GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: winter

  • Beginning Snowshoe How To – GF Video

    Beginning Snowshoe How To – GF Video

    We love to snowshoe and wanted to show you how to snowshoe yourself. When the snow is knee deep, its the best way to get around the yard or go on a hike. Plus its a great outdoor exercise. Watch our video here and read on to learn about snowshoes:


    We bought our snowshoes at the end of the winter season, they were on sale and we saved quite a bit. You can also find snowshoes for sale on eBay in addition to your online stores. Click here to find snowshoes on Amazon.

    Like most things in life, you get what you pay for when buying snowshoes. While you probably don’t need the über professional snowshoes, you don’t want to cheap out either, else they will break when you really need them. I use them a lot to get to the wood shed, it keeps me from falling down in the snow with a load of firewood.

    Our snowshoes have a metal cleat or gripper underneath for walking across ice and frozen snow, and I suggest you be sure your snowshoes have them. Look underneath for a wide claw thing about 4″ wide. You might also consider gaiters or some sort of snowpants to keep snow from falling into your boots  or shoes, real handy when you are throwing up snow as you walk.

    Snow shoes will not keep you floating above the snow, you will still punch down into the snow a bit, but its much less than going completely up to your knees. They can be a bit clunky, so look for shoes that are easy to put on. Keep in mind you will be putting these on in the cold, not inside your house. Ours have easy release clips, makes it easy to take them off at the end of a hike.

    So let us know your snow shoe experiences below, be good to hear from you.

     

  • Setting Up a Dutch Bucket Hydroponics System

    (Sorry about the Auto-Start on the Video. Don’t know how to turn that off–Rick).

    I’ve set up a hydroponics (soil-less growing in an inert medium) system inside the tunnel, which is itself inside my greenhouse. This is a little video on how I did it and how the system works. For early season vegetables, this scheme will work all the way up to Maine…at least that’s what Eliot Coleman says. You can have, however, just one or two Dutch Buckets (also called BATO buckets) in a corner of your house. Just as long as the temps stay warm enough for, in my case, tomatoes and peppers.

    There are some parts coming that are not in the video. One is an aquarium air pump to keep the growing liquid oxygenated. The other is an aquarium heater, which will warm the solution that is pumped over the roots.

    Also I failed to mention that this system doesn’t run continuously, it is On 1 hour, Off 4 hours.

    • It used to be that you couldn’t find drip irrigation supplies at garden centers and the big Orange or Blue stores, but now you can. However, you can order drip supplies from Drip Works online as well.
    • The Dutch Buckets came from Grower’s Supply, but there are many sources (be sure to order the siphons, 2 per bucket, which are separate). There are also videos on how to make home made Dutch Buckets (BATO buckets).
    • the Hydroton came from a local hydroponics store, but is also widely available on-line. You can also use any light medium, such as expanded shale, perlite or even river gravel (anything without limestone. To test, put a hand full of gravel in a jar of vinegar. If it bubbles and sizzles, you can’t use it.)
  • Winter Vegetable Gardening with cold frames GF Video

    Winter Vegetable Gardening with cold frames GF Video

    On Christmas Day we went out to the garden to take care of what we should have done in the fall. And we made a video about it. How unusual.

    I’m a big fan of Eliot Coleman, and his book, The Four Season Harvest. Its full of a ton of information, one of the things that stuck with me is that South of France is on the same parallel, the 44th, as Eliot’s house in Maine. France grows vegetables in the winter, and we don’t. Or most of us don’t. Eliot does grow vegetables in winter. Check out his site here Eliot has a new book out on winter gardening, The Winter Harvest Handbook, which you can buy from your local bookstore or here.

    I usually put a cold frame on one of our raised beds to grow cold hard greens in the late fall and early spring. I have yet to master Eliot’s methods of getting greens thru the winter. You can see our video on how to build a cold frame on this page of our site.

    Watch this Gardenfork episode for more on plastic mulch, cold frames, and of course the Labradors.