Hello Winter, My Old Friend...

Modern Lumberjack—because why wouldn't you wear your flannel shirt open to the navel with a jaunty (and bulky) wool scarf touching your bare skin? Very practical.

I love Fall. I mean, I seriously LOVE fall. Not in the pumpkin spiced latte with a side of pumpkin cruller kind of love. More like the lumberjack wearing flannel everything (so long as it's not chafing) kind of love. Except, I don't love the colder weather, and I certainly don't love it getting dark or snowing before it's supposed to. (That's just rude.) And come to think of it, I don't love raking leaves. But I like the other stuff. mostly. sort of.



--

This year, though, Fall kind of ditched us. We went from Summer to "hey, it's still Summer" to "Honey, there's an icicle hanging from your nose." Which, let's face it, next to the uncontrolled (& somewhat lyrical) escaping fart or the unexpected projectile sneeze, is the most embarrassing thing one could experience when around other people. (Although, if you're alone who cares if you have frozen snot hanging from your nose? honestly.)

 In the time frame of 2 weeks, we went from having the a/c on, & worrying about my plants getting fried in the sun, to having the heat on and worrying about my plants freezing. As a gardener, though, I always keep my eye on the weather. I have freeze alerts on my phone and thermometers strategically placed throughout my house and yard. (Microclimates are real.)

Prepping the Greenhouse

Over the past week, I've been working diligently to get the greenhouse prepared for plants and cold weather. Just so I could, at the last possible minute, madly run around the yard with my shovel, hopping on one leg as I zig-zagged through the yard digging up my precious plants to relocate them to the ever-so-slightly warmer greenhouse. (and yes, I did just imagine myself in a movie scene with plunky music as I hurriedly dug up plants, then sighed with comic relief when they all made it into the greenhouse safely.)

Cut to: me at 3 am in my pajamas staring out the window with a serious and somewhat concerned look on my face (low moaning cellos playing in the background), as I look into the darkness wondering whether or not the greenhouse (with it's one-ply plastic walls draped in bubble wrap) was warm enough to keep my plants safe. Genre bending, I know.

This year, I'm trying my hand at self-watering containers, in the hopes that I won't have to get out into the greenhouse more than once a week to check on plants. My simple construction is made up of a rubbermaid container, some bricks, a fluorescent light grid, and wool blanket scraps (that will drape over the fluorescent light grid to wick up the water).

Not only does this allow me to ensure my plants are watered, but it adds another 15 gallons of potential thermal mass to help keep the greenhouse warm at night.

We've only had 2 below-30 days so far, although I'm hearing (from several sources) that this winter will be colder and wetter than normal for the southeast, so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy myself a portable propane heater for the greenhouse. Not something I'd initially budgeted for, but it would be more expensive to lose all of my plants to the cold.

Last year, I was able to make due with passive solar heat and about 75 gallons of water serving as thermal mass. This year, I'm upping the thermal mass by another 30 gallons of water, but it may not be enough. My eventual goal is to be able to grow food all year round—but until I can figure out how to keep the greenhouse warm (without electricity), that will be a bit of a challenge.

More Compost (Sung to the Tune of More Cowbell)

We have lots of trees. I don't love this, for a number of reasons, mainly because it's a helluvalot of raking. On the plus side, I've been told (by no one actually) that blisters are sexy. Actually, the plus side to lots of trees shedding their leaves is that you have lots of potential FREE compost. You just have to work a little harder for it. (Hello sexy blisters.)

And even though I have 5 compost bins, I really need about 5 more (maybe 10—I mean, can you really have too much compost? I think not). Here's the thing about compost bins though, they're not cheap (although a lot of them are cheaply made). My mom has had every kind of composter that money can buy, and truthfully, they either break down in the midwest heat or winter, or they just don't hold all that much.

If you want an inexpensive diy compost bin, then get your hands on some pallets and hardware cloth (or chicken wire). If you're handy with tools, you can probably build yourself a compost bin for less than $30 in an afternoon. There are LOTS of how-to's on Google.

If you're not so handy (or just don't have the time), you can try out the Geobin (for about $35 on Amazon—not an affiliate link).  I have 2 and they're easy to set up, although if you want to use it at it's largest size, you'll need to stake it so it stands upright until it's completely filled.

It holds over 200 gallons of material and is easily moveable. Once your pile is established, you can slide the Geobin off and set it up elsewhere to start making another compost pile. In the Fall, this means that I can place the Geobin closer to my garden beds, so come Spring I won't have to haul the compost all that far to fill the beds. (Sweet!)