Orchids reanimation in mini glass greenhouse

I have had health issue and a lot of plants died......
My orchids also have large scales problem.
Recently I found time and effort to fix it.

Re-potting orchids brought some joy and some problems - some of them almost have to roots.
At least I started to number them and make records.



 Phalaenopsis orchid #5 is big, with huge green leaves and no roots,









 

 but there are a lot of black root buds (they suppose to be green, but it is a good sign that we have them).

 Phalaenopsis orchid #7 has only 2 small and soft leaves but some roots.

There is a portable hospital for sick orchids - old fish tank. Broken old clay pots on the bottom, followed with perlite, aragonite and sphagnum moss.

The weather is wet and humidity in room is 50%, temp +19C. I think it is low for sick orchids.

 I added warm water to the bottom of the tank, put a mug with boiling water, misted the moss with warm water, added clear plastic sheet on the top with 2 lamps - one daylight and one - regular to add warms.







The temp and humidity are starting to rise.
84% ans 21C

71 F outside! Greens are moving

It is really 71 F today, and tomorrow will be a good day.
I am sure it is not the spring yet, but so many thing suppose to be done.

So I am moving greens - from cells to greenhouse, from greenhouse to sunny spots outside.

Cabbages (earliana) moved to greenhouse bed.

 So did kohlrabi early white.

All overwintered in a greenhouse aisan greens moved to sunny bed outside.

 Green peas moved from cells to open space, under the row cover.

 Overwintered  parsley plants are very happy on sunny side next to strawberry.










 Meantime the spring is coming -

chives are popping out.

and crocuses

Recent clean up with wood shaving

I continued the clean up today -

Moving raised beds, added compost, limestone.

I rearrange all the beds from north to south.  It is easy with bricks. And the walkways suppose to be wide, almost 30 inches. I am fighting the shade and hope the plants will not shade each other this year.

The wood shaving on the walkways. The white color will not warm the soil, so I use it only on walkways.

 New shelf's inside the greenhouse.

Radishes!

Transplanting early "earliana" cabbage and other seedlings

Very cold outside, can't work there, but there is a lot of things to do in the basement.


This year I am trying to grow "Earliana" cabbage, it suppose to be small but only in 60 days.... 
I checked the reviews, mostly all of them about poor germination, so I seeded a lot of seeds in one pot to check. I believe 100%of them germinated.


So I put them individual cups. I also sprinkled some if the DE on top of the soil mix to fight gnats, I was reading it may help.





 I am trying some new herbs from seed - there are mexican tarragon on the left  and sweet marjoram on the right.

 My peppers seeds are old, 3-4 years, and the germination is very poor, at least I can see some of the hot peppers coming out.








 Last year seeds of sweet pepper King of the North are good.

 Early greens - lettuce, Asian greens.... need to transplant too.

 Tomatoes are leggy but I like them.

Spring clean up and winter snow

The last weekend was really warm, about +10+12C and I spent some hours doing spring clean-up that I missed last fall.
And today it is snowing again with possible freezing rain after.
I am really affected by weather - long winter makes me feel blue. My be I need more vitamin D or as I called it "phitotherapy"  - working in the garden, I missed it!



 "Clean up" - I want everything to be neat and clean, but as always......
and I want to try Mittleider garden method this year.
I have couple reasons -my garden is in a wooden area, a lot of shade, and I need a productive method. Fist I tried to add more beds space and made a walks very narrow.



The more garden space I was thinking, the better! But the shade from tall plants was horrible for other beds, so I desided to make the beds about 60-70cm (24-28 inches) and the rows between almost the same.






 I will rearrange from north to south. (north-north-east to south-south-west).

These are 2 cleaned beds - asparagus on the back (cleaned, compost added, fertilized) and a new one for green peas.

 The new cilantro and lettuce seedlings were transplanted yesterday and today they are looking good in greenhouse and under row covers.

 I have some new 2x1 wooden planks to make new shelf's  and  plant support.

May be I will add some shelf's to this corner for seedlings trays and other light stuff.

And that snow is keeping me inside!

Greenhouse film update - crazy winter weather

Yesterday was 10F and snow, today 54F and rain, in the middle (night) freezing rain.


 I was very concerned about my new greenhouse film, I was able to cover my greenhouse only this November and we got only 3-4 snowfalls this winter. 

 I got the sheeting from greenhousemegastore.com, this is not a household plastic, and suppose to hold more pressure,  but I still do not know how long it may last.

This morning I came outside to make some photos of ice and snow on the film - there is solid 1 inch ice cover on the roof.





 The temperature inside was even lower than outside, and the plastic were covered with thin ice too.

I tried to gently shake the plastic to make the ice slide down, from the lowest square. I totally have the roof divided to 4 squares.


The roof itself is 24 feet long and about 6 feet on the side. My greenhouse stands on the slope and  the walls are 4 feet on front and 6 feet on the back. I can barely reach the top on the back with my broom. 

The greens - Asian tat soi is pretty healthy under the row cover.


Please comment with your winter greenhouse experience! I am a new gardener and would appreciate any advice!

Winter greenhouse - green peas, asian greens and onion

The last snow, actually the second big snow
this season was heavy, about 12 inches and more.

 I came outside to clean the greenhouse roof, just gently shaking the film from inside and the snow slowly was sliding down.

The best of them are kale, parsley, chard and tat soi.
The weakest plants are cabbages and kohlrabi.

 Every day I am snipping some of the green leaves. I can't tell they are growing, but staying healthy.

Some day ago I prepared a part if the bed for early green peas, the temperature inside can rise till +50F.

Today I planted peas and some radishes.

 Leek, young onions and garlic are doing good too.

Some of the asian greens are preparing to bloom, to cold.