Lots of growth in the greenhouse. Transplanting has caused some of the veggies to perk up and grow.

The green beans love the new trellis!

We had an extra zucchini that was growing super fast, so we gave it its own outdoor grow bag along with the okra.

BB hung up the strawberry baskets so that any excess water would flow into the second one. They’ll strawberries are loving the baskets and the design. The basil planted atop the second basket seems pretty happy, too. Mint was planted at the top of the first basket. I’ll update when we see some growth.

The greenhouse needed a bit more light, so BB added a Mars Hydro to go with the two Wolf lights we were already using for seedlings.

The AeroGarden has sprouts! We figure that it suffered, like our first batch of seedlings and other things we’ve tried to grow as summer wanes, from the excessive heat. But, we’ve hit a sweet spot (hopefully) and we have growth!

Today we picked up a one year old dwarf Persian lime tree.

We decided it would be interesting to see the variety of items we could grow in bags. After reading Epic Gardening’s Grow Bag Gardening, the lime tree was a unique choice.

Gave the tree some compost and fertilizer, along with some organic garden soil, and now it’s set!

#epicgardening #thearborgate

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!