News
ENLARGE
Walking into your garden and picking your daily meal is a treat — and rapidly becoming a necessity for many Nevada County residents.
Many farmers are discovering they can no longer take a vacation in the “off season” because they must maintain their growing operations through all four seasons. But does gardening have to stop when the weather turns against you?
Agriculture colleges across the United States are offering solutions based on appropriate technology rather than high-technology.
The usual answer to temperature shifts is to heat or cool a greenhouse to increase food production. You can grow anything you want in a high energy-consuming greenhouse, from tomatoes in December to bananas in the snow. This practice is hard to justify with energy prices as they are now.
New systems have been created that use passive solutions to accomplish nearly the same thing.
Greenhouses and cold frames have been used for years to extend growing seasons, as have Agribond fabric, cloches, water bags and other mechanisms. All have their uses, but only a structure that can stand up to snow, is easy to work in and maintains a reasonable base temperature can reliably produce food for the entire year.
A new system called hightunnels use solar heat and wind to heat and cool the structure. Instead of maintaining a high temperature, the hightunnel keeps stable minimum and maximum temperatures, usually between 40º and 90º.
Food can be produced year-round without wholesale change to the growing environment.
In the shoulder months, before and after summer, you can lengthen your summer season with a greenhouse or a hightunnel.
Growing warm-weather crops in the winter is almost impossible due to the high costs of fuel to heat and the many pathogens and pests that will move into a heated greenhouse.
But by changing your goals and expectations as a gardener to grow foods that flourish in the cool weather and are easily grown in a hightunnel, you can produce a bounty of fresh produce and harvest weekly for months.
With a hightunnel, you can extend your peppers, squash and cucumbers into late fall. Your rainbow chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, beets, potatoes, berries and even ginger and will produce more than you can eat.
Most hightunnels are 12 feet to 30 feet wide, at least 8 feet high, available in any length and economically made of galvanized metal tubing and covered with poly or woven cloth such as Solaroof.
The sides roll up to let air circulate, and they use passive vents based on the expansion of paraffin to operate. These hightunnels use a simple propane heater set at the lowest temperature to maintain a temperature above freezing.
Some hightunnel users grow in raised beds or directly in the ground. In these systems, they sometimes have large doors to allow a tractor to drive in to prepare the ground. Benches are sometimes installed in the spring to allow grow seedlings in flats, although supplemental under-bench heating is needed for such operations.
Whether you are growing your own food or farming for market, four season gardening is essential for your dinner or business plan. After all, growing your own is the ultimate food security, and growing a wide variety of produce offers you choice, taste and healthy diet year-round!
Ray Diggins is the owner of Grizzly Hill Organic Farm on the San Juan Ridge.
Many farmers are discovering they can no longer take a vacation in the “off season” because they must maintain their growing operations through all four seasons. But does gardening have to stop when the weather turns against you?
Agriculture colleges across the United States are offering solutions based on appropriate technology rather than high-technology.
The usual answer to temperature shifts is to heat or cool a greenhouse to increase food production. You can grow anything you want in a high energy-consuming greenhouse, from tomatoes in December to bananas in the snow. This practice is hard to justify with energy prices as they are now.
New systems have been created that use passive solutions to accomplish nearly the same thing.
Greenhouses and cold frames have been used for years to extend growing seasons, as have Agribond fabric, cloches, water bags and other mechanisms. All have their uses, but only a structure that can stand up to snow, is easy to work in and maintains a reasonable base temperature can reliably produce food for the entire year.
A new system called hightunnels use solar heat and wind to heat and cool the structure. Instead of maintaining a high temperature, the hightunnel keeps stable minimum and maximum temperatures, usually between 40º and 90º.
Food can be produced year-round without wholesale change to the growing environment.
In the shoulder months, before and after summer, you can lengthen your summer season with a greenhouse or a hightunnel.
Growing warm-weather crops in the winter is almost impossible due to the high costs of fuel to heat and the many pathogens and pests that will move into a heated greenhouse.
But by changing your goals and expectations as a gardener to grow foods that flourish in the cool weather and are easily grown in a hightunnel, you can produce a bounty of fresh produce and harvest weekly for months.
With a hightunnel, you can extend your peppers, squash and cucumbers into late fall. Your rainbow chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, beets, potatoes, berries and even ginger and will produce more than you can eat.
Most hightunnels are 12 feet to 30 feet wide, at least 8 feet high, available in any length and economically made of galvanized metal tubing and covered with poly or woven cloth such as Solaroof.
The sides roll up to let air circulate, and they use passive vents based on the expansion of paraffin to operate. These hightunnels use a simple propane heater set at the lowest temperature to maintain a temperature above freezing.
Some hightunnel users grow in raised beds or directly in the ground. In these systems, they sometimes have large doors to allow a tractor to drive in to prepare the ground. Benches are sometimes installed in the spring to allow grow seedlings in flats, although supplemental under-bench heating is needed for such operations.
Whether you are growing your own food or farming for market, four season gardening is essential for your dinner or business plan. After all, growing your own is the ultimate food security, and growing a wide variety of produce offers you choice, taste and healthy diet year-round!
Ray Diggins is the owner of Grizzly Hill Organic Farm on the San Juan Ridge.
