Wekkend in the garden

Today I was able to confirm that temp difference between outside and inside of the tunnel is about +6-7 deg. which is great.  I feel almost safe to move some of the starters and transplant into tunnel. 
Well, it is done, I transplanted tomatoes into new home this morning and seeded more lettuce.  Noticed that seed that we have put into ground last weekend started to germinate (that is outside garden).  My lettuce in old tunnel is growing like crazy another week and we will start to consume it.

 This is bit foggy due to humidity inside when I took picture.

Morning Update

Crispy morning today (-1 C) and my new tunnel in the morning sun.  Unfortunately, I was not able to check temperature as the temp gauge display faded (technical diff.), last night the difference between old low tunnel and new high double walled tunnel was ~4 deg.  Difference between outside ambient and new tunnel was +7 Deg C, so pretty significant.  I have to fix or get new temperature gauge, the one I am using now logs low and high temperatures, but due to high humidity exposure screen (LCD) stop working.  This weekend will be filling inside with transplant and seeds.

Tunnel got a skin(s)

I was busy working last night installing plastic over my tunnel skeleton, actually, two skeletons, inside and external one.  It was a bit more work than I anticipated, partially due to windy conditions and fact that I need to fuse two large sheets of plastics.  In the end we were successful, I mean I and my team (including dogs that try to be helpful),  Got some pictures take by one of my assistants, but need to transfer those into my account, and once this is done, will post these.  I still have to string plastic over the doors and finish installing handles, etc, and we will call it project complete.  I think we will focus now of partially seeding in the new tunnel and moving starters/transplant into it.  Uff, it would be nice to turn this project to "operations" LOL.


Here it is .. new "skin"

Tunnel Construction update

Today, or tonight will be the time to close tunnel construction by covering it with plastic.  This will be possible if weather cooperates and I will post updates in form of photo report.

Finally rain ...

Prayers were answered, we got some rain (4.5 mm according to my weather station) that will definitely help to green the grass and garden as well.  Rain this weekend also help to manage my time and finish taxes.
Brief update from my garden, lettuce is growing like crazy in the tunnel, might be ready for consumption in couple of weeks.  Onion is not far behind.  Sorry for  lettuce a bit out of focus, but used iphone to take photo.
This week, maybe on Tuesday, I will finish new tunnel and start transplanting some of the starters into it.
Left it open to capture the moisture  before closing it up.

 Rhubarb update, as you can see it is "wild" how quickly it grows (see below)

Where is the rain?

Thunder, lightning, well got my hopes last night that we may get some moisture  on the ground. The result not a drop on the ground, but 500 m to the South, puddles. Will wait for another day hopefully to see the rain.

Construction Update

Poly-strap back order has arrived and was busy last night installing it.  My new "high" tunnel is ready to receive its "skin" now.  Was a bit windy to attempt to do so yesterday, will have to do this either today or tomorrow.  Mind you, temp has reached 30 deg C at my place (reading from two independent weather stations that are about 250 feet apart) and it is really dry.  Forecast call for possible rain later on this week, so maybe I should wait for rain to bring moisture to the soil rather than watering it (once it is covered).  Maybe I will keep it open for few more day.  Given current temperatures, one may say why bother with tunnel, well, because overnight we still drop to below zero or just above zero (+2 last night).  Due to elevation there are large temp swings between day high and night low.  My neighbor told me that this is even more pronounced at our place and our growth season is about ten days shorter than Calgary.  Observing this for a year I must agree with him. My solution, garden hoop tunnel, in this case, double walled one.

This is picture of my "old low" hoop tunnel before poly was installed last year.