They cuddle up and keep each other warm, right?

drdawg said:Heck, my two greenhouses are so packed with plants, there's hardly room for me to walk from one end to the other. Certainly no room for barrels/trashcans, regardless of size.

I would definitely need a larger greenhouse to do that... but then I suppose I'd need larger barrels, and then I'd need an even larger GH

ShadyGreenThumb said:Just a little off topic. I saw a YouTube video where they rotated 2 barrels of composted leaves cuttings and stuff using the heat from it to heat their greenhouse. The one not in use was rotated out, refreshed for replacement since the most of the heat is gathered from the first 3 (?)weeks of composting. Novel idea!

I do this to add a bit of extra warmth in the early spring in my unheated GH. A three by four foot area in a corner under a potting table works just fine for me. Watch the nitrogen levels though. One year I added too much blood meal....whew! What a stink! The seedlings loved it though...all those yummy gasses floating around!

Yep, Sandy, a never-ending-cycle. I will stick with my pair of heaters in each of the two greenhouses and the enclosed porch, and a single "base-board" electric heater in my temporary plumeria greenhouse in the garage. Certainly cost more to heat all these, but I want/have to keep the temperature at or above 55 F.

Well, I only heat my GH in the spring, for my seedlings... during the winter we're happy to keep our house above 55 degrees!

My wife would die and probably me as well. We set the night-time thermostat all the way down to 67 F, but when my wife gets into the shower, her kind husband cranks it up to 72 F so that she will have some warmth drying off.

You are a good husband, Ken! I admit to exaggerating a bit about the 55 -- we keep our thermostat at 68 during the day, 60 at night... but at times it feels really $%^^&*&#$@ cold !! Hence, the "electric mattress pad" ... better than an electric blanket.

oops, this is the ask a question forum... sorry, OT !!

Sandy ...

Once the night temps drop, even with a good night fire, my house gets really, really cold. There's no thermostat to set on a wood fire ...

Smiles,
Lyn

My fireplace has a thermostat - yours doesn't, Lyn? Oh, mine is a gas-logs fireplace!

Ken ....

They say wood warms you twice. Once when you are stacking it and once when you are burning it ...

I've learned how to build a fire that lasts all night, but once the night temps are below freezing the house is below 55F by morning. I get up and feed the cats and feed the fire and go back to bed for about half an hour and the house temps are in the 60s when I get up again. The hardest part for me is that I try to do work outside unless it's raining or snowing and have to remember to stop and go in and feed the fire. I am lucky that I don't live in a colder zone and don't have day temps below freezing.

Wow ! Am I off topic or what ?

Kyla, @kylaluaz, wrote an ATP article about using pine shavings for compost and mulch. Has anyone else used them for mulch ? I am getting tired of going out and gleaning leaves to bring home for the garden. I can't buy "mulch" up here, but have found that I can buy pine shavings at the feed store. Are they good at suppressing weeds ?

Smiles,
Lyn

Well, to add to the off-topic thread here, because I need someone to whine to, check out the current weather in Minneapolis ... freezing rain and potential for a foot of snow through tomorrow afternoon, plus night temps in single digits for the next several days. Early predictions were for 12-18" of snow, but now it has become more of a sleet/ice storm (worse, in my opinion). The roads are already icy washboards. WaaaAHHHHH
I kept up my denial for quite awhile, but I guess gardening season is really over for this year.

foraygardengirl said:Well, to add to the off-topic thread here, because I need someone to whine to, check out the current weather in Minneapolis ... freezing rain and potential for a foot of snow through tomorrow afternoon, plus night temps in single digits for the next several days. Early predictions were for 12-18" of snow, but now it has become more of a sleet/ice storm (worse, in my opinion). The roads are already icy washboards. WaaaAHHHHH
I kept up my denial for quite awhile, but I guess gardening season is really over for this year.

Thanks Ann and Rita!

A quick dive back into the topic: I have found pine shavings are a good weed deterrent.

Thank you, PP.

I think I have been spending more time going out to get leaves for mulch than I have spent working in the garden. Something has to change.

Smiles,
Lyn

Yay! A vote for pine shavings!

Lyn, I think it has a lot to do with how thick you spread them, how well they work on keeping the weeds down.

As for leaves, yep, going out and gathering them is indeed time consuming. Here I'm lucky enough the leaves come to me! I have bags from my next door neighbor I'm working my way through, and just today the mowing crew bagged up three huge bags from the front yard for me.

I had a worry earlier that I had put leaves down on a bed without watering thoroughly first; the leaves can keep moisture from penetrating, and here we've been dry enough that would be seriously counterproductive! But I checked and it's nice and wet feeling under there; I was relieved.

Thanks, Kyla.

How thick ? I am serious. I go to a friend's place about half an hour's drive away to collect leaves from her property. It takes about three trips to get enough for just the house pad level of the garden. Or I am going to the utility company's chipping pile because I like to top dress with the wood chips so things don't blow around. It's just too labor intensive and I am always behind.

The feed store is only ten minutes away.

Smiles,
Lyn

Ah, @porkpal? Chime in if you will here? Cause I've not used them specifically for that, you see, more as a moisture retention substance. I can say that mulching around small plants seems to keep new weeds from sprouting if I use only maybe half an inch or less, just a good full covering. But if you have grasses like I do that are down under growing along on runners, it takes more thickness to discourage that.

Okay. On one of my new beds I put the last of mine about an inch thick to help keep the wheatseeds in the straw from sprouting up so thickly! It made a difference but two inches would have been better.

It also depends on other factors, like what kind of weeds and how fierce they are at pushing their way in, etc. And probably also on how much you can spend because even though the bales are relatively cheap, if you need to cover large areas (whole large beds) the cost will mount up.

I suggest you experiment. Maybe a combination of leaves and shavings will be helpful.

Thank you, Kyla.

I've still got several bags of leaves and a few bags of chips left. I guess this time of year, I am getting tired of hauling stuff ...

I was going to go get more leaves this week, but rain is predicted for most of the rest of the week. It's always something.

I'll experiment and see how it goes.

Smiles,
Lyn