I don't have Merlot in the home, but.....

One word:

Chocolate.

1hugaholic said:I don't have Merlot in the home, but.....

One word:

Chocolate.

I have both wine and chocolate at home. Not Merlot though as I prefer Moscato.

We finally got around to cutting open that Dad's Sunset tomato I harvested last week (?) and talk about flavor!!! I'm growing it again next year even though the plants seemed weak. The flavor makes it worth planting a bunch so I can hopefully get a couple plants to live and thrive.

Garden cleanup... pulled out the 8 tomato plants that I grew in the unheated hoop house; they were still growing, still flowering even, with quite a few green tomatoes still on them, and very little disease as compared to the "outside" plants which were pretty well goners. Any other year I would have let them keep going, but needed to get them cleaned out so I can use the little hoop house to store the stuff from the old greenhouse, in preparation for erecting the new big hoop house... was that confusing enough?

In short -- we're taking down our old 8x16 Rion greenhouse and replacing it with a 16x20 hoop house which will have room for growing seedlings as well as planting in the ground. Hoping to get this project done in the next couple of weeks... but it all depends on the weather cooperating.

Weedwhacker said:Garden cleanup... pulled out the 8 tomato plants that I grew in the unheated hoop house; they were still growing, still flowering even, with quite a few green tomatoes still on them, and very little disease as compared to the "outside" plants which were pretty well goners. Any other year I would have let them keep going, but needed to get them cleaned out so I can use the little hoop house to store the stuff from the old greenhouse, in preparation for erecting the new big hoop house... was that confusing enough?

In short -- we're taking down our old 8x16 Rion greenhouse and replacing it with a 16x20 hoop house which will have room for growing seedlings as well as planting in the ground. Hoping to get this project done in the next couple of weeks... but it all depends on the weather cooperating.

Not at all confusing. That is because we have been following how you will be adding a new larger Hoop House for the spring. Otherwise maybe confusing.

drooling with envy at your new huge hoop house. How wonderful.

Oberon46 said:drooling with envy at your new huge hoop house. How wonderful.

Thank you, Mary -- but maybe we'd better see if the plan actually works out!

More cleaning up today... pulled out all the pepper plants and harvested the remaining peppers. I think we can safely say that I not only planted too many tomatoes, but WAY too many peppers, particularly hot peppers, as well! This was just such a crazy good summer for us, the pepper plants grew like weeds. Some of my plants, especially the Biggie Chiles, were over 4 feet tall and had trunks a good inch in diameter. Some of the plants were still flowering... I picked quite a few jalapenos, and those I'll cut in half and remove the seeds and freeze, to use to make baked poppers later on. And some of my smaller, hotter peppers I'll put into the dehydrator, to make crushed red peppers. Some of the others will get cut up and frozen, to use for cooking. And I unexpectedly got a fair number of pepperoncini peppers and should be able to pickle at least a few more jars of those (I think I only did 4 pints previously this year). I know I won't be able to use all of them, but I'm going to try to use as many as I can!

Meanwhile, DH used the Sawzall with a hacksaw blade to cut the screws that are holding the old greenhouse to the base, so now it's sitting there "loose." Hopefully we won't get any major wind storms in the next couple of days... Our plan is to move everything out and then (attempt to) move the GH off the base and over to the side a little ways... then we can move things back inside, to keep them out of the weather while we construct the new hoop house. Or, if the GH ends up falling apart when we try to move it... as I think it is quite likely to do... then plan B calls for storing everything in the small hoop house. Hopefully we will have the new big HH done to where things can all go back in there for the winter, even if not in their exact final configuration.

We already have some of the materials that we need for the new HH, tomorrow we're going to get the remainder as Menards has an "11% off everything" rebate deal going on.

Weedwhacker said:More cleaning up today... pulled out all the pepper plants and harvested the remaining peppers. I think we can safely say that I not only planted too many tomatoes, but WAY too many peppers, particularly hot peppers, as well! This was just such a crazy good summer for us, the pepper plants grew like weeds. Some of my plants, especially the Biggie Chiles, were over 4 feet tall and had trunks a good inch in diameter. Some of the plants were still flowering... I picked quite a few jalapenos, and those I'll cut in half and remove the seeds and freeze, to use to make baked poppers later on. And some of my smaller, hotter peppers I'll put into the dehydrator, to make crushed red peppers. Some of the others will get cut up and frozen, to use for cooking. And I unexpectedly got a fair number of pepperoncini peppers and should be able to pickle at least a few more jars of those (I think I only did 4 pints previously this year). I know I won't be able to use all of them, but I'm going to try to use as many as I can!

Meanwhile, DH used the Sawzall with a hacksaw blade to cut the screws that are holding the old greenhouse to the base, so now it's sitting there "loose." Hopefully we won't get any major wind storms in the next couple of days... Our plan is to move everything out and then (attempt to) move the GH off the base and over to the side a little ways... then we can move things back inside, to keep them out of the weather while we construct the new hoop house. Or, if the GH ends up falling apart when we try to move it... as I think it is quite likely to do... then plan B calls for storing everything in the small hoop house. Hopefully we will have the new big HH done to where things can all go back in there for the winter, even if not in their exact final configuration.

We already have some of the materials that we need for the new HH, tomorrow we're going to get the remainder as Menards has an "11% off everything" rebate deal going on.

Sounds like a good plan but a lot of work!!

Hurray for all the peppers!

This year I'm going to dig up a couple hot pepper plants, trim them back drastically and try to make them into bonsai. First I'll transplant to small pot, then after a couple weeks when plant starts putting out new growth put in shallow bonsai pot. I've seen pictures that look cute and I've been growing Desert Rose seedlings in bonsai pots. Some people say in the spring they plant the peppers back outdoors and get another year from them. It's my winter experiment.

Love experiments. They are so fun even if they don't work out as we wish.
@weedwacker I am so excited for you. Silly isn't that. I also love new building projects, especially ones involving new greenhouses.

What is the old HH made of - 8x16. I can see moving 8', but 16?? . Are you going to put timbers under it? Then you could roll it (if you had a couple of large round pipes (pvc, metal, wood dowels large enough) to where you wanted it. Put X braces on each end to try to hold it square(ish).

Well, at any rate

Mary, my 8x16 greenhouse is a Rion, with some kind of plastic resin framework and polycarbonate window panels.

This photo was taken when it was brand spankin' new -- in May of 2003.


After 13-1/2 years it's really showing it's age -- some of the parts have warped, causing the panels to slide out, and there is definitely some degradation of the framework from the sunlight. When we put it up we really weren't sure how we wanted to utilize it... and because we used gravel and pavers for flooring, and had benches for seedling flats running along both sides (plus a potting bench) (as well as the fact that it really isn't practical for me to try to heat it during the winter), it's really only been used for growing my plant seedlings in the spring.

For the past few years, though, I've been experimenting with growing plants inside a completely unheated 7x15 hoop house, hardy things that will grow well into the cold weather and start up really early in the spring, and this year with tomato plants that I planted a month earlier than normal and which grew a lot better than the outdoor ones, with almost no disease. So my plan is to take down the 8x16 GH and erect a 16x20 hoophouse with one end where the Rion GH was, which will still be used for seedlings, and then the other 12x16 area will be extending into my garden and used for growing tomatoes and whatever else I decide to plant... and I'm also keeping the small hoophouse for a little extra room. Maybe I should just be done with it and cover the whole 25x80' garden!

The small hoophouse (7x15)

I still have some tomatoes to eat that I had picked. This time of year it really tastes great to have fresh tomatoes. Sadly, it won't last much longer.

Oberon46 said:Love experiments. They are so fun even if they don't work out as we wish.
@weedwacker I am so excited for you. Silly isn't that. I also love new building projects, especially ones involving new greenhouses.

What is the old HH made of - 8x16. I can see moving 8', but 16?? . Are you going to put timbers under it? Then you could roll it (if you had a couple of large round pipes (pvc, metal, wood dowels large enough) to where you wanted it. Put X braces on each end to try to hold it square(ish).

Well, at any rate

LOL, Mary -- I just realized that I got so involved in yakking about what I'm going to do with the new hoophouse, I never really answered the main point of your post...

Our plan for moving the Rion actually does involving rolling it on some pipes and planks; I don't personally think it's going to work because I think it's going to flex too much in the process... but DH is optimistic that it will just neatly slide into place. (I hope he's right -- if not, I guess it will kind of simplify taking the thing apart!)

Yup, that would do it. Kindling....

So today was the day that we put some of our demonstration gardens to bed for the winter up at our county fairgrounds. I work with the veggie bed, and am chairperson for the herb beds, that surround 3 sides of the veggie plot.

So although not from my garden, I thought I'd share this pretty bouquet--the zinnias were grown in the veggie bed to attract pollinators; the borage and pineapple sage were from our herb beds. Our weather has been warmer than usual, so we were able to still harvest some things.

I'm drying some gray santolina that we'll use at our Greens Workshop in December; also harvested some lemon verbena and rosemary to dry for personal use. Our salad burnet was still going strong so brought some home to use in our salad tonight.

The best part was that we had a few people attending another event at the fairgrounds stop by. I was able to talk with someone about hisbicus "red Zinger" and gave her some seed pods to take home, as well as some lemon verbena to use in her teas. She was so excited!!!! I love when we can tell/show people something new.

After spending 2.5 hours there, I came home and finished cleaning/draining my Earthboxes, and did some more deadheading, etc. I'm now officially tired (and a bit achy)

Hope you all had a good day today

Quoting myself from a few posts back...

"Our plan is to move everything out and then (attempt to) move the GH off the base and over to the side a little ways... then we can move things back inside, to keep them out of the weather while we construct the new hoop house. "

Woo hoo!!! it actually worked... and I think this says a LOT about the structural integrity of a Rion greenhouse!

Here's the progression...starting from the initial preparation (we used pieces of PVC pipe for the "rollers") -- to the greenhouse being completely off the base.








However, now DH wants to move it 30 feet or so to what would be the left in the last photo... to get it out of the way of working on the new hoophouse. Sure, why not ... . We decided to save that for tomorrow, but it really should be relatively easy compared to having to move it off the base... we just have to line up some planks and maneuver it to its destination. Or maybe we should just move it right into the garden and have 3 greenhouses in there!

Great job, Sandy! Don't you love when "best laid plans" actually work out that way ???

Especially when it seems so unlikely to work out!

Weedwhacker said:Quoting myself from a few posts back...

"Our plan is to move everything out and then (attempt to) move the GH off the base and over to the side a little ways... then we can move things back inside, to keep them out of the weather while we construct the new hoop house. "

Woo hoo!!! it actually worked... and I think this says a LOT about the structural integrity of a Rion greenhouse!

Here's the progression...starting from the initial preparation (we used pieces of PVC pipe for the "rollers") -- to the greenhouse being completely off the base.








However, now DH wants to move it 30 feet or so to what would be the left in the last photo... to get it out of the way of working on the new hoophouse. Sure, why not ... . We decided to save that for tomorrow, but it really should be relatively easy compared to having to move it off the base... we just have to line up some planks and maneuver it to its destination. Or maybe we should just move it right into the garden and have 3 greenhouses in there!

Great job., I am really glad that the plan worked.