My greenhouse experiment is still ongoing. I have learned enough that there are definitely some changes that I want to implement. I will give a little rundown of what I have done over the years.

I remodeled my garden shed in 2017 mostly because it was rotting. The entire south side siding, framing and floor was in bad shape. I also wanted to move the door from the south side to the west side to take better advantage of the layout and make the most use of the space. Instead of replacing the siding. I wanted to change it to glass and make a greenhouse out of it. I compromised with my wife and instead of just replacing the bad framing, I bumped it out two feet as well (I cant find the pictures I took of that process now.)

In 2019, I built a potting bench and I have plans to build a growing shelf but haven’t got there yet. My first experiment was a lemon tree that I bought. It did live through the winter, but barely. By the time that I took it out last year the thing was on hospice care. I got probably 5 lemons off the tree but it clearly wasn’t happy.

There were two things that I learned from that. The first was that I don’t think it got all of the proper nutrients that it was suppose to have. But, the second an more important thing was that I don’t think that I watered the plant enough over the winter. When the sun comes out in the winter time, the temperature inside the greenhouse will get over 80 degrees. I think I only watered it two or three times over the course of the season. My bad.

Last year, when I tore out my garden beds (remember that I was supposed to move them to the front yard?). I saved a nice bell pepper plant that only gave me one pepper over the season. That was largely because I was in full remodel mode and didn’t give any of the plants the attention that they needed. They got in the ground very late, got overrun with weeds and didn’t get frequent watering. They were lucky that they didn’t get trampled with all of the activity.

Since Bell peppers can last for years if they don’t freeze, I thought that I would save it for this year. I learned from my lemon experiment and took some care of it. I watched the sun and opened the door when it was warm so it wouldn’t cook. I watered it at least once a week and sometimes once a day depending on how warm it was. I noticed that it was blooming a couple of weeks ago and now there are three small peppers coming on.

Despite the fact that I remodeled in 2017, there is some maintenance that needs to happen. I have had a tarp on the roof since last fall. I need to re-roof as the flashing ripped of in a strong wind and pulled up a bunch of shingles with it. A couple of the poly-carbonate roof panels are also broken (I don’t know how that happened).

As to the upgrades, I want to install a thermal fan that comes on so that I don’t have to open the door when the sun comes out. I also want to add a 400W solar setup so that I can have some lights, charge some tools and light electrical work. I added a gutter so that I could build a rain barrel, I would like to get that installed as well so that watering is more convenient.. I have also debated trying to build some thermal mass but so far getting too cold does not seem to be a problem.

End Your Programming Routine: Knowledge of food production is something that takes time. Your setup, habits and experience all play a role in how successful you will be with the process. Gardening is something that I have an interest in but it almost never is my first priority. If I am going to continue to delve into it, I need to make changes that make my life easier and more likely that I am going to succeed with it.