in the spring they had the extra benefit of good compost for the gardens. And/or google "How to Make a Hotbed for the Earliest Sowings" 😊
On the soil/water issues on your parents place you might like to check out the "Ponds and Waterworks" Playlist (also by edible Acres) He has a very unique but seemingly highly functional way of directing the "too much" water into ponds, that he places where the water will tend to go (and stay…) anyway – and later in the year it can be used to water the gardenbeds. He also uses hugelbeds to get "the feet" of the plants out of standing water. So he would probably dig the pond exactly where you want to build the hugels – and make the hugels with that dug out soil right next to the pond 🙂.
And a few mor planting ideas for your shady "flower beds": Hostas and Hablitzia tamnoides (caucasian climbing spinach) – both edible, shade loving and very cold hardy. And as soon, as I ssave this comment, another great edible shade plant will pop into my head 🙃
… I knew it… Solomon Seal, Myoga ginger. Szechuan pepper for part shade…
What is the orientation of your raised beds vs your in-ground beds (North-South/ East- West etc) and have you found any differences due to their different orientation?
How many panels did you use for the arch! Love watching your videos 😊
Wonderful video, as always. I'm so glad to see you've widened your gate!!! LOL The cattle panel arch looks great!
Two thoughts…first, bravo on your dad for his "Wilderness." He is providing invaluable habit for insects by just allowing things to grow wild in that area. And second, if you are looking for ideas for the flowerbeds by your house, natives are the way to go. If you've not listened to any of the presentations by Dr. Doug Tallamy here on YouTube, those are very sobering and eye-opening. You could plant natives in your flower bed and add your flowerbeds to the map of the "Homegrown National Park" movement.
My list of projects for this spring pales in comparison to what you have going on. I will be redoing my 20X8 jumping worm infested bed. Will put up a couple cattle panel arches and the rest of the bed will be a key hole type of raised bed to allow access for weeding. In the front, my cattle panel trellis needs permanent beds, used straw bales the 1st year and grow bags last year. Going to try and use metal roofing for those beds. I also need to set in concrete a couple 4×4's to support my everbearing raspberries, I never knew they would grow to be over 7 feet tall.
Because the price for treated lumber has been so high and cedar is untouchable for me, I have been using house wrap to line my pine boards. It is only going on the 4th year, but no signs of decay so far, just a thought.
You have beautiful gardens! Enjoy your videos, Stay Well!!!
There is no way to get a perennial bed right from the start, but that's also what makes it interesting. It's all an experiment because every planting bed is different. My approach is: give whatever ought generally to do well a try and double down on what thrives.
Always fun to watch what others are doing and you have a lot of doing to do lol. I always have to replace a raised box each year to keep up with the decay but I've been using metal instead of cedar lately since the lumber prices increased. It's about the same price but the metals should last longer. And your outside the fence log beds is exactly what I've been doing the last couple years and using them for garlic , onions and potatoes. Nothing bothered the potatoes I grew in those beds last year so hoping to continue to get away with that. I only have a couple small projects planned for this year but I did order shortcake raspberries from Jung and also sweet potatoes for the first time from Maine potato lady so looking forward in seeing how they do for me. Good luck!
Fences! Gates! Clay! Oh My! 😂 Moving fence is an annual spring workout for us😂 If we don’t have time for gates we leave a section of tall fence that we can open wide. I have many new varieties and huge amount of WS jugs and husband says, “Where are they all going?” Me, “Everywhere!” 😅
We are in the second year of starting small orchard and it’s growing again this year. Last year was some hardscaping like grape arbor to have a place to get out of the sun. I’m sticking with in ground wide raised rows it will be easier to irritate and to set up irrigation vs. raised beds and more real estate path free. I am not a no till, I like to lightly till as I believe the air does it good. The water source is not to close so we have a lot of hose.
My suggestion is if you are want to continue using raised beds instead of in ground wide rows I would Not use wood again. We used reclaimed corrugated metal and my husband showed me that it can be scored and snapped to cut it for lengthwise, but we have to cut width for lengths. A PVC pipe can be fit to cover sharp edges or wood toppers.
Our lean to greenhouse is on our list to refurbish. We have reclaimed refrigeration building panels that are 4” thick that I will dig down and use for base and about a foot on sides above ground. Inside the pit will be laid 4” plastic drain pipe surrounded by heat holding brick/stone, whatever I come up with and fill in cracks with gravel of some sort to prevent wildlife nests. I plan to pump hot air from roof to floor to store heat. I might line the greenhouse shed wall with dark brick as well as floor. There was an old solar project years ago that used aluminum cans painted black inside a box that allowed air to move through and it was attached to an open window so might fashion something like that to pipe hot air down to floor. New polycarbonate and vents with a few operable storm windows and door. The last touch would be solar and wind power bank to run fans, heater, lights. We currently use this set up on the ‘Man Shack’😅. It’s the special batteries that are the expense.
This small greenhouse 6×8 is easy to heat, but need a couple more feet. Did water jugs ect and not worthy and they were black. They still use room, can freeze and get algae. Only way I could see jugs useful is if there was a cold frame box built in front open to greenhouse, but that’s where my greenhouse house roof sheds snow. I thought I would like that, but no can do. It’s also crowded there as the asparagus and room hog strawberries are nearby. We have too many cloudy days for water to work, but solar, wind still work. It’s cloudy right now 32.8 and GH is 46.2*F with no improvements or heat. If you haven’t already get a remote temp station that can monitor and alarm you of changes in temp and humidity—it has been a great learning experience—mine is not connected to smart phone and works great. No room for large anything and not doing smelly compost mess. Only adding a couple feet to GH, but the north wall of garden shed is key. Just want an easy to heat seed starter house.
For shade area I could see azaleas and rhododendrons. Caution about bramble berries.
I’m thinking of a low tunnel to avoid having to cover up early spring crops only. It’s tough to get things planted early enough when spring is March 20th to June 20th and snow and freezing threatening most of March and April then unbearable heat.
Our poor husbands😂😂. Does yours say, “How much more?”😂😂. They sure do like those great tasting meals all winter. And I rarely go grocery shopping only for the basics we don’t produce. Mine doesn’t mind he just jokes about my uncureable addiction.😅
I have quite a few bare roots arriving In April same time as our chickens. We use to raise them and are at a different location now and need to get things set up. Going to put more of those reclaimed refrigeration panels to use for coop. Things are SO Expensive! And everyone wants to sell something and the only money I want to spend is on plants and seeds and my books on propagating and seed saving. I need ROI=Return On Investment.
💥⚡️💥Heads up on saving seeds==I was just informed a bare root plant will be unavailable because of crop failure! 💥⚡️💥This was a Hardy climbing rose, not a necessity, but for beauty and pollinators. Now if such an indestructible plant had crop failure, just think if it happens to seeds! We need to start saving seeds and I praise Luke in a video he made about doing just that because of disasters And he sells seeds! I’m concentrating on many varieties to find which ones do the best for me and I hope they are heirloom. Once I find those varieties I won’t have to worry too much about cross pollination, but I need to get or make some of those blossom bags.
Those 2 books on seed saving and propagating are pure GOLD to me.
Oh it’s going to be a busy busy year!🎉. WI, Z5a.
Just a low-cost tip on the greenhouse. Pile-up hay or straw bales around the greenhouse. All the way up the north wall, since you won't get sun there till the middle of the summer. And one bail high around the other walls. A greenhouse like that is never going to perform well in the winter. Just way too much heat loss and there's no real way to control it on a greenhouse like that. You can put in as much solar mass as you want but I don't think you really going to absorb enough energy to offset what is lost the poly panel's at night up to the sky. I'll try to post some pics of my passive solar greenhouse project on your Facebook page. I have figured out that winter greenhouse and spring/fall green houses need to be very different in our Northern climate.
About rejuvenating clay soil. My experience on clay soil is that I need to use a heavy layer of mulch in the winter spring and fall. At least a foot. This enables the microbes and worms to work more of the year because the soil is insulated and kept moist. I also shoveled the rows onto the beds first and filled in the rows with wood chips. They act like a sponge and decompose fairly rapidly. My soil is still heavy, but grew plants well, the first year. My soil was so hard that a walk behind rototiller wouldn't penetrate it. I had a friend flip the massive chunks of clay over with a fork lift. Thats when I knew I had a huge problem. 8 months later, I had an amazing garden. Try it.
I was really happy to see a new video from you! Projects for me here in western Colorado desert are always to do with irrigation water management. We use furrow irrigation from the local canal system, and I'm narrowing my row width from about 28" to something like 18-20". The other big project is propagating trees and shrubs to finish building the ~2 acres of mixed trees, shrubs, and wildflowers.
Love the videos, can't wait to plant! What does your tattoo on your wrist stand for?
Jenna, you mentioned in this video that using fabric was a mistake can you tell me why? and have you heard of using non woven on the top of the ground to prevent weed growth a good idea?
Smart sweet lady❤❤❤❤❤😂
Absolutely love your goals for the coming year and especially the changes you did to the garden beds, can't wait to see how everything comes to life this summer! It's actually our first year growing so we're experimenting and decided to reinvest a month's food budget into seeds and see how much more food we can grow ourselves out of that same budget!
To heat your greenhouse you could try using a solar pool heater and a 65gal drum… that's my plan for my chicken pen/greenhouse plan for this summer…up here we get -40C sometimes and I don't want to rely on electric heat lamps for my chickens. I haven't done this personally, but there are people around here who have done it successfully, you do have to run a pump…but a 12v pump, on a battery with a solar panel last's for a long time 🙂
If you’re looking for inspiration for your front bed – “The Living Landscape” by Rick Darke & Doug Tallamy, My yard bakes in the hell hot sun All. Day. Long. I’d love to have a spot like that with some mature trees!
..lol..”I can’t seem to stop…”. The motto of every dedicated gardener…😉
many good ideas in this video. My little project I am working on is to grow different types of alpine strawberries. I ordered some seeds and have them germinating under a growlight, and I ordered a mr. stacky planter so I can put them on my porch, and hopefully eat them before the animals. I have a strawberry bed, and have had no luck with it, chipmunks have set up camp there, also birds, eat what little harvest I have before I can get to them, so I am going in a new direction with the alpines.
😂 I live about 3 miles from schooner farms and I never knew of their serpent mound Hugel bed. I had to do a quick google map search. That may be the Third highest point in wood county ohio
Great stuff! The garden must always keep perpetually growing, pun intended. I would love to have a food forest area that size. My next video (finally) will also be my goals for 2023, and one of those goals will be digging into part of the hugel beds to see what's happening, so if you're interested in another collab on that, let me know!
You might try using the compost heating method in the greenhouse
Could you do a video of “how much of each thing I grow in x amount of space, and how much I get from it”
Plastic line the raised beds or the wood will rot out form moist ground contact. Better yet is to use concrete raised beds as they will last far longer.