Week 2: spinach is winning!

A little soggy

We're on week two of the earthen greenhouse with global buckets study.

Saginaw had some windy and rainy days last week so we were excited to see how our little greenhouse would do, and it held up pretty nicely for the most part. Like we had expected, there was a pool of water on the plastic sheeting. However, inside the greenhouse it wasn't much more damp than it had been before the storms, so that's a good sign. But as I was pushing the water off the sheeting from the inside, some of it spilled into the greenhouse, which was a bad move on my part. I will be more careful next time. I cleaned upas much of the spill as I could and that helped a lot.

Spinach
As of now, it appears that the spinach is beating the basil in a growing race. Almost all of the Spinach plants have sprouts and Basil isn't too far behind. The Spinach buckets have grown considerably since last week. The Basil buckets aren't growing as quickly.

Basil

The greenhouse is staying warm despite the freezing temperatures the area has recently faced. We're in the market for a digital USB thermometer so we can track the temperatures in the greenhouse throughout the weeks.

This week, on average the Spinach buckets took about 2.5 Solo cups of water as the Basil took about 2 Solo cups.

I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of greenhouse visitors about our earthen greenhouse and the global buckets. Spreadin' the word.

I now have designated "mud clothes" that I wear every time I go to the greenhouse. It's a muddy time but I look forward to it.

Buckets through the plastic

The Buckets are in their new home (It's a muddy one)

We were pretty excited when the greenhouse was finished

The greenhouse was finished last Wednesday with the help of our wonderful volunteers. On Thursday, Alyssa and I planted the buckets with basil and spinach, 10 of each. We then moved the buckets from the shed to the earthen greenhouse. We used a golf cart to load the buckets and drop them off next to the greenhouse, we had to use the golf cart because the shape and weight of the buckets is awkward and our fingers would have fallen off otherwise. Then, I stood in the greenhouse as Alyssa handed them to me. During this process we lost a lot of water through the over-fill holes and the corner soon became a mudslide. Once the buckets were all

in, we both watered them, we put about 2 Solo cups of water in each bucket.That process took about an hour.

We were pretty muddy by the end, which we didn't mind.

Global buckets inside the earthen greenhouse

Today (Wednesday) I went to water the buckets again. AND WE HAVE SOME SPROUTS!

Which is exciting. The greenhouse is keeping pretty warm through-out the day and the plants dig that.

There is a problem with venting, however. It is pretty damp inside the greenhouse and when the sun hits the plastic covering it creates a lot of condensation, so it's a really moist environment which could cause problems later.

Also, the buckets aren't on a complete even ground, so some are sideways which causes water to escape the overfill holes on

one side of the bucket. I tried to make them as level as possible. With that said, the amount of water for each bucket varied from about 2-3 Solo cups.

Both of these have small sprouts but you can't really see them in this picture. (Just Imagine)

The buckets are ready for a home!

The Global Buckets are ready for their new home in the earthen greenhouse which should be complete this Wednesday after the volunteer day.

I went to the greenhouse yesterday (Sunday) for a few hours and assembled 14 of the 20 Global or "Dirt" buckets. It was a beautiful day to do so, cold but sunny, which beats just cold. The process took a little less than 3 hours, which wasn't too bad at all.

I had to make new wicking cups, soak the soil, scoop the soil into the buckets, and place a garbage bag cover on the buckets. I was going to use duct tape to secure the bags in place but remembered I had aquired some zip-ties. I didn't finish the buckets because I wanted an excuse to go to the greenhouse and get my hands dirty today. So, today I will finish assembling the 6 buckets and I will also bring my zipties to secure the garbage bag covers.

I will plant the buckets with spinach and basil by the end of the week and place them in the greenhouse! They will grow for 6 weeks.

Reminder: Dirtbag Brigade Volunteer day is THIS Wednesday the 6th from 4p-7p at the SVSU Greenhouse! We Hope to see you there!