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!

“The Winter Harvest Handbook”

“Four Season 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:

• Creating… Micro-climates

• Creating… High Tunnels/Low Tunnels or Hoop Houses

• Moveable Greenhouses

and…

• 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…..!

Here’s the update..from our “growing dome” as of the beginning of August.  There are so many ways to grow food…but these “growing domes” are SO much fun…and provide a TON of food year round!  Instead of just posting a video of our dome this month…I’m posting videos of a few other dome growers showing their projects.

 In the two videos above, Anthony Anderson..from rawmodel.com..shows us his 22ft. growing dome and ”Eco Village” permaculture project in Minnesota.  Anthony’s passion for growing foods and being self sustainable has inspired us from the very beginning.  Without his amazing website and sharing his research with the world…we wouldn’t have even known anything about ”Growing Domes.”  

If for some reason you found your way to this site…and haven’t seen Anthony’s site…check it out!!  It will take you weeks to sift through all the content available there!  We’d like.. someday soon…to care for bees and a more extensive garden and “Eco Village” on a few acres like Anthony’s..SO inspiring!!

In this video.. grower..Breigh Peterson from http://buckhorngardens.blogspot.com ..shows us a 52ft. Growing Dome in Colorado.  Our dome is 18ft. in diameter..so you can see how big these things get in height as well!!  Very beautiful!  These domes are being used in altitudes/latitudes as far north… as Sweden and Alaska…with amazing results! 

Last but not least..here’s the hub and beginning of it all. 

Udgar and Puja Parsons from growingspaces.com explain to us why they started growingspaces and show us a few domes and growers in the Rocky Mountains.  They’ve been living this lifestyle and working with this technology most of their lives.

Check out their website for many photos and videos of growing domes around the world.  We especially love what their doing with schools….and helping children.