I had a question..... I am going to have a container-garden in my yard this spring using large smart pots. I like the no-till concept, but.... Can I leave my containers (my no-till ecosystem) outside through the winter? Will the worms die? What about microbial life?
You can leave it outside, I've got my worm bin frozen outdoors as we speak but of course it's not the best option. The microbs and worms will be back once it warms up. The worms have un hatched cocoons that will hatch eventually.
Yes. During winter i always fill one side of my bin with decaying organic waste, usually leaves mixed with fresh chicken manure. I put this on one side of the bin. This ensures a heater effect and this keeps the worms alive through winter. They can survive pretty low temps but they dont like it. I know people in cali who are growing in smart pots outdoors right now! No kidding! Middle of december!
Good info. I wont be disturbing the soil to add compost/manure tho since I would ideally like to go no-till I live in the midwest and would imagine that a 20gal smart-pot would freeze solid over winter. They will still be ok?
As things freeze cells burst inside. If it was me, id wrap them up in something. The lowest it gets in central california is in the teens, below freezing though. Some people wrap their trees up. I discovered that i could wrap car tires around outdoor seedlings and it blocked wind, adding a top kept heat in. Id wrap them in something and shield them from the wind, as worms are 40$ a pound or two. As temps drop bugs slow to a crawl. Some can survive freezing, its how flies come back each year. It was 38f the other day and my worms had slowed to a crawl. Some people even put acquirum heaters in their bins. The short answer to your question is I really dont know. They might be okay, but theres a few simple things you can do to ensure they survive.
I haven't had a chance to read this yet but it's a Mother Earth News article that some old coot sent me regarding sun heated greenhouses - http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/nearings-sun-heated-greenhouse-zmaz78jfzgoe.aspx#axzz3MGGxDDMe Thanks Coot. J
awesome, any tips for trying containers in a cold winter climate with snow/hail? just moved to colorado and want to try containers and cold frames this winter season since its so long and i want fresh food! Then as it heats up I will try to do a small raised mound garden or maybe a geodesic dome or other kind of solar heated greenhouse. I'm interested!
Feel sorry for everyone living where it snows, I come from Queensland Australia and I can grow pretty much any vegi all year round and also yandi (weed) all year round, gotta love the sunshine state
This is the most awesome garden I have ever been to in my life. Mind blowing. http://www.perpetualgreengardens.com/earth-powered-greenhouses.html
That is Badass dude! I have heard of earth bag homes before but didn't realize exactly what they were. I wonder what type of bag is used? Would be so easy to make one of those that's next summer's project for sure
I can ask a friend that works there but I thought they were just poly sand bags? It might be hard to tell from the pictures but the greenhouse is a good 4ft. underground...even deeper on the North side. It's not the construction that is so mind boggling. It's the way they heat this thing. It's -15F outside right now approaching mid-day. Last year we had 17 days in a row where the temp never got above 0. It's all about the pits they dug and using the Earth's constant temp of around 50F. Honestly, I was in so much awe...I found myself dumbstruck...unable to comprehend what my eye's were seeing. I was very lucky to be able to visit the greenhouse. Due to concerns over pests very few people are allowed in the greenhouse. I had to shower and put on clean clothes before heading out there. Tyvek suit and booties to enter the GH. Peach trees in Montana ...WTF? I had read about using this kind of heating system in a book called "Skills for Simple Living". One concern over heating this way is the potential to produce radon. It certainly has the wheels spinning in my head regardless. Search terms I'm going to try: ground pipes, earth tubes, buried loops.
Looks like a rip-off of Michael Reynolds' Earthship design, which is built mostly with all recycled materials. I spent 6 months back in '95 in Taos, NM building these things. Tires filled with rammed earth made the majority of the structural walls. Back breaking work, but absolutely AMAZING on the inside. The greenhouse is part of the main structure, i.e. it's your living room (design dependent, of course). http://earthship.com/ Still a very cool concept, though!
The building method really doesn't have much to do with how the greenhouse is able to operate through the winter. Choose any alternative build method which creates alot of thermal mass and it will still work. There are vents on the roof which open when it hits a certain temperature. This draws air from a 20' deep pit that has been filled with rock. As the outside air travels through the rock it is either heated or cooled to the temperature of the earth (around 50F). This incoming air at 50F enters and heats the greenhouse in winter or cools it off in the summer. That's it. No wood stove. No heaters. No compost piles. Just passive solar and the heat exchange with the earth. The simplicity of it all is what is really amazing. Hope this explains it a little better. I get a little too excited about the opportunity this may provide to garden year round.