Complimentary Blueberry Juice

The weather finally aligned and with a bunch of people helping wrangle a massive piece of plastic, we got the plastic up, locked in and inflated. That felt like a really big moment. This has been a few years in the planning and with the plastic up, it all felt finished.

And then we realized there was still a ton more work to do!

The roll-up sides were a bit tricky to get right and it looks like we might have to un-do it and re-do it one more time to get it nice and tight, but the effects of the roll-up sides were made immediate. Of course with the plastic up the temperature inside the greenhouse skyrocketed and it became unbearable within minutes.

But once we opened the sides, the ambient air rushed in and the effect was really stunning. I’m not used to this sort of thing…I only have experience with a closed propagation greenhouse. It’s clear that even on a hot day, air will move through the greenhouse and on a more windy day, even if its not that hot out, allow some air movement and still keep everything protected.

Even a little opening at the bottom is enough to make a big difference. We can roll up as much as a metre if we have to, but the effect is noticeable just with 10-20cm.

We were also able to do an initial soil prep inside, and turn our focus to how exactly we’re going to plant in here, what the best bed spacing is and things like that. I’ve been thinking of this for some time but there’s nothing like seeing the blank canvas of soil in front of your eyes and having to go through the thinking process once again of “how exactly is this going to work.

But right now, our limiting factor is irrigation, so that’ll be the next thing.

After reading about greenhouse growing and watching too much Youtube on the subject I’m not really sure how this is all going to pan out. I think my path spacings are too tight, but it’s what I’m going to try this season and see how this goes, either good enough, or….hopefully I can avoid it becoming a disastrous jungle, where I have to crawl under the canopy to harvest tomatoes.

Graham

thanks for reading Complimentary Blueberry Juice