I think we have established in past blogs that sustainability is a good thing and anything you can do in that regard is good. One of the ways we have attempted to become more sustainable is to grow our own food. The advantages are obvious but it’s okay if we state the obvious over and over until all of us get it. Food safety and independence are two good reasons to grow your own food.
We had a pretty good size garden the first year we moved here and we canned food from the garden for the winter. This year I am going to build a storage bin in our garage to store root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. This past year we just put them in a box in the garage.
One whole wall of our garage is built out of concrete and is basically underground, much like a basement wall. The two ends of the garage are insulated and the other long wall is the living space from the house and therefore heated. The end result is that even though our temperatures can go below zero degrees Fahrenheit, the garage never freezes. It’s just like a root cellar.
I’m going to build triangular corner shelving out of plywood and wood framing and put a fairly large lip on the outside edge of the shelves to form a box to put sawdust and vegetables in. Even without sawdust, our potatoes at this time are just like they were coming out of the ground. Very few sprouts!
Between the new storage bins and canning, I think food storage is adequate for the year. Our garden produces June through September and we can easily grow enough vegetables to last us all year, but what about winter fresh veggies?
I had read an article in one of our garden magazines years ago about a guy in Wisconsin who claimed that if you attached a raised bed or planter to the side of the house, you could plant vegetables in the winter and they would not freeze so we just had to give it a try and the picture to the left is what we ended up with – insulated raised bed/cold frames.
They are attached to the south end of the house. The panels are insulated with double wall polycarbonate and the beds are completely filled with dirt. Neither of the beds is heated.
This was our first test this winter. It seems we had a lot of reasons why we didn’t get them planted until March but that’s what happened. Keep in mind that in March our temperatures were still in the low 20’s every day and several times even in the upper teens. I did check the dirt several times during the coldest months and it was never frozen.
The simple idea is that one side of the beds is the house which never freezes and in fact is heated. As long as you have the insulated panels on top amplifying the sun’s heat (when it shines) and are planting cold weather plants like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and other greens, you can grow vegetables in the winter.
Worst case scenario is that we can extend our short growing season by four months. Instead of June thru September, we know we can go from March to end of October and I’m pretty sure that with a few tricks like these water filled black painted plastic jugs to help hold heat at night, we can do even better than eight months.
Sometimes the simplest ideas work and this is one of those. I know some of you have been doing this for many years but we haven’t and I can’t tell you how excited we are to be cold weather educated at this point. This next year we are going to have the garden, root cellar quality food storage, and cold weather growing ability to have fresh home grown vegetables almost all year long. That’s sustainability!
Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com and offgridworks.com.
I’ve used a hotbed slightly similar to what you have, on a much smaller. Mine is simply a single large pane of glass at a 45 degree angle up against the south face of my house here in eastern Ohio. The glass sits on a concrete slab which is the top of a root cellar and also a patio/porch. The ends of the hotbed are closed off with bricks and a larger masonry block. I used the hotbed for sprouting seeds for garden transplants like bell pepper, cauliflower, and tomato. A thermometer in the hotbed lets me know better when to partially or completely remove the blocks of masonry which close off the ends of the hotbed. Works pretty well but requires vigilance to keep from cooking the seeds/seedlings in sunny weather. The temperature within the hotbed can be as much as 60 degrees F. above the outside temperature.
I remember seeing an article somewhere many years ago about a device that senses temperature and operates to open and close panels in the roofs of greenhouses. Maybe you could use that type of device to help regulate the temperature within your glazed growing space.
Alan Detwiler: rural resident, gardener, and advocate of self sufficiency and
resilient living. Bio at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/alandetwiler
Another idea to prevent overheating: use a fan powered by a solar panel. When the sun comes out, possibly overheating the growing space, the fan comes on to remove excess heat. I suppose you would need a thermostat/switch to help keep the temperature in the correct range.
Alan Detwiler: rural resident, gardener, and advocate of self sufficiency and
resilient living. Bio at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/alandetwil
Here in eastern Ohio, November through April is dominated by cloudy weather. That and days with less hours of daylight make the growing of vegetables in greenhouses doubtful. I have read that a couple by the name of Helen and Scott Nearing (I hope I got the spelling right) used to use a greenhouse in a cold climate as a sort of super refridgerator to store vegetables through the winter, vegetables that had done their growing during the more suitable part of the year.
My strategy for fresh winter vegetables is storage in a root cellar. The root cellar is attached to the house, has concrete block walls and a 6-inch thick, flat concrete roof. The top two feet of block and the roof are exposed, the walls mostly below ground level. In the root cellar I have placed cabbage, brussel sprouts, chinese cabbage and rutabaga in plastic kitty litter buckets. I dug up the plants before the first hard freeze and included as much soil and undisturbed root as possible with each plant. For carrot and beet I didn’t bother with including a mass of root/soil. Just put a layer of damp soil in the bottom of each bucket and more or less tried to have the bottom inch or two of each root in the damp soil. For potatoes I buried the tubers in soil, filling each bucket with alternating layers of soil and potato with just enough soil to fill the spaces between potatoes. A somewhat tight-fitting lid was placed on the buckets containing carrot, beets, and potatoes. If you try this, be careful to not have the soil too moist, it will cause the vegetables to rot. I suspect the potatoes would have kept as well in a closed container either without any soil or just a layer at the bottom of the bucket to help maintain high humidity.
This winter I have had brussel sprouts and chinese cabbage until the end of April; cabbage. rutabaga, and carrots until May; and still have potatoes and beets (as of May 26). The carrots may have lasted even longer but were used up.
Alan Detwiler: rural resident, gardener, and advocate of self sufficiency and
resilient living. Bio at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/alandetwiler
We live in Southern Idaho and we keep our potatoes all winter in netting bags hanging in our garage which is attached to our house but is not heated. The temperature remains around 40 degrees all winter. The potatoes always last all winter and only start to sprout in the spring when the weather warms the garage up. Whatever potatoes are left we use to plant the next years crop.
Helen and Scott Nearing wrote a book called Living the Good Life about their homesteading experiences in Vermont and Maine. Their book is still available from Amazon and has a lot of good information about growing and keeping food in the winter. They were vegetarians and grew all of their food for the year. They were the originators of the “back to the land” movement in the 60s and 70s.
Great site, We live on a small 100 year old farm in central Alberta, we have about 2 acres in garden and orchard with another acre of organic wheat which we grind for a portion of our yearly flour. We process several hundreds of pounds of veggies, apples, cherries, raspberries, saskatoons etc as well as purchase about 10 cases of pears and peaches to be processed and canned or frozen.
We have an 8′l x 8′w x 12′d well pit with 500 gallon water storage, insulated top cover of 4″ blue foam and 1/2″ exterior plywood. We get -45F in mid winter here in Alberta the temperature stays a constant 38F year round where We store approximately a ton of potatoes for a family of 5++(we give away many bags to those in need and supply family and friends) still have hard fresh potatoes by harvest time. We store beets and carrots whole packed in dry sand in 5 gallon buckets in a cool dark back room and process as needed. Be selective use unbruised and best quality veggies for storage. Process any damaged produce /freeze /dry/pickle/eat immediately. Usually the buckets are all processed by spring and we start running out by June. Squash, pumpkins, zucchini (yellow and green) we keep in boxes and spread on top of a spare bed cool room and will keep into march and April. Just keep checking for firmness or any degradation and use as necessary.
Sandy,
Thank you for sharing.
I think I just read my dream lifestyle. We are way behind you guys but coming on strong.
Ed Essex
I’m new to the site and still a homesteading newbie but the interaction here is an invaluable resource!
Ed – If you had the opportunity to rebuild your cold frames, would you use cinder blocks again? Did you apply some sort of sealant to the siding of your home to prevent water damage over time?
We have a small home in the mountains of western North Carolina that has tremendous southern exposure which hasn’t been utilized thus far. I would like to build cold frames this fall to enable us to extend our growing season but I am not sure what design would be best. Any insight or recommended resources would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for the questions. Everyone learns from this type of conversation.
We stopped the siding just above the dirt level. From that point on down to the footing we applied “peel and stick” flexible membrane flashing. You can get it in at least an 18″ roll. Just peel the paper backing off and stick it to the wall.
Plain old building paper (tar paper) will work as well. I would recommend at least a 30 LB felt.
I used blocks because that was the business I was in so it was cost effective for me and also because I thought the concrete type product would absorb the sun and retain the heat longer than other products. Just a guess.
A poured in place concrete wall would do the same thing.
An inexpensive alternative would be to use something like logs or railroad ties. Just get a 15″ auger bit and drill vertical holes and pin the timbers together with rebar. They would last a long time.
I think you could extend your season by 4 months minimum.
Also, if you can’t (or don’t want to) afford the insulated poly panels like I have, visqueen works very well. I would get a 6 mil thickness and apply it on each side of a pine 2×2 frame.
Lots of alternatives. I think you get the idea. Whatever is available or affordable to you will work if you stick to the main concept of south side and attached directly to the house so that the backside IS your house. That is the most effective way to prevent freezing because one whole side (the house) is always heated.
Ed
What about tires for heat retention? I did an experiment with tomato plants same conditions except for half were in tires filled with soil. The plants in the tires were at least double the size of the normally planted ones. I haven’t taken it any further than this experiment, but it amazed me, so I suggest trying that, the results might help you come up with another option.
Hi Whitney,
You bet tires will heat up whatever you plant in them. I haven’t tried it but my Dad did. He had the same result you did.
Ed
Ed i read this article on MEN, as i’m looking to grow some greens for eating in the winter. Closest i have found is Hot beds (actual usage of fresh manure around 2ft or heating elements to warm the soil) think i would need more for my zone 5 garden.
I think the coldframes near the house is a great idea for extending the season.
Whitney I use tires to get an early start to my zucchini which works very well.
Currently enjoying my first winter with carrots from the root cellar, toms from cans and dried herbs from the garden
i’m enjoying the site and the info
Hello Mr. Dirty Hands,
Thank you for your for comments. I think anything you can do is good. We are currently enjoying fresh (cold weather) greens in December. It has been milder weather this year but it has still gotten down to 12F. That’s pretty cold so I have to call the insulated attached cold frames a huge success.
The other thing we do is fire up our EasyGreen Automatic Sprouter in the winter for some variety.
We’ve just ordered a brand new type of hydroponic system that only takes up 15 square inches of space in our house. It doesn’t require a grow light. If we are successful we are going to sell it on our website.
Keep trying different things and let us know if you find something that works.
Ed
Good to know about the greens surviving that low.
let us know how the hydroponic system works, i think this could be a good method with the right low light veg. Especially if it can be done without a lightbulb running 8 hours a day.
My tips on carrots, is to use soil rather than sand, I use old potting soil from the summer plant pots, that has been left to dry a bit. Totally cover them and surround with paper, if they are going rubbery they are losing water so either the soil is drying them out or the air is too dry (happens when it gets cold). I store mine at the top of the root cellar where the air is warmer and more humid.