The old greenhouse collapsed this winter. It was not entirely a surprise, and I am astounded that it lasted as long as it did. So I finished it off today.
When you have what I call a direct-plant greenhouse -- that is, you plant directly into the soil inside the greenhouse -- you must rotate the location periodically. If you don't, the soil gets exhausted no matter how well you fertilize. There is something about fresh air, or maybe simply the pull of the seasons. See Eliot Coleman's invaluable books. Last year the greenhouse did not do well. It was an old sandbox, built by the previous owners of Chalupy acres. The rotation was overdue. So I have a new design in mind, Greenhouse 2.0, but I refuse to comment on it until I get it built. There is a Venezuelan expression for this: pava. This unique expression (means litererally "female turkey") means something like bad luck, jinx, hex. So it is pavoso to comment before the thing is up and running. Me, superstitious? Never! As an old friend of mine used to say, of course there is no such thing as witches. But nevertheless they fly (las brujas no existen, pero de que vuelan, vuelan!). Thanks, Kotic.
Anyhow I tried to dig postholes for GH 2.0 but the ground is frozen 10 cm down. I amused myself and indeed got some work done with my new toy, the grape hoe. But that is another post.
Sweet tooth
4 months ago
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