Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the middle of a Wisconsin winter

[politicalcenter]

I had read that you can fill some plastic barrels with water, the sun heats them up during the day and then they give off the stored heat all night, so that's something I would try to keep a green house warmer at night. My use for a greenhouse in zone 4 would be to move my started plants out to it in March or April, because most can't be planted until June, and then I would use it in late fall to get a few cold season vegetables, until they finally froze.

I start my seeds in 4 inch pots, fill with soil, pack, wet down with hot water, put seeds on the surface, water in with warm water, cover with plastic wrap, rubber band, then put in a sunny window, after they develop true leaves I transplant as many as I need into cell packs, then they go under lights with a fan blowing on them for a couple of hours a day.

Years ago I went to the library and got a book on solar greenhouses. They had a greenhouse in Wisconsin that was supposedly heated with a pool of water in the middle of the house. They claimed it kept the house above 45 degrees. I have water in both of my houses. I filled Pepsi cans with water and stacked them up for shelves. The problem I have had lately are the cold sunless days. The water cools and refuses to heat up much. I have a livestock tank with water in the other house and when we get those sunless days I drop a bucket heater in it at night. I run a propane tank in my bigger house and use a homemade heater. I can run it low enough to get several days of heat, day and night, to get by. I also have a couple of kerosene lamps for the small house.

It is supposed to get down to 28 degrees tonight and then the lows will be above freezing for the next couple of days so we don't have the very cold weather you get up there. At 28 degrees I could use heat lamps and probably be okay but I broke my last one a week or so ago. When I get some cash together I am going to probably go with kerosene and a fan.

My next house is going to be all solar. The house will face east to west and the north side will be insulated. I am going to use water tanks for heat and raise fish in the tanks. Water takes a long time to heat up but it also takes a long time to cool. I think it is better to get your water heating in the house during the summer months.

 

[cassie]

I just put in my order to the seed company. Ordered a bush cucumber, a Buttercup squash, a small watermelon, some zucchini, two kinds of tomato plants, and a salad greens mix. Saw something on facebook about painting tires in bright colors and using them as planters. That is what I am going to do. I also sent for some begonias to put in hanging baskets.. Not sure how to care for them though.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

A lot of rambling plants, good variety though. Tires should make good little raised beds that heat up nicely. Were your begonias the plants or the bulb variety, the bulbs can take a bit to get started and sometimes it's hard to tell top from bottom.

 

[donrae]

I've thought about doing the tire planters, but wonder about watering them. Do you plan to hand water every day? It seems you'd have to space them out quite a bit for a drip system?

 

[lazy gardener]

I did 3 tires last summer and was pleased with the results. They did get watered a bit, but no more so than the rest of the garden, which wasn't much, b/c my well won't allow it. If the tires are on the bare ground without a barrier between them and the soil, the roots will pass into the ground, so watering is not such an issue as it would be with planters that are closed on the bottom. The tires do a great job trapping heat. I put a tomato in 2, and a pumpkin in the other. I may do an entire row of tires at the leading edge of my BTE garden to keep the girls from spreading the mulch. We'll see how this BTE progresses. If I don't do a tire border, I think I'll do a dead wood border.

 

[donrae]

I have lots of tires and would love to paint them pretty colors and use them as planters. I was thinking they'd be just like a container, and my containers are notorious for drying out and dying

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I could try some and see how it goes. Then again, I'll probably have more time to tend the garden this year than I have in the past so they may be perfect!

 

[Plucky Clucks]

I have lots of tires and would love to paint them pretty colors and use them as planters. I was thinking they'd be just like a container, and my containers are notorious for drying out and dying  . 

I could try some and see how it goes. Then again, I'll probably have more time to tend the garden this year than I have in the past so they may be perfect!

I saw a Pin on Pintrist using tires as planters. They cut out the bead in a pattern then showed how to turn them inside out. Very cool looking and they had larger planting space after turning them. My dad has some old tires at his place and I'm trying to get him to try it.

 

[lazy gardener]

If you don't set a barrier between them and the ground, they shouldn't dry out as much as a regular planter.

 

[Miss Biddy]

Well, I'm down by the ocean, and today collected a bunch of seaweed and other plants that washed up on the beach.
I'll rinse them off, then throw them in my raised beds and compost pile. I love collecting stuff like that for the garden.

My trunk reeks though, lol.

 

[donrae]

Once when we were at the coast and the boys were little, one of them really, really wanted to bring a starfish home. Wanted to bad enough he hid one in the trunk, and of course forgot about it once we got home. Talk about stink