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Search results for: “hoop house”

Strawberry Pest Identification?

Wade from up north asked if we could help with this strawberry pest identification, so I am posting his email to us below, along with some photos.

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Last summer we decided our hoop houses in the middle of the yard were unsightly, and just not performing that well. We tore them out and built a single (building a second next week) 3×8′ box on the north fence. I transplanted 6 sad little strawberry plants and had low expectations. All summer they thrived and shot off as many runners as they could. About 20 plants were well established and still bearing in late fall.

We had a very mild winter and early spring. The little strawberries kept trying to poke up through the snow in February!

I picked my first ripe berry Jun 2nd (last frost by almanac is 25 May) and now I have to go out and pick 3 cups of strawberries every other night! This is starting to feel like work! 😉

I’ve started to notice some berries are chewed on and caught this little guy in the act. Can you identify him, and is there anything I can do other than hose down my delicious strawberries with pesticide (this is not an option). I had chicken wire over the box to keep the birds out, but have now removed it in hopes they’d rather eat bugs than berries.

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Any ideas on the strawberry pest identification? At first glance, I do not recognize this caterpillar, but it clearly has a taste for strawberries. Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below:

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June 30, 2015
Pole Pruners, WiFi Phones, & Dirty Dishes – GF Radio 372

Rick and Eric talk about how using a pole pruner can wipe you out, or look at it as exercise.

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but I earn a commission from. Thx! https://gardenfork.tv/amazon

And a few auspicious dates are coming up:
Friday the 13th
Pi Day and Einstein’s Birthday on the 14th
the Ides of March on the 15th
St Patrick’s day on the 17th
The 20th of March: The Vernal Equinox, a solar eclipse, and a super moon

The totality of the solar eclipse will be mostly over the north atlantic and north pole, the largest populated land mass is the Faroe Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands , but the Icelandic slooh observatory will televise the eclipse: http://main.slooh.com/ on the 20th at 4:30 am EDT

And the big show: the Vernal Equinox on the 20th of March at 6:45 PM EDT (22:45 UTC)

And Spring Begins. Now mark your calendars, the next confluence of the vernal equinox and total solar eclipse will not happen again until 2072.

The supermoon: kind of a non-event but this new moon does mark it the moon’s closest approach to earth in the moon’s somewhat eliptical orbit, about 15% bigger.

Dr. Don Olsnn, TSU, and Wife an English professor, investigate literature and historical events in relation to astronomy.

Tarawa WWII, disastrously low tide. Van Gogh, etc. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/arts-culture/forensic-astronomer-solves-fine-arts-puzzles-116770403/

great pix
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/total-solar-eclipse-vernal-equinox-spring-new-supermoon/44013327

The hoop house video we talked about: https://gardenfork.tv/pvc-cold-frame-hoop-house-2-0-diy-gardenfork-video

March 18, 2015
Cardboard Seed Starting Pots – DIY Video
These cardboard seed starting pots are made from paper towel tubes. Biodegradable plant pots made from stuff in your house. Watch this DIY video about how to make the seed starting pots and get more info below, plus links to our other seed starting videos.

You can buy seed starting pots, but I like to make them with stuff I already have. Our neighbor, Priscilla, who we call ‘The Egg Lady’ because we get our eggs from her, has a huge garden. She grows many heirloom tomatoes, in addition to some stuff I have never heard of. Unique string beans, heirloom flowers, plus she has several apple orchard around the property. Priscilla is like me, always wanting to share cool stuff she has discovered or found or grown.

Plus she has a menagerie of animals, horses, turkeys, guinea hens, cats, and dogs. You can hear Priscilla on GardenFork Radio here.

I had been saving cardboard tubes for her and then one day she showed me what she was doing with all the tubes. So I wanted to share this all with you.

Couple of important things to remember when using starting plants from seed:
- Cardboard seed starting pots are not for long term use.
- Take care not to over-water them. Too much water invites mold and fungus, as a result, bad things when you are starting plants.
- Don’t use potting soil to start seeds. Buy seed starting mix.
- You can also use coir, which is shredded coconut fiber, mixed with vermiculite and perlite.
- Do not add fertilizer to seed starting mixes.
- Use a grow light rig. Learn how to build a DIY Grow Light here.
The height of the seed starting pot depends on the plants you are growing. Taller plants need more root space, therefore, make those pots larger. Salad greens can be grown in a 2″ high pot.

Here are some of our hoop house cold frames for when its time to move the seedlings in to the garden:

So there you go, let me know any improvements or suggestions and how you start seeds in the comments below.

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March 4, 2015
Cheap Cold Frame How To – DIY GF Video
Here’s a cheap cold frame you can make out of scrap lumber and a window. In this video I’ll show you how to build the cold frame in a few hours. With this rig, you can do some winter gardening, and of course we have some videos on that, the links are at the end of this post.

Some enhancements I’ve done with we made the video:
- I painted the cold frame with outdoor latex paint, 2-3 coats is good, as plywood does not like to get wet, you know.
- I split open some old garden house and slipped it on the bottom of the cold frame to keep the wood out of the dirt.
- I’ve grown vegetables in winter for several years. Neat.
I’m betting you can find enough scrap lumber to make this a recycle or freecycle project. The wood doesn’t have to be finish grade, and one of my pieces was warped, but it worked anyway. The hinges I had laying around, and the only thing I had to buy was the thermal vent.

What grows well in a cold frame? I grow cold hard salad greens and kale. Kale will grow in snow. I’ve dug it out of the garden and its still green in February. You can buy winter salad green mixes from the seed companies. Mache is a neat green that not many people grow, the seeds are kinda tiny.

If you don’t get the auto vent, you will have to open up the frame on warm days. You will be surprised how hot it can get in a our cheap cold frame, even if it didn’t cost us any money to build.

The biggest problem with this rig is the glass. It can break. That tree limb could have landed anywhere, but it landed on top of your super cheap cold frame instead. I have replaced the glass once. Luckily I had some spare windows that I salvaged a piece of glass out of. You might try putting some screening over the glass to protect it. Just a thought.

Below are some suggested books for winter gardening, let me know your thoughts.

Watch all of our hoop house videos here.

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February 9, 2015
Cold Frame Gardening at BBG – DIY GF Video

Cold frame gardening can be done in the Northern climes, as we see at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We made this winter gardening video at their demonstration garden in December. They were harvesting greens like arugula and mache. Watch the video and see for yourself. Below are some book recommendations for winter gardening.

The cold frame plans for this set are easy to build. The dimensions depend on the size of the windows. You may already have some windows, or a neighbor may be replacing their windows and you can grab a few of them. Or pick them up from a garage sale or look on the web for free stuff.

The cold frames in this video were built with 2×8 or 2×10 lumber, but you could use something less thick and it will be ok, i think. I like how they had the cold frames next to each other, so each frame helped insulate the one next to it. You could use scrap hinges off some old doors, its a ‘use what you got’ kind of project.

For cold frame gardening, its best to orient the cold frame so it faces south, if you are in the northern hemisphere. This cold frame is manually vented, meaning you vent them by opening them up and closing them yourself. You could install the thermatic vent we have used in our hoop house greenhouse plans if you like.

What to grow when gardening in winter? Cold tolerant plants, mainly salad greens work well. Several seed suppliers sell winter salad mixes, they will do well until it becomes just too cold. But then those plants will revive in early spring. Many times there is enough moisture in the ground to keep the plants watered, but keep an eye on them. If the cold frame gets too warm, the soil can dry out. And you’d be surprised at just how hot a cold frame can get in winter.

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February 9, 2015
Cold Frames, Sugar in Yogurt, & Lentils in Dogs – GF Radio 369

Seed Starting in cold frames starts the show, as its time to start seeds indoors and you can use a cold frame or a hoop house to get a head start on your growing season.

This brings us to grow lights, with the GF grow light videos on our site, and Eric saw some LED shop lights and was thinking of how they would do as grow lights.

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but I earn a commission from. Thx! Amazon or at Home Depot.

This leads us to LED conversion for recessed lights, esp good for lights that are high up. There are several models available, and don’t need to be replaced very often, plus they save energy.

Yogurt has sugar. Eric just realized this, Rick already knew this. A cup of french vanilla yogurt has 22 grams of sugar. wow.

Safety at train crossings is next, if you are stuck on a rail crossing with the barriers closed down around you, drive through the barriers, they are designed to break.

Viewer mail from South Africa on lentils and beagles, Eric and Rick talk about lentils for a while. Then we move on.

Rick has been using an add on for Evernote called Reflect.

Nitrogen run off article talks about how run off really happens.

Birds are ok with quad copter drones, according to Scientific American, Eric is less ok with them.

February 5, 2015
Seed Starting Archive Show GF Radio 365

We will be recording new GardenFork Radio podcasts later this week, here is an archive show from 2 years ago, its a good one about seed starting.

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Here are the notes from this archive show

Rick joins Eric to catch up and talk seed starting! If you are listening on iTunes, please leave us a review, we appreciate it. Eric just weathered the snowstorm named something which Rick doesn’t know about. Rick took a quick trip to Florida. Eric rebuilt his cold frame hoop house to start salad greens, but learned recently that while salad greens are considered cool weather crops, the seed prefers a warmer temp to germinate. Seed germination mats is talked about and one should not use a regular heating pad to try to warm your seed trays to speed germination. regular heating pads are too hot. When is the best time to start seeds and why Eric does not like to use a window sill to start seeds. Eric’s how to build a grow light video is talked about, and how one should not mix up the color temperatures in each fixture of the simple grow light.

Building plastic greenhouses, how to use PVC pipe for greenhouses, and why you might consider UV stable plastic when making a hoop house or cold frame. Rick tells us some of his experiences in the plastic greenhouse he has his hydryponics system in, and how the raccoons have ruined a lot of his project.

Rick is going to try tomato grafting, he has ordered tomato root stock and is on the way , he will update us as he goes along.

January 6, 2015
Locavore Garden Salad instead of PBJ for lunch

OK, what is a locavore garden salad? Its when you walk out to your garden and cut some salad greens. This all started with lunch.

We were about to have lunch, and it was going to be PBJs, since it was simple and all the ingredients were there. But I have been on this kinda sorta gluten free before 6 pm thing – we talk about gluten free on GF Radio here – so I grabbed my scissors and went out to the garden.

There was kale, and young salad greens that had sprouted 2 weeks ago, plus arugula, which grows like a weed anyway. I cut the greens to that they would grow again – this is going to be our hoop house raised bed this winter – and was back in the kitchen in 5 minutes.

Put water on to make some poached eggs – kinda like the neato Salad Lyonaise video we did – and washed the salad quickly. It almost didn’t need washing it was so young, but… I made a quick vinegarette salad dressing in the mixing bowl. You can use just the egg yolk as a dressing, like in the Salad Lyonnaise recipe, but I wanted the balsamic in there.

And its good I did make the dressing, because I overcooked the eggs, they were no longer soft poached, but they were still good. Not bad for a quick switch from PBJ.

October 25, 2014
Thanksgiving Tips : GF Radio #320

Rick and Eric talk about the How To Make Gravy for Thanksgiving video that Eric made with Chef Erica Wides. The price of Thanksgiving turkeys drops around the holidays, and Eric talks about why that happens. Rick asks why turkey is just a once or twice a year food. Turkeys provide an economical way to have several meals from one bird.

Eric talks about the podcasting podcast he has been listening to by Libsyn, and it ends up Eric and the Libsyn podcast host, Elsie, have a mutual friend in Natasha, who Eric knows from the food coop.

We then move on to talking about how to make gravy, and how one has to cook out the water from the stock, water and wine, then you add in the flour. One has to keep in mind that this can take longer than you think.

Rick likes the recent roof repair video Eric did using roof tar, and we point out how permanent roof tar can be when it gets on your hands or your clothes.

Eric found a new podcast, Jack’s Farm Radio, that he likes. The host of the show, Daniel will be on our show soon.

Rick and Eric talk about the previous podcast about how to build a hoop house. Matt came on the show to tell us how he is building a hoop house greenhouse.

Viewer Mail and Baking Powder end the show.

photo from MorgueFile.com

November 28, 2013
Catching Up With Rick GF Radio

Rick joins Eric to catch up and talk seed starting! If you are listening on iTunes, please leave us a review, we appreciate it. Eric just weathered the snowstorm named something which Rick doesn’t know about. Rick took a quick trip to Florida. Eric rebuilt his cold frame hoop house to start salad greens, but learned recently that while salad greens are considered cool weather crops, the seed prefers a warmer temp to germinate. Seed germination mats is talked about and one should not use a regular heating pad to try to warm your seed trays to speed germination. regular heating pads are too hot. When is the best time to start seeds and why Eric does not like to use a window sill to start seeds. Eric’s how to build a grow light video is talked about, and how one should not mix up the color temperatures in each fixture of the simple grow light.

Building plastic greenhouses, how to use PVC pipe for greenhouses, and why you might consider UV stable plastic when making a hoop house or cold frame. Rick tells us some of his experiences in the plastic greenhouse he has his hydryponics system in, and how the raccoons have ruined a lot of his project.

Rick is going to try tomato grafting, he has ordered tomato root stock and is on the way , he will update us as he goes along.

photo by blackbird

February 13, 2013
Grow Vegetables in Winter with a Cold Frame : GF video

Cold frames have been used to grow vegetables in winter since glass was invented. Winter gardening is made possible with cold frames and hoop houses. Using a recycled window, we built a cold frame last year – see our how to build a cold frame video here – and had good success growing vegetables in the winter and starting plants early in the spring using the cold frame.

This year I took volunteer plants that had sprung up around the garden: Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Garlic, Chives, and parsley and transplanted these plants into the cold frame. These plants all do well in colder weather, so we’ll have some nice greens for salads in the middle of winter. How cool is that?

The key to using a cold frame to grow vegetables is controlling the temperature inside the cold frame. We use an automatic vent that has louvers that open at about 45F, letting hot air out of the cold frame. It is called a crawlspace vent at the hardware store. You can buy the automatic vent online here.

The recycled window we used is a single glaze, meaning it has only one sheet of glass, you can also use double glazed windows. As we say at GardenFork: Use what you got.

You can make a larger cold frame, aka a plastic hoop house greenhouse, by watching our hoop house video here.

Let us know your cold frame and hoop house tips and suggestions below, thx, eric.

November 13, 2012
Seed Starting How To & Email Reminders GF Radio

How to start seeds using a heated seedling mat starts the show, using plastic sheeting to build a hoop house within a greenhouse, and using a heating cable buried in the ground starts GF Radio this week. You can watch our seed starting videos here.
Eric has a healthy respect for electricity, and despite Eric reminding everyone to change the batteries in the smoke alarms, he forgets himself. You should change your smoke alarm batteries every 6 months.
You can use the calendar in your computer to email yourself reminders to do these things, like flip your mattress, clean your fridge coils, etc.
The buildup of dust in your computer starts us on a tangent talking about how to clean your computer, Mike gives some computer cleaning suggestions. Keeping your computer on your desktop instead of on the floor will keep the insides of the computer cleaner.

USB powered outlets are new on the market, and for home offices this might be a good idea. Eric wonders how much vampire power is used by these USB outlets, and you need a deep outlet box to accommodate these USB outlets.
Valentines day comes up, and mike wants to know why can’t he be romanced. Having Valentines Day at home is a theme at GardenFork.
If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV is a quote from this Holstee.com Manifesto poster that Eric likes. “This is our life, do what you love, and do it often”
The website redesign comes next, be prepared for more changes as we redesign the site.
Mike is going to buy a used Ford F150, and Eric gives tips on buying a used car or truck.

February 10, 2012
Late Winter Gardening & Apple Tree Pruning : DIY Video

An early spring tour of the vegetable garden, where Eric talks about using a hoop house cold frame to get an early start on spring vegetable plants, and how to grow sugar snap peas, plus some of eric’s thoughts on how to prune fruit trees like the old apple tree in the yard. Plus the Labrador Retrievers, of course.

In this video we talked about how to make a cold frame hoop house, and you can see that DIY video on our site here

Buy the thermatic vents here: http://amzn.to/2zG4WjC

To learn more about how to start seeds, make seed starting plant pots, seed starting, and growing plants in seed starting trays, watch our video How to start seeds video here.
What are you doing to get a head start on the growing season, what season extenders are you using? Let us know below:

April 12, 2011
Dandelion Identification: is it Edible?

Yes, dandelion is edible. There you go. Below the video here are a bunch of photos and info, scroll down after watching!

Dandelion can fall under the subject heading of urban foraging. It is ubiquitous in yards in America. Just make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with anything if you are pulling it up out of someone’s yard.

I was weeding the mesclun salad greens bed, which i have covered with our Hoop House Cold Frame ( you can get plans for our hoop house and video here )

A lot of dandelion has already come up, and I was surprised at how large the tap root was for such small plants. wow. look at the picture below:

Dandelion has a large taproot. Both the leaves and the tap root are edible, and are used in herbal medicines.

Dandelion is edible. It tastes a bit like arugula, it has a tang to it, if the leaves are mature, it can be a bit bitter.

But bitter can be good in a salad! It offsets raspberry vinegar really well, and it goes well with blue cheese. So stop pulling those weeds and instead harvest them for your dinner plate.

I pulled bunch of dandelion out of our mesclun bed

The younger plants are better, I think, after dandelion has flowered the leaves get tougher, but you can still eat them. Best way for tougher leaves is to saute them in some olive oil with garlic.

Dandelion is super healthy, according to the USDA, Dandelion is high in Vitamin K, Carotene, Vitamin A, and Lutein. neat. And this grows in your yard.

When weeding a garden bed of dandelion, I try my best to pull out the tap root along with the top of the plant using one of my weeder tools. If you snap the plant off at the top of the taproot, the plant will send up new leaves. This is a good way to harvest if you have an area of dandelion which is a designated growing area for the plant.

You can buy dandelion seed. I buy a kind called Italian Dandelion, which I believe is not a true dandelion, but it grows really well in my garden, and we like it.

Dandelion after running it through the salad spinner

After I harvest the dandelion, I snap off the taproot, and shake as much dirt off as I can. I then put the greens in a salad spinner and fill up the bowl of the spinner with water. I slosh the greens around, pull up the basket and dump the water. I do this twice usually, then spin the greens. Then I eat them.

Do you eat dandelion? How? Tell us below:

April 8, 2010
Is Dandelion edible? Dandelion Salad Recipe : GF Video

You can eat what most people call a weed. Dandelion.

Here is another foraging video we did on how to harvest and cook dandelion.

Wikipedia has some good info on dandelion, though I don’t agree you have to always cook it down before eating. There are plenty of us who like it raw. If you like mustard greens, you’ll like dandelion.

You can grow it in your garden, it will last longer into the summer than most any other green. I think the horticultural version is milder, and I prefer the wild version. I was walking around the barn this weekend looking for dandelion, there is still a bunch of it around depsite the record heat wave. Dandelion starts growing early in the spring, flowers and quickly goes to seed. Dandelion then pops up again in the fall, so keep an eye out for it all through the growing season. You can even grow it in a cold frame or hoop house. Click these to see our how to build a hoop house and cold frame videos

Don’t harvest it from roadside areas or where your dogs like to hang out. 10-4?

if you want to learn more about foraging, here is a how-to book to get you started. I like this book, and learned a bunch about acorns, which you can make a flour with. who knew?

Order From An Indie Bookstore Here

Buy From Amazon Here

August 7, 2006
Love Of Goya Foods! GF Radio 461

Rick and Eric both have big love for Goya Food products, especially the Pardina Lentils, Canned chickpeas, and the spices. The grocery store near Eric in BKLN has a whole aisle devoted to Goya, and its a beautiful thing.

Eric talks about how changes at Amazon are affecting GardenFork. Please do not use a GF link that takes you to the main page of Amazon. You can check out GardenFork’s Amazon Shop Page here, on the GF Amazon Page, I have listed a bunch of tools, books, cool stuff that is GardenFork approved.

Making yogurt in the Instant Pot is super fun, how to make yogurt video here. Rick uses the heirloom yogurt starter from Cultures for Health . He also adds in probiotic capsules from the health food store. Kefir is also good for tuning up the biome.

A recent Science VS. podcast talked about obesity and touched on the biome in your gut and how that affects how much people weigh. It seems a lot of weight issues are not what we think, and the biome in your stomach has a lot to do with weight issues, and how come it is hard to lose weight.

Rick got a new Apple Watch for Christmas, and he likes it. Rick finds he looks at this phone a lot less now, he can dictate Notes into the watch, and the world globe showing weather patterns is for the geek in all of us.

More info on how the near field communications chip in new smartphones is a good secure way to pay for things. Rick can talk about this more, and he does on the show, but its sounds like its hard to hack, which is a good thing.

Eric’s new cookbook is Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard. She also produces a show called A Chef’s Life you can watch on the PBS app.

GFR listener Kathlean writes in about using acorn flour, we hope to have Kathlean on the show soon.

Rick’s new double wall greenhouse has done well, keeping this swiss chard from freezing. Watch The Curtis Stone video we talk about.

December 29, 2017
Urban Farming In Your Front Yard & Workshop Organizing – GF Radio 456

Starting a market garden in your yard, both the front and backyards, is what Curtis Stone did, who has a great YouTube channel that Eric has learned a lot of gardening tips from. His website has books and video classes and in-person classes.

We really like the workshop redesign that Erik of Root Simple did.

Eric put roller blade wheels on his office chair, here is the post.

Erin of The Impatient Gardener is reworking her most excellent website and has a very good post on the new invasive worms. You can also hear her on a recent GF Radio show.

Rick is repairing his mini greenhouse and planting swiss chard, a versatile vegetable. Watch our mini greenhouse video builds here

Rick is on a food fermentation mission, you can hear Sandor Katz, the fermentation expert on this GF Radio episode.

Rick also likes the Troy-Bilt Flex Log Splitter, here is my video review on the log splitter. Troy-Bilt is a sponsor of GF.

Eric tells of his negotiating techniques for buying something from Craigslist.

Eric is going to modify his maple syrup evaporator firebox, Maple Trader has a great discussion group:

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but I earn a commission from. Thx! it does not affect the prices you pay: http://amzn.to/2zpkk5i

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GardenFork’s Facebook Discussion group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1692616594342396/

November 7, 2017
Easy Leftover Turkey Soup Recipe – GF Video
After making a deep fried turkey, make this easy leftover turkey soup recipe the next day. Watch our video to learn how.

My turkey soup recipe, A few thoughts:
- Use what you got, in other words, if you don’t have carrots, use potatoes.
- Celery and Onion are key, and you should keep celery in the fridge anyway.
- This cooks down in about an hour.
I can’t say I invented this Thanksgiving leftovers recipe, but it seemed like an obvious thing to do the day after the big holiday meal. But you can do this anytime you deep fry a turkey, and I think we all should cook turkey a lot more. Its a huge amount of food for the price of a turkey. BTW, you can also roast a turkey in the oven, if that’s your thing. We did a video about that here.

One GF fan suggested cooking down the soup in one of those pasta pots that have a strainer insert. You could cook the vegetables in the pot, then put in the strainer and add in the turkey parts. That way you could pull out all the bones at once, then separate the meat, and boom you are done.

It helps to use an oversized pasta pot for this turkey soup recipe. The pot I used had turkey and stock up to the rim and it made it easy to spill. I have about 3 pasta pots in the basement, but I blanked on that when cooking this. Note to self.

Keep in mind that if you put in a lot of celery, that flavor will be more pronounced after a night in the fridge. The second time we heated up the soup for dinner, you could really taste the celery above the carrots. But I love celery so that was ok with me.

The videos I talked about this video: How To Deep Fry A Turkey Build a DIY Mini Greenhouse
November 29, 2016

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