Gardening at last!

I found a decent greenhouse at Sam's Club for only a hundred dollars.  I consider that a bargain for its size at 6' x 8' (1.8m x 2.4m) footprint with height enough to stand.  The really nice thing about the greenhouse was that it came in a nice little package that I could fit in my car.  I don't have a proper hauling vehicle, although my car gets the terrible gas mileage of one.  The greenhouse installed like a tent, including spikes to hold it down when the wind gets strong.

I repurposed the cardboard packaging into a raised garden bed inside the greenhouse.  The plot I am using is filled with rocks.  I dug down about a half foot for the base of the raised garden bad and sifted all the rocks out.  The first day I sifted dirt, I used my bare hands.  I found a lot of vibrant earthworms, but my hands were horribly dried out.  I left the greenhouse alone for about a week while I regained energy and cuticles.  The next time I sifted dirt, I used a shallow tub filled with water and a cheap colander.  I filled the colander with dry dirt, and dunked the colander in the tub.  After soaking it and swishing it around a while, I would be left with rocks and roots.  These I dumped outside the greenhouse.  Then I scooped up the dirt that sank to the bottom of the tub and put it in a container where I kept the sorted dirt.  I repeated this colander sifting process until I was thoroughly tired.  I still have dirt left to sift, but I had enough to mix in with my store-bought dirt.

I used the lasagna method to fill the garden bed once I set up the cardboard box.  I layered the bottom of the space with newspapers.  Then I put in a layer of really wet leaves that I composted over the winter.  Then I put in some store-bought garden dirt.  Then I put in some store-bought peat moss.  I put my hand sifted native dirt on top and repeated the layering with leaves, dirt, and peat moss.

Once I finished the garden bed, I planted seeds of baby carrots, beets, zucchini, and green onions.  I had about a 2' x 2' (0.6m x 0.6m) sized plot.  I had cut the greenhouse package in half, so I still have the other half to make another garden bed.  If the cardboard starts falling apart, I will shore it up with decorative stones.

I'm really glad I finally did this.  It took a lot of hard manual labor when I really didn't have much energy or willpower to go outside and do it.  Now at the very least, I can maintain this one garden bed and do what it takes to keep the plants alive and growing.  I realize that setting up a greenhouse at the dawn of a hot summer is not the best plan, but if I have to I can leave both doors open and hang a tarp over it to shade during the hottest part of the day.  I am really interested in finding either a solar fan or setting up a ridiculously overdone solar power grid to power a fan and misters.

After working with the greenhouse, I can see the real downer is that it has no screens.  It's either closed up and boiling hot, or open and filled with flying insects.  I have a roll of screen for fixing house window screens.  I'm thinking of McGyvering a removable screen door by combining the power of velcro and a hot glue gun.

Beets - The Candy Vegetable

Beets are fantabulous (fantastic + fabulous).  Prior to this year I would never have eaten them on purpose.  My only experience eating beets was many years ago eating them at a farmer's house.  I did not like them, but it was not until recently that I considered they were pickled.  I don't enjoy pickled anything.  The vinegar and salt overwhelm the flavor of the vegetable, mutating it into something it shouldn't taste like.  What made me decide to try beets again was a recipe from Spark People, a diet plan website that I subscribe to occasionally that creates meal plans based on healthy food and recipes.  I was challenged with the recipe of a beet salad.  It was actually the recipe that broke my resolve to stay on the plan.  It called for fresh beets, but I could not find those in the grocery store.  Reluctantly, I bought canned beets even though I thought they would be pickled.  I kept finding substitution recipes to eat instead of the beet salad.  Eventually I gave up on the salad idea, and the beets became just a can taking up space in my pantry.  Several times, I considered just donating the can to various food drives, but I always forgot to get around to it.

Finally, I decided that I was going to throw out the can, but before tossing it out, I would try one.  Beets have a very unique flavor.  The first thing I noticed was that these beets were not pickled, so I kept eating them.  They were very sweet, but they still tasted weird to me.  The odd flavor was too interesting for me to stop trying it.  I have since bought several cans of beets.

The other day however, I found some fresh beets in the organic section of produce.  I decided to bake them as opposed to boiling.  The outside was very rough so I scrubbed it with a veggie brush until it turned red all over.  I cut off the leafy top and the root end.  I found this recipe for baking instructions online and baked them at 400F for an hour.  I stuck them in the fridge to cool.  Once they cooled down, I rubbed off the outer layer of skin to finish them.  They taste so awesome!  They taste (not surprisingly) even better than the canned beets.  The fresh baked beets taste good enough to eat hot or cold, and they are so much sweeter.  I already knew that I would be growing beets in my garden this Spring, but now it's double guaranteed.  Beets are more like dessert than just a vegetable.  I look forward to trying them in more recipes.