touch the earth farm blog

Alas, living in the mid-Atlantic region as far south as we do makes for an interesting winter season. We’re up near 70° one day and down to 9° within the next week, not to mention the snow and ice and wind. These are difficult conditions for plants as well as people, and not surprisingly, these fluctuations have taken their toll.

During the high winds, both low tunnels blew off again, exposing them to those 9° nighttime temperatures. The hardy kale survived, but it will be a couple of weeks before I’ll see any regrowth to know if some of the other plants survived as well. The chard fared well, and should bounce back without much problem. I’m hoping the same will be true of the spinach and the raab.

The good news is that the high tunnel is holding its own, and everything growing in there seems to be doing well. The lettuces are growing and filling nicely. Both the arugula and the turnips in this week’s share were from the high tunnel, and there should be more to come in addition to the new plantings.

Our plan this fall is to do away with the low tunnels altogether and build a second high tunnel next to the first. This should provide better winter protection as well as allowing us to get the plantings in good and early without sharing space with summer season vegetables. We already have the plastic, so it will just be a matter of getting the hoops up and the front and back walls framed out. Probably a weekend’s worth of work in October.

The advantage to the high tunnel design is in its construction. The low tunnels keep the plants warmer because there’s less air mass to heat, but the low tunnels are extremely vulnerable to winds because they need to remain removable in order to harvest. With the high tunnels, we can trench the plastic into the earth, using the heavy wet and frozen dirt to hold the plastic in place. The low tunnels, even with their cinder blocks and bricks just cannot withstand the high winds we’ve had this season.