Update on My Texas Winter Garden



Greenhouse Lettuce

So far I have had good growth on on my garden both inside the greenhouse and outside.  I will note that the greenhouse plants are doing much better than the ones exposed to the elements.  Both types of spinach and lettuce that I have planted in the greenhouse are about 2x the size of the ones in plots outside. 



Dead Tomato Seedling

I also am having good growth in my cover crop bed with the winter rye and hairy vetch growing well andso far they have been very frost tolerant.  We have had some cold temperatures here the last few weeks and that did kill off my cherry tomato plant.  It was not a cold tolerant species and I was simply curious to see if the added protection of the greenhouse would save it.  It appears that on this scale at least that answer is no. 


Exposed Lettuce

A couple considerations I will have to keep in mind is that the area is the am protecting is not large therefore it isn't buffered as well against the temperature swings like a larger enclosed structure would be.  Also most greenhouse plastic is 6 ml and I am using 2 ml plastic because it was the easiest and cheapest available to me.

So far the experiment is going well and overall I am getting the results I expected from my research and small scale experiments.  I will also note at this time that I am not getting the growth I was hoping for due mainly to the cooler temperatures and the lack of sunny days.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists.

Josh