April 13 <http://rooffarmer.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/april-13/> April 14, 2009 by rooffarmer
So. I have big flat roof on my commercial building in Milwaukee, which I turned into a vegetable “farm” using raised beds. Last summer was my first season, and the results were good enough that I decided to start a CSA, with the goal of selling 10 shares. One of the advantages of a raised bed garden (the roof helps but mainly it’s the raised beds) is the ease of season extending. While most CSAs aroound these parts prepare their first market baskets sometime in late May, last week was my first. I expect go keep them coming well into December. The varieties right now are limited to lettuce and greens, but fresh whole heads of buttercrunch ready in early April? Are you kidding me? Starting lettuce and greens in Febrary in zone 5 the easy part. More difficult will be making a blog about it interesting! The answer (not to making things interesting) is hoop houses. I took 3/4″ pvc pipes and arched them from one side of the box to the other, drilling holes in the top of the box in which I could seat the pipe. This is covered with 6 mil plastic, and, voila, instant heat whenever there is sun. I have also built some ones with clear corrugated polycarbonate sheets. These reflect less light and are useful inside the “greenhouse.” more at... http://rooffarmer.wordpress.com/ and... http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/CommunityGrowersCSAFarm/HomePage -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090418/a695ac54/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
