I’ve been growing pumpkins for 29 years, but this will be 2 years that I’ve been off of my dad’s farm. I now start the season in my condo and move into my greenhouse in April, depending on the weather. I thought I knew how to grow things and last year and so far this year have been proving to be challenging.

Last year my peppers and herbs grew well in my condo, but my tomatoes did terrible. This year everything did well except my herbs and onions. Hopefully year 3 I will have all the kinks worked out. I’m finding out the importance of air circulation, temperature control, and humidity control.

Last year and this year I had trouble with things freezing in my greenhouse. My brother might be coming out in Oct so hopefully he can get everything airtight. I’m not handy with tools and just generally fixing things, but my brother is amazing at fixing things. I will also be putting in a difference heating system (a rocket mass heater) and I think those two things will do the trick. I know I need to be more diligent in watching temperatures and doing everything I can to keep things from freezing.

Two other I realized are vital is frost protection cloth and shade cloth. I’m using frost protection cloth in my greenhouse and when I use it stuff doesn’t freeze. The one night I didn’t use it and the low was suppose to be 0, stuff froze in my greenhouse. I will be buying shade cloth next year. This year I thought I was doing a good job of slowly introducing things to the sun, but some plants got sun scald or burn. Hopefully with the shade cloth my plants will be happier next year.

Some of my plants look amazing this year and some look like they’ve had a tough time. Hopefully year 3 will be more of a success and almost all the kinks will be worked out. Although I never want to stop learning, there’s so much more to learn…….

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