My greenhouse is now completely cleaned out. I got all the herbs out, got most of them freeze dried, and I had a little bit of celery in pots that I finally picked and freeze dried as well.

My celery got infested with aphids and I finally just gave up on getting them to grow. Well almost gave up. I did keep watering them. About August the aphid pressure finally relented, and now, mid September, there was quite a bit of new growth that I was able to harvest.

None of the shoots were bigger than a large wooden skewer, but there was enough for a couple of trays in my freeze dryer, so I figured I’d just add it to some soups this winter at some point. The shoots smelled wonderful, so I think there’s still quite a bit of flavor that should carry over through the freeze drying process.

The last few days I have been adding manure back to the beds. I want to get that finished now because in the spring the manure pile will be frozen until late May, which is ok for the garden, but not for the greenhouse.

I am hoping, with the woodstove, to be able to start some of my late spring starts like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and squash out there rather than taking up kitchen space inside. I’m also hoping to have my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, and green beans planted by the first part of May at the latest. Some as seeds and some as small starts that I start in February and March.

I did learn quite a bit this year about plant placement. I like where my tomatoes are and will keep them there as they did well against the back windows because of how tall they got. I also didn’t do as good as I had originally thought keeping the suckers trimmed. Hopefully I’ll have more time next year for that.

The cucumbers were also against the windows on the end wall, but I decided I didn’t like that with the cucumbers. They were hard to pollinate, and I wished I could have opened the windows behind them for ventilation, but by mid June they were inaccessible.

I think I will plant the cucumber in the center and get some sort of wire mesh to go down the center for them to grow on. That way I’ll have access on both sides for pollination. My single worry though is both the cucumbers and tomatoes are very tall, bushy plants, so I’m worried the cucumbers will shade out the tomatoes a little bit. It’s worth a try though.

My herbs can go where my cucumbers were, and my beans and peppers will remain where they were. I’m going to grow less peppers so that maybe I can keep up with the aphid eradication better. That was the single biggest draw to the aphids, but when they got out of control on the peppers, they spread over a lot of other things.

I am also going to treat the soil this fall, after I finish spreading the manure, with Neem oil to see if I can at least kill what might be in the soil ahead of time.

Overall, my greenhouse was a huge success this year. I still haven’t processed all my tomatoes yet, but they are waiting for me in the freezer. I learned a lot, learned a bit about placement of plants, which I’m sure will change each year. The new solar powered fan my husband installed worked like it should, although I’d have liked to keep that cross ventilation with windows open as well. I am so excited for next year’s growing season!

Featured Artwork: