DIY - Building a Greenhouse/Office

How was everyone's Easter?
Ours was fantastic. We did our traditional egg hunt, had our family over, and delicious food was served, which we ate too much of. We played tag with the kids and worked in the garden making a new compost area.


While in the process of making the yards more permaculture friendly we have decided to build a greenhouse. It has actually morphed into an office, potting shed, greenhouse.
We have been getting a few ideas from "Your Homemade Greenhouse and How to Build it" by Jack Kramer. You can see our rough sketches of the elements we would like.

 Some of the ideas we have are a seed drying area (I am a hoarder of heirloom seeds), office area, potting bench, a 5x6 greenhouse attached with running water, storage area for garden tools and chicken feed. We are also running power out there since most of the time we will use the green house in the middle of winter when it gets darker earlier.

You can see the more detailed sketch of our idea.

We are still in the early planning stages. We do hope to have the shell and greenhouse up and running by December. In the meantime I will work on the planning and save the seeds from this years crop for a bigger crop of heirlooms next year.

Any of you have a greenhouse/potting shed? What elements are you favorite about it?

Happy Gardening!

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

If you are looking for an all natural all purpose cleaner recipe, here it is. I found one similar on Pintrest a while back and decided to give it a try.
Not only does it disinfect and smell nice, it's cheap too. You can't beat that. It cost me a few minutes of my time mixing it together and that was it. I had the rest of the ingredients on hand.

 These are all the ingredients you will need and the finished product hanging out in the back. Most likely you already have them in your cupboards, so clean out a spray bottle and get to mixing.
You will have a cleaner, greener home in no time!

 Here is my recipe, I actually have 2 but I have found I prefer the first one. I don't know why, just do. One thing I did add was tea tree oil (a few drops) for scent and the antibacterial properties.

All my secret hippy recipes are hidden in this recipe binder. I inherited it from my sister when she passed a few years ago. I add all my homemade mixes, cleaners and food recipes to it. I do need to sit down and reorganize it and make it a bit fancier inside, but if the house caught fire I would grab this before the wedding pictures...hahaha!

So without further storytelling here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Blue Dawn dish soap
4 Tbs white vinegar
400 ml water
a few drops of essential oil for scent

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake before each use.

An Experiment

Scott bought me a very small, but invaluable asset to my obsession with starting all my plants from seed.

As you can see it was a rainy day. None better than to take pictures of my germinating seeds. All the seeds were planted on Monday. Before the storm.

In every pot there are 2 seeds, except the basil. They are such tiny seeds that I just added a pinch. When it comes to thinning I will have to figure something out.

I chose a lot of heirloom varieties like this Sebastopol Tomato. The story goes that the seeds were held onto by a lady for 70 years. Just had to try. I wish I had planted  a few more San Marzano Tomatoes though. I like can sauce and salsa for winter and it would be nice to do some plain tomatoes of this tasty kind.

I also did a few standard veggies, California Wonder Bell Peppers, Straight Eight Cucumber and Black Beauty Eggplant, all of which I plan to sell at my roadside market this summer.

Has anyone tasted a Cherokee Purple tomato? What is the flavor and the best use for it? Sandwiches? Salads? or Just off the vine warmed by the sun?