9 Oct 2009
Eliot Coleman, High Tunnels and Creating Microclimates
Winter is almost here…..have you heard of these two books?? They’re the best books we’ve found on growing through the winter….or at least….extending your harvest!
Eliot Coleman from FOUR SEASON FARM is deeply influencing our growing practices. The books above are two of his three books… and they focus on winter/year round gardening. If you haven’t read these books yet…read them! Great information found within!
He’s successfully growing year round..in MAINE!
Some pivotal points of information we’re gleaning from these books that’s affecting our winter gardening the most are:
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Creating… Micro-climates
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Creating… High Tunnels/Low Tunnels or Hoop Houses
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Moveable Greenhouses
and…
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Soil Preparation and Crop Rotation
…check out the following videos for an introduction to Eliot’s work and his most recent book…..
In the next video..you’ll see Eliot’s farm..which successfully produces food every season of the year!
The following video shows…Dr. Bill Lamont, from Penn State University explaining the benefits of High Tunnels…
Watch for…the example he shows of creating a micro-climates….inside the high tunnel…. by placing PVC hoops over his raised beds…and then placing floating row cover, like Agribon, over the hoops, thus….creating a tunnel within a tunnel…= micro-climates.
In this last video…check out an urban community garden…that’s using a high tunnel to extend their growing season.
Just wanted to share that info with you!
REMEMBER…you don’t need a high tunnel…you can easily re-create this micro-climate with low tunnels…by just arching 3/4 inch PVC pipe over your existing outdoor raised beds, covering the outer hoops with plastic, then…creating a secondary hoop system…lower than the first and covering the second hoops with AGRIBON.
You may not even need a secondary hoop system..based on your location and what you’re growing. We didn’t need one last year….we just grew leafy greens that were cold tolerant.
See an example…HERE…of our LOW TUNNEL last year…worked great!!
HAPPY WINTER GROWING!
We’ll post some new videos in a few days…showing an update on our RAWUTAH gardens and GROWING DOME….busy prepping for winter and crop rotating…..!
