Square Foot Greenhouses

Everyone's heard of square foot gardening by now, right?  I've read about it before, but I brushed it off, since space was not my issue.  At least, not until last year, when I tried to cram everything into the greenhouse and it turned into a jungle.  I had pumpkins going crazy, big plants towering over smaller plants, and no room to walk.

I've been thinking about how to get the best use out of my greenhouse space while avoiding last year's mistakes.  And it brought me back to square foot gardening.  I've made some plans, but I'm not quite sure how it will work out.

I'm planning on tomatoes and cucumbers on the back end (north) of both greenhouses, with some trellis (I'm thinking orange plastic snow fence) behind.  This has me a little leery, since the wind beat the snot out of that end last year, and the cucumber in the corner suffered frost damage so close to the wall.  I'm planning two more rows of cukes down the center of greenhouse #1, just to be safe.


I used the black boxes to represent 1X6s, which I'll put in for walkways.  The vegetables are colour coded for spacing.  Most, I found references to on other sites, a few, I'm guessing.  A large square (red) would be 1 plant, while a small square (blue) would be 16.

The three empty squares on the south end are in the doorway.

I'm not sure whether alternating same type of veggies between squares is required, or recommended, or if people just do it to look pretty.  I wasn't going to at first, and then I thought, if one square doesn't work out, another one might.  Height differences between plants might give me more room to work around them, or it might just bury the shorter veggies.



I also have concerns about the broccoli in greenhouse #1, since some of it is in the same spot as last year.

I wouldn't normally worry about carrots or lettuce being out in the elements, but I seem to have room by this plan, and I did spend a lot more time fiddling in the greenhouse last year while the garden weeds got totally out of control, so why not?

I'm only allowing for 12 greenhouse tomatoes.  That means the rest of them have to go outside!  Which is probably for the best, because otherwise I'd have a jungle of tomatoes and no room for anything else.  But, but, but...  I'm already replanning it all in my head, and I haven't even got this posted yet, lol.

Any thoughts?

A Day Without Water

Well, the better part of the day, anyway.

Yesterday's mishap with the shut off valve, led to one of those practical guides of how much water do we need to store.

Water storage pre-mishap:

Bowl of water in sink, soaking to loosen dried food (poured into doggie stew pot)

1 5 gallon pail, nearly full, which collects water from the relief valve on the water tank.  (used to wash dishes).

14 2L pop bottles (used 2 for dish rinse water.  I wanted 'cleaner' water for the rinse, which proved fruitless after the first few items were rinsed, used 1 in the bathroom to wash hands and flush the toilet until the snow melted)


2 4L jugs distilled water.  (used half of one to bake bread).

24 500ml bottles (drank about 4)

pot of tea (made before the mishap)

Additionally:

3 5 gallon pail of snow (dishes)
4 5 gallon pails of snow (bathtub, to flush toilet, and wold have added hot water for baths if we didn't get the problem fixed)

At the end of the day:
11 2L bottles
about 20 500ml bottles

Melting snow is definitely more convenient (and cleaner) than hauling water from the creek.  It can also be put into a variety of readily available containers once the bucket comes in the house.  I had two pots on the stove, and one on the wood stove all day, melting and heating snow.  I filled the bathtub with snow to melt slowly.  I could have easily grabbed more 5 gallon pails, pots and bowls if I needed more, or faster water.

I also left the critters to fend for themselves for the day.  Although it's not really recommended (eating snow requires more energy than drinking water), one day wasn't going to hurt them.

If this had happened in the summer, with everyone at home, with our water intake being higher, and needing to get water to the critters, we would have been in trouble.  Not because we don't have access to water- we have the creek and a natural spring next door, but because carrying water takes some forethought.  For one thing, carting 5 gallon pails are heavy, and without lids, would spill quite a bit.

So even though we had more than enough water for this situation, I'm going to increase my water storage.  2L pop bottles would work well to get water from the spring, and if I'm going to store them, I might as well store them filled.  I have a large camping jug, and I might as well keep it filled as well.  A couple more of those would be handy for hauling water, as would some 5 gallon pails with lids.  A couple more cases of bottled water wouldn't take up too much room either, and the bottles would be very convenient if I had to do this long term.

Another handy device would be a siphoning hose set aside just for water.

For the critters, I think I need to look at a 55 gallon drum.  We have lots that we use as rain barrels, and water 'troughs' for the critters, but one without the top cut off wold be good for hauling water from the creek.  Of course, long term, running the fence to the creek would be the best solution.

Dad picked up the parts I needed in town, and came over to help me fix the pipe last night.  By 7pm, we were back in business, and now I know how to do minor plumbing repairs.