What garden would be complete without helpers?

Meet Obie and Bocephus.

They’re really enjoying the greenhouse today. Beau especially likes the Okra. 👀

Lots of work going on in the greenhouse today. BB built a trellis out of 1x1s and cattle guard for the beans and cucumbers.

Just in time, too. The garden beans are ready to climb!

Today we transplanted veggies into our second raised bed.

Jalapeños, kale, zucchini, Swiss chard, bok choy, lettuce, bell pepper spinach, turnips, baby broccoli, and brussel sprouts have all been planted with a little straw. A watering in and now we wait!

We ordered a variety of pepper seeds to experiment with flavor profiles and heat levels.

Pepper Joes #pepperjoes hooked us up with a free mix too!

The greenhouse is alive and growing. Sprouts are getting tall and strong, and we will be transplanting into the outdoor raised bed soon.

Carrots have sprouted in the root vegetable garden bed and in the greenhouse containers! They’re little, but mighty!

We have sprouts! After an initial sprout fail, our second set of trays have sprouted very quickly. Roma, okra, poblano, Kentucky Garden Beans, Oregano (AeroGarden), squash and bok choy have all sprouted so far.

Beans and Okra have out grown the seeding tray, so I am beginning to transplant those into larger containers for hardening off.

Just planted a new tray with jalapeños, kale, yellow squash, basil, and heirloom tomatoes.

A little about initial sprouting failure. We originally had the greenhouse electrical run off an existing 15A circuit. This resulted in overload when we added the AC inside (in addition to the AeroGardens). So we added a dedicated 20A circuit after recalculating the draw of the items in the greenhouse. Unfortunately, we started seeds in the interim and had several days of 100 degree temperatures, potentially causing severe heat damage to our little seedlings. Now, we are back on track and growing!

The root vegetable bed has now been fully planted with carrots, onions and potatoes.

There has been a shade cloth system added to the beds built from PVC pipe and light weight shade cloth (14%). One long piece of PVC is connected to the long end so it can be rolled up, or rolled down and secured (we get lots of wind). We will see how this holds up through the winter (but I have high hopes)!

Indoors I added some green by planting one of the boxes with jalapeño and banana pepper (because our sprouts will take some time). What is a greenhouse without some green? We have also planted a grow bag with some white potatoes. I am curious to see how the garden bed turns out versus the grow bag!

We used seed potatoes, no cutting. The grow bag potatoes had chitted, but some of the ones in the bed had not. This is the first time I have attempted potatoes, so excitement abounds.

And now we wait.

Soil arrived and we mixed in the raised beds.

Bed 1 contains 60% top soil, 35% Black Cow manure, 5% potting soil mix, and 5% peat moss.

This mixture is meant to benefit root vegetables like potatoes and carrots.

Bed 2 contains 50% top soil, 30% compost, 10% potting soil and 10% perlite.

This is a more standard mixture for the rest of the veggies.

We layered in the mixes in the raised beds, mixing portions at a time. This is not easy, and BB ended up having to rake and mix the majority of the raised bed soil.

Another method I’ve seen recently posted by #epicgardening was to mix on a tarp and then shovel the dirt into the raised bed. I’m not sure which would be easier.

At any rate, we are ready to plant!

I can’t take credit for this setup, but I’ve used it for many years. I have a baseball card binder filled with card sleeves. I place the seeds in a small (ziploc style) bag and insert it with the seed paper into the card sleeve.

It keeps my seeds organized and easy to access when I’m ready to plant. It’s also fairly unique!

You simply fill a binder with card sleeves. The small bags come in bulk packs (100+) and are little jewelry size bags.

Voila! You’re own seed bible.

We made some modifications to the Tuff Shed greenhouse to support our grow build.

The first modification (and most important) was to run an electrical circuit to the greenhouse. The sprinkler system controller sits inside and attaches to 1/2 inch PVC pipe which has been run with adjustable flow manifolds attached for drip tubing.

We have a 5000 btu air conditioning unit that vents to the outside to maintain a temperature of 78-80 degrees.

BB added small shelving to maximize the space for storage. I added a rolling cart to keep our supplies.

The first seedlings have been planted and my large Aerogardens are set up for herbs.

We can’t wait for things to sprout!