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| The pine trees are east of the house. That means a good bit of shade for the morning. |
Whenever we display images from our little piece of heaven on earth, it seems we only show the beauty of the plants growing in what call "the new greenhouse". With that in mind, I bet you're wondering if there's a new one, there must be an old one. Well there is!!!!
When asked how did you meet Tim, I always say, "he came with the house". He did, and in addition to Tim coming with the house, the old greenhouse came with the farm. IT'S OLD! (1980's) When Tim built the old greenhouse, it was actually two hoop houses that housed tobacco plants on a float bed. When the tomato idea came to mind, we used one of the old houses for the first 400 plants. Success!!! Tim then had the bright idea of joining the two structures together. For some reason, he felt this would be more efficient. I don't know about that, but it is a big awkward looking house.
Greenhouses are aluminum structures with 2 layers of plastic covering it. Between the layers of plastic is a pocket of air blown up like a balloon. That is the only insulation from the outside elements. Ours is riddled with tiny holes from past storms and so it will not hold air and allows water to pool on the top when it rains.
Yes, we should have already replaced it. In addition, it faces the wrong direction, east/west instead of north/ south. It has a nice pine forest behind it. That's not good, tomato plants need full sun, not shade half the day.
Other than all that's wrong with the house, it actually grows some darn good tomatoes. Because it's so shady, the tomatoes won't ripen in a timely manner. They just hang on the vine about a week past their due dates and get huge! Sometimes two clusters of tomatoes per plant come off all within one week's times and then there's nothing else to pick until a week later. That's our feast to famine.
We manage the old greenhouse the same way we manage the new greenhouse. In fact, without the Old Greenhouse, there would be no New Greenhouse and no Sunburst Tomatoes. We are just as particular with the plant nutrition and care and use the same beneficial insects. We find that it is so unpredictable that it's actually a lot of fun. It's a nice bonus to go into that greenhouse and feel no pressure because whatever you do, that house has plans of its own. We love you, Old Greenhouse:)
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| Tim on top dipping out water after an inch of rain the night before. |
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| Interior view of that large pool |
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| Look at the water pooled overhead |
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Sweeping out water (plus suckers)
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| Rain clouds building on the horizon. Get the bailing buckets ready. |
