November 2020 – Healing A.I.D Farm

My husband and father in-law went to work like two busy bees in a hive at the end of summer to put up a 6×18 green house to cover a large crop of bell and hot peppers before frost damage. Come Remembrance Day and after the peppers were finished (we should have harvested our last haul by first of November (more on that later) we cleaned out all of the dead peppers. The greenhouse was reaching highs of 26C but this was also with unusual warm temps in November as high as 18 degrees after a cold snap just a week or two ago. With the greenhouse now stripped and the soil and air so warm, with loose sandy soil … it only felt right to do our first winter experiment and throw some seeds in the ground! Spinach was a must (as spinach loves cold weather and we havent had a good crop of spinach yet.) I’ve always wanted to do a fall planting and recently learned that it probably was never going to happen without a cold frame or greenhouse. I figure the green house is a high chance of success rate as the warm temperatures may stick around just long enough for germination and then the temperatures will drop just in time for proper spinach growing conditions. Carrots are a real shot in the dark but that only adds to the excitment of anticipation. Carrots also can do well by managing in cooler weathers. If they freeze however they will become rubbery. The real question is how long will the greenhouse keep the ground from freezing? Carrots in a greenhouse seem like they would help prevent the seeds from flying away during germination but without heating the greenhouse I am not sure how long Nova Scotia can accommodate the carrot growing season in the winter. A huge reason why this website was created was to have a place to journal farm related happenings and at the same time allow others to follow along the journey so we can all learn together!