Growing a Winter Garden

Mother Nature has thrown us yet another curve ball with warmer than normal fall temperatures here in New England, but as a gardener you can use this to your advantage to start a winter garden. 

I have come to appreciate walking out into may garden to pick fresh kale, lettuce and other salad greens all summer as opposed to the tasteless and often bitter greens you often get from the grocery store, and just because summer is over it doesn't mean that supply of fresh greens has to end.

There is nothing like going out to your garden in the middle of January to harvest fresh lettuce, greens, radishes, and carrots for a salad. The cold tolerant veggies are easier to grow in late fall and winter because you don't have to water as much, the problem of pests is virtually eliminated, and the veggies taste even sweeter because of the colder temperatures! 

Winter growing is extremely easy to do, and is quite possible even here in the North East with cold winter temperatures and an abundance of snow. To be successful you need to do a little planning which I have written about in Planning a Fall Garden. You need to choose cold hardy varieties of arugula, celery, endive, leeks, lettuce, parsley, radish, scallions, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, kohlrabi, mache, radicchio and kale and start them early enough to be established before the cold weather hits. As soon as it starts getting colder, the plants growth will continue, but at a much slower rate. You will also need to protect your plants from frost and snow by using row covers, hoop houses or cold-frames (mini-greenhouses).

I have written several posts about growing a winter garden using min-greenhouses.

Mini-greenhouse are practical, inexpensive and are perfect for those who don't have the room for a greenhouse. They are easy to build, portable and have many uses throughout the year. They can be used for starting seedlings in the spring, starting early tomatoes & peppers, protecting tender plants from wind and harsh weather, hardening off seedlings before planting in the garden, moved to the garden to extend the growing season, and of course to grow a winter garden.

Free downloadable plans to build the mini-greenhouse are available on my Project Plans page.

 I have had such an overwhelming response to my step-by-step greenhouse plans that I have decide to also make available step-by-step plans to build the mini-greenhouses as well. 

The plans include complete step by step instructions as well as materials list, cut lists and templates to build both the 4' x 4' and 4' x 8' mini-greenhouse. They also include plans to build the raised bed system which can be used as the base for the mini-greenhouse.

They are available in my ETSY store in PDF form and will also be available soon as a printed and bound booklet.

Happy Gardening!

~Rob~

Reclaimed Lumber Mission Style Coffee Table

Well it is certainly starting to feel like fall around here, and like the changing of the season I find myself spending more time in my workshop than out in the garden. This usually happens each year after the summer gardens have been cleaned and the winter gardens have been planted.

I had acquired some white oak that had been in an area where it was exposed to fumes from animal urine, like a horse stable, and the wood looked very weathered. Ironically, Mission style furniture was usually put into a tent and "fumed" with ammonia for 48 hours to darken the wood to create a dark brown  hue. The ammonia reacts with the tannin in the oak and produces a mellow darkness that normally comes with natural aging of wood. Gustav Stickley used to use this technique to finish his furniture.

 I didn't want to waste the oak, so I decided to use it to make a mission style coffee table. I like to use mostly with hand tools when I build furniture. I don't like the noise of power tools or the dust created by them. I like it quiet when I work so I can concentrate on what I am doing and put myself into each piece I build.

After the wood was cleaned, I cut it into workable boards and then cut out all the parts. The legs, apron and ends were all held together with mortise and tenon joints, and the boards for the top were glued up with a breadboard edge.

The table turned out great and the finish looked better than I had hoped for. I wasn't sure if the discoloration would show through the finish, but the wood had a warm, deep chocolate hue! It doesn't really show it's true color in the photos.

The table is a nice addition to our living room and compliments the mantle and bookcases.

Now I think I need to build a couple matching end tables!

This was another easy to build project and, like the farmhouse table, I have included the plans on my project plans page for anyone interested in building one.

~Rob~

Farmhouse Table Plans

As promised, I have posted the plans for the Farmhouse Table 

on my Project Plans page.

 

 

 

If anyone is interested in building one, please feel free to download the plans!

~Rob~

New Plans - A Child's Picnic Table

Building a Child's Picnic Table

We decided that we needed to add some tables and seating to the school garden so I drew up some plans for a picnic table.

After working with  the elementary school children in the after school garden club, I realized that we should have some child size furniture so the children would be more comfortable using it, so I scaled down my picnic table design and came up with this child's size picnic table.

The table is easily, and inexpensively, constructed out of 2 x 6's and 2 x 4's and took only about an hour to build, including the time to change my original design ( After building it I felt the seats were too close to the table top so I extended the seat supports). The table is 48" long, 44" wide and 24" high. It's a child's size table, but even I can sit at it!

I will be building three more of these children's picnic tables, and two of the full size version, for the school garden in the next week. Tomorrow we will be bring this one over to the school.

 I have added the plans for the child's picnic table to my downloadable project plans section of my website if you would like to build one for yourself.

~Rob~

Building a school garden - one raised bed at a time!

Today was our raised bed building event at the school garden. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather and we had a fantastic turnout of volunteers!

We had so many volunteers that we finished constructing all the beds in an hour!

The children seemed excited to have a hand in assembling the beds, especially when we asked, "who wants to use a power tool?" The raised bed system worked out very well and went together easily. The children were able to put it together themselves with very little adult help and seemed thrilled to have a hand in creating our school garden! We are very grateful for the amount of school and community support we are getting with this project.

You can read more about the event on our School Garden blog!

Several people were interested in building the raised bed boxes to use in their own gardens so I decided to make the plans available. You can download them for free from my Project Plans page on my website if you wish to build some raised garden beds for yourself!

~Rob~

Shared at:

The Create HomeAcre 
Deborah Jean's Dandelion House 
The Backyard Farming Connection

Planning the New Garden Shed and Greenhouse

The first round of seedlings have been started and as I strive to expand the gardens each year, attempting to grow more, I realize that I really need a bigger greenhouse.

My current greenhouse, which is 6'-10" x 8'-0", is the perfect size for the average backyard gardener. It has worked out extremely well over the past 5 years and has greatly improved my ability to grow more crops and extend my growing season. I can fit 8 seedling trays on each bench plus another 8 on the ground under the higher bench with allows me to fit approximately 1,080 seedlings in 2" soil blocks.

With the School Garden project and my desire to try and sell seedlings and cut flowers at the farmers' market, I really need more growing space plus storage for supplies. Last year I designed a new garden shed and planned to have it built before winter, but as luck would have it I was too busy and wasn't able to get it done. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I had time to re-think my plan and do a little re-design. 

The Revised Garden Layout

I thought it would be nice to have the new greenhouse attached to the shed so I could store my gardening and seed starting supplies nearby (see revised garden plan above). The new location will make it easier to carry seedlings to the garden and also allow me to run electricity and water lines so I can start my seedlings directly in the greenhouse.

Now that the drawings are completed, it's time to resubmit my plans to Town Hall to get my permit re-issued. Hopefully it won't take too long and I can get started on this project as soon as the ground thaws out!

After I build the new Garden Shed and larger Greenhouse
I will be adding the plans to my Project Plans Web Page.

~Rob~

Building a Backyard Habitat: Birdhouse Plans

The days are turning colder and the yard work has pretty much come to an end. It will soon be time to start thinking about what to plant in the spring and begin planning for next years gardens. While you are doing your planning, why not think about building a backyard habitat and consider adding some birdhouses to attract more birds!

Birds will help keep a balance of nature in your yard. Adding some birdhouses for them will help attract even more which can be very beneficial to you garden. The birds will eat insects that may damage or destroy your plants and also help clean old seeds off the withered plants in the fall.  Just remember to use netting or row covers in the spring when you plant so the birds don't eat your seed!

I have added some birdhouse plans to the Garden Project Plans page on my website.
Feel free to download them and build some for yourself!

~Rob~

Shared at:

Deborah Jean's Dandelion House
Fresh Eggs Daily 
Farm Life at it's Best

Project Plans - Garden Bench

 

Each month I will be adding a new plan to the Garden Project Plans page on my website.

 

Most of the plans will be free to download. The more complicated plans, like the greenhouse, will be available for purchase for a small fee. The purchased plans will either be in book form, with step by step instructions, or as full size construction drawings.

This months free plan is a garden bench. 

This bench is an easy to build project that could be used in your garden or patio for additional seating or as a coffee table. It is made from only 5 boards so it is a pretty easy project that can be completed in a day. The bench in these plans is drawn at 36" long, but you can easily make it longer, or shorter, by changing the length of the top and sides accordingly.

Click here to download these plans for free!

Like Bepa's Garden on Facebook to receive notifications
when new plans are posted!

** Recommend a plan!  **

Is there a project that you would like to build but can't seem to find plans for? 

If there is a project plan that you would like to see added to the library, feel free to recommend it in the comments or email me. If a recommended plan is used, and is offered as a purchased plan, the first person who recommend it will get a copy for free!