Of course a root cellar is on my wish list, and I will get one someday … but for now there are many ways to help prolong the life of your homegrown produce in a regular home. Between your coolest closet and using your refrigerator to its full potential, you can easily keep your veggies happy for months to come, even without a root cellar. And I think we all want to reduce food waste in any way we can.
The process that slowly sucks the life from produce is called transpiration. Even after plants are harvested, they are still “breathing.” This natural process lets harvested foods lose moisture through their skins. This is also a good reminder that a plant’s purpose is to grow again, not feed us. There are lots of simple ways to slow this down and keep food in good form longer—without a root cellar.
Set Your Goals
Start by knowing that certain varieties of potatoes, squash, onions, etc. simply store better, so if your goal is long-term storage, growing a crop developed for that purpose can get you extra months of storage. Harvest at the peak ripeness and take time right away to sort through and use any produce that has cuts, bumps or bruises first.
You’ll also add lots of storage time by curing your crop as needed. Curing is leaving harvested crops in a warm, protected area at a certain temperature with good air circulation for 10 to 30 days depending on the crop.
All these measures work towards slowing transpiration. It’s common sense then that the relative humidity plays a big part in storage time. In general, our homes hover around 50 percent humidity. Expect lower humidity in homes during the winter months when heaters are on. In general produce prefers higher humidity than our typical human comfort levels.
But we can play with those levels. We all know the coldest place in the house, usually a basement corner, or closet that we never go into. Even a few degrees and a little higher humidity can add weeks to your food. Storing potatoes in paper bags and cardboard boxes lets them breathe while holding a little extra moisture.
Refrigeration
Refrigerators run between 35 and 50 percent humidity. Using your crisper drawer and wrapping in plastic (we wash and reuse our plastic bags until they fall apart) can easily increase that to 65 percent. Many refrigerators also give the option of adjusting the humidity levels inside drawers, so make use of being able to increase that as well.
Some crops that do great in long-term refrigeration include apples, beets, carrots, cabbages, turnips and daikon radishes. I routinely store these for three to four months in my refrigerator. I will often add a damp paper towel in with my refrigerated veggies.
I also have great luck storing my carrots in damp sand in my attached garage. We live in Minnesota, though, and it can get down to 20 degrees F in our garage, so I do have to watch once January rolls around.
Cool Storage “Best Practices”
The guides below are to get you thinking where you have an environment closest to this in your home, not to stress about exact numbers you must hit.
Squash
Harvest before frost, leaving at least 2 inches of stem. Cure 10 to 20 days. Store in 50 to 55 degrees F with humidity around 60 percent. Pumpkins prefer slightly higher humidity at 75 percent.
Onions
Harvest once tops start to flop over, leaving tops intact. Cure three weeks or until tops are fully dried out. Store onions in something with good air flow at 45 to 55 degrees F and 60 to 70 percent humidity.
Potatoes
Harvest when it’s been dry and do not wash. Cure in a dark area 60 to 70 degrees F for around two weeks. Store between 45 to 55 degrees F in the dark with humidity over 80 percent. Do not store in refrigerator.
With a little planning we can be eating healthy from our gardens long into winter and spring. Isn’t that part of the homesteading dream?
Pro Tips
Don’t store onions next to potatoes. Potatoes release moisture quickly and will speed onion deterioration.
Apples (and many other fruits) release ethylene as they ripen and can hasten the rotting of other nearby produce, so it’s best to keep them in a separate place.
When someone thinks about raising their own livestock, they might picture the physical benefits that the animal will offer them such as fresh milk, cream and meat. But what you might have overlooked are the slightly-less tangible things a family can benefit from. These include a chance to grow a greater work ethic, the patience learned while working with an animal, and knowledge to not only care for animals but also deal with any emergencies that might arise in the herd.
Here are just some of the lessons raising cattle can teach you and enhance your family’s homesteading experience.
Grow Your Knowledge
It’s amazing how much better you learn something once you’ve done it for yourself, whether it’s locating milk replacer and mixing a bottle for the first time or researching what a proper feed ration looks like for your steer.
Raising cattle will throw you into plenty of situations where you learn important lessons and (hopefully) come out knowing a little more than you did before. As your animal grows, you’ll get a chance to learn more about mixing a proper ration of roughage, energy and protein, as well as where you want to source your ingredients all from.
If an emergency situation arises, you might need to either pull out something you learned about treating a particular ailment or contact a local vet for further direction. While books can be helpful resources, so can local ranchers or veterinarians. But once you’ve dealt with a situation, you’ll be more prepared should it arise a second time.
Expand Your Skill Set
Have you ever had to build a fence? What about a shelter? Or a feeder? Sometimes a person has to get creative when they’re starting out with a new endeavor (especially if they’re not looking to break the bank).
Eventually, you might learn other lessons and pick up important skills such as roping a steer, fixing a broken wire, sorting and moving cattle, pulling and backing a stock trailer or managing grassland.
Strong Work Ethic
Even if you don’t have a dairy cow that needs regular milking day in and day out, cattle need a regularly scheduled feeding (which can help to avoid bloat) and access to clean water.
Caring for your animals doesn’t quit on Christmas Day or pause when you want to go on vacation, so it’s important to really think through what you’re signing up for before you bring them home. Once they’ve arrived, though, you might find their company enjoyable and come to appreciate the little bit of routine and structure animal care adds to your day.
Teach Patience & Gentle Handling Practices
Sometimes the animal just doesn’t want to go where you want it to. Period.
While you may feel the temptation to get angry and loud, a gentle approach can be effective to eventually coax the animal into place. Working with and moving around cattle can be rather daunting, as they’re generally much larger and heavier than us, and this can give one an uneasy feeling if they can’t read animal behavior or predict movements before they happen.
As you work with and around large animals, though, you’ll learn where their flight zones are and where to stand, as well as when to back off and stop pushing them forward.
Produce Connections
My husband and I recently started a new project, and it’s interesting how we’re gaining connections and going places we never needed to go before. We’re learning things as we go and beginning to make different (and hopefully better) decisions based on what we learn from others.
As you continue into the world of cattle—whether it’s at sale barns, veterinarian offices, local extension offices, coops, feed mills or farm supply stores—you’ll get opportunities to visit with folks and make connections you might find helpful in future scenarios.
So whether you decide to dive right in for those tangible benefits like fresh milk or beef, or you’re looking forward to exciting life experiences ahead, now might be your time to jump into the world of raising cattle!
It isn’t easy to distill hand tools into an essential list! There are so many great hand tools that are useful for growers planting around a 1/4 acre or more of vegetables—a garden of about 50 by 50 feet. But not every hand tool is essential, and some may be more practical at larger or smaller scales. Some tools are more useful when building gardens and less useful in the long term. Indeed, when I say essential, I truly feel a home grower should not be without these garden tools. So for this article I am taking the minimalist approach
A hand tool is an extension of the body, a means of increasing leverage, power and utility from our arms and hands and bodies. Hand tools allow us to do much more work in the garden at a very reasonable cost. A bit of well-designed metal and wood can provide so much benefit!
Ergonomic Shovel
A shovel is very useful. Of course it can be used to form new raised beds by digging out paths. But a shovel can also be used to do the work of a broad fork, double digging out beds. It can be used to bury the ends of row cover or weed barrier. It is also able to dig a hole for a large potted plant.
Shovels are essential, and they should be ergonomic.
Wide Rake
Every grower needs a wide rake to rake the surface of their bed top and help to create a good seed bed! A wide rake is easier to use to make this seed bed surface because it requires fewer passes to smooth the bed top. It also is widened enough that row markers can be placed over tines to help mark out rows.
The bask of the rake can be used to tamp down an area as well to help firm up the seed bed. You could use a bed roller/marker or gridder to help firm the bed top and mark the rows, but it is hard to argue with the affordability, ease of use and multifunctional nature of the good old rake!
But let us not forget the rake can also be used for pre-weeding. Just water a new bed and allow weeds to germinate, then pass over it with the rake again!
Push Seeder
Any garden of this size needs a push seeder. It would be unimaginable to hand seed all the beds in a 1/4-acre garden when a $150 to $250 tool could do this in a fraction of the time, with much greater accuracy for depth of seeding and quantity of seed per foot!
Grub Hoe or Wide Hoe
A hoe is very useful, especially the wide hoe that can be used to hill crops like potatoes and beans and even carrots (to prevent greening and help support growth). These are also useful for furrowing and making holes for planting larger crops like potatoes.
But the wider the hoe, the more it becomes useful for bed forming and reforming by pulling soil back up onto the bed top from the paths.
Stirrup Hoe, Collinear Hoe or Wire Weeder
One of these hoes for weeding between row weeds is essential. The choice has more to do with the quality of your soil. I prefer a stirrup hoe for rocky soil or soil with debris.
Collinear hoes are easier to get between crops for in-row weeding. Wire weeders are great because they don’t harm plants or drip tape, but they need a nice loose soil to easily operate in. Which weeder is right for you? Consider your crops and soil condition.
Harvest Crate
No matter what you are growing, you will want a crate to help bring in the harvest. Crates can be filled with loose carrots or potatoes, or heads of lettuce. You want a container that you can get dirty and easily clean, and which can hold your haul until you get back to the home or barn.
A Good Knife
A grower needs a knife on their belt. A good knife can be used to cut twine for trellising tomatoes, or harvest lettuce and other crops. A longer knife will give your more versatility, but too large and it will be ungainly for smaller tasks like twine cutting.
Certainly, there are specialized knives for everything from greens harvesting to pruning and grafting. But, again, one good knife can get you pretty far.
There are many other hand tools you may consider, especially if you scale up your garden and want to grow commercially. But this short, essential list will help focus your budget for a 1/4-acre garden.
I love preserving with all sorts of fruits and vegetables, but one of my very favorite ingredients to preserve with is cranberries. Being Minnesotan, we are fortunate to live right next to the biggest cranberry producer in the country: Wisconsin. Each fall, I buy a big box of fresh whole cranberries to preserve in various ways.
Last year I shared a delicious cranberry shrub recipe and a recipe for cranberry juice here on Hobby Farms. This year I’m going to share a fermented cranberry relish recipe that I hope you’ll enjoy as much as our family does. It’s been a staple at our Thanksgiving table for years.
Yield: 1 pint jar
Ingredients
3 cups whole cranberries
1/2 tsp. organic orange zest
2 tsp. fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tsp. raw honey
Instructions
Pick through the cranberries and discard any damaged, soft or unripe berries (pink- or green-colored). Rinse thoroughly and strain out water.
Use a food processor to chop the cranberries. It only takes 2 to 3 seconds.
Transfer berries into a clean pint jar and add in orange zest, juice, and honey. Mix together well.Use a canning jar lid and ring to tightly shut the jar to keep the air out.
Fermentation
Ferment at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Check on the ferment once a day by removing the lid and stirring the cranberry mixture, patting it back down, placing the lid back on, and tightly closing. This is a 3-day ferment.
Refrigerate after fermentation is complete. This fermented cranberry relish is best if enjoyed within 2 weeks.
This recipe has been shared from Stephanie Thurow’s Can It & Ferment It with permission of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Howard Berk has deep mushroom roots. Early on, the Georgia-based Berk experimented with growing mushrooms on toilet paper and phone books, before turning his interest in mycology into the 2 Fun Guys home-growing kits.
Now, Ellijay Mushrooms has become the next stage in Berk’s journey. Situated at the base of the Appalachian Mountains in Ellijay, Georgia, the venture aims to supply eye-catching shiitake and lion’s mane mushrooms to chefs, stores and home cooks alike.
Taking a moment out from mushroom duties, we spoke to Berk about the appeal of mushroom powder and the demands of trying to be a mushroom genie. We also touched on the trend of using shiitake mushrooms in bourbon.
“Ever since I guess when my kids were younger, I’ve always liked growing different mushrooms,” recalls Berk. “I’ve learned how to grow them on toilet paper, phone books and cardboard—kinda just learning about mycology at that time. You can grow oyster mushrooms on phone books pretty easily.”
A long-standing interest in gardening led to Berk helping to install a garden in his kids’ school. “That kind of started my real passion for it,” explains Berk as he looks back over his farming adventure to date.
“I helped start a farmer’s market here in Georgia 13 years ago, met my first mushroom partner there and created 2 Fun Guys,” he continues. “Those are the kits where you take the plugs and inoculate it. To make a long story short, five years ago my new business partner found me through 2 Fun Guys and we started Ellijay Mushrooms to supply restaurants, grocery stores and people like you and me.”
Early on, Berk says that “figuring out the timings and the scalings and logistics” was the trickiest part of launching Ellijay Mushrooms.
“I kinda had no clue what was really going on,” he admits. “So we kinda just dived in head first and learned trial by fire. How do you keep up with production and guess what your customers want to order ahead of time? It’s like being a mushroom genie, so to speak. You’re trying to predict the future!”
When it comes to the most distinctive mushrooms that Berk grows, he says lion’s manes always catch the eye first. “We’re just in a big phase for lion’s manes right now. Then the second one is our shiitakes because they’re so thick and meaty and look very plump. Most people just see their shiitakes at the store being flat and having no texture.”
“The recent trend is a lot of people are using our shiitakes with bourbon, whiskey or rum,” says Berk when asked about innovative ways he’s seen chefs incorporate his mushrooms into menus. “We’re seeing a big change in the last six months of using them for spirits and then pairing them with the mushrooms they’re cooking for meals. So we’re playing with bringing a shiitake spirit to the market.”
“Every chef does something different and creative,” adds Berk. “Like they might make a shiitake bacon or bring it down and dry out the shiitakes and use a powder to make a creme brûlée topping.”
Once your root cellar is ready, think about which methods will work well for you: What suits your available space and the crops you plan to store? To find out if your crops will store well with the technique you have in mind, check the crop-by-crop guide below.
A list of produce that I’ve had the best experience with for keeping in cold storage follows. If you don’t see a fruit or vegetable listed, it probably isn’t a good keeper in these conditions. Generally, you shouldn’t waste valuable produce or energy on items that will mostly have unsatisfactory outcomes. Therefore, start small the first year and keep notes on successes and failures for the next year.
Storing Fruits
Many fruits don’t store well in cold storage for long periods of time. Apples and pears are among the few fruits that can be stored in cold storage for up to six months, depending on the cultivar. So, choose long-keeping cultivars if you’re planning to store many of them in your root cellar.
Partition off a section of your root cellar for fruits or at least make sure they’re in separate containers, away from vegetables. Never store fruits with potatoes, turnips or cabbage. Apples and pears release a gas that causes potatoes to sprout, while turnips and cabbage can give out odors that might be absorbed by other produce.
Apples
Depending on the cultivar, apples will keep for two to six months if stored at 32 degrees F. Apples are among the best-keeping fruits, especially cultivars such as Granny Smith that can last up to six months. Stayman Winesap and Rome Beauty are the next best.
Normal storage ranges from four to six months with these cultivars. You can keep Jonathan, McIntosh and Delicious (red or yellow) for shorter periods.
Most cultivars should be stored at a temperature of 32 degrees and 85 to 95 percent humidity. Wrap apples in newspaper or nest them in straw or clean dry leaves. Apples “breathe” more than most other fruits and give off a pungent aroma, so keep them away from other produce. Store them in boxes, barrels or buckets. Cover with 2 inches of packing material on top.
Citrus
Oranges and grapefruits are some of the few citrus fruits that can be stored in a root cellar. These fruits will keep for up to two months if stored at 32 to 40 degrees and at 80 to 90 percent humidity. Just make sure to store only blemish-free fruits.
Grapes
After picking, quickly cool grapes to 50 degrees. Spread them out in single layers and leave them until the stems are slightly shriveled. Then pack them in shallow containers no more than 4 inches deep, cushioned with dry straw.
Store them in a place that is slightly humid and has a temperature of about 32 degrees. Grapes will keep for one to two months.
Pears
Depending on the cultivar, pears stored at 32 degrees will keep for two to six months. Anjou, Easter Beurre, and Winter Nelis keep better than Bosc, Bartlett, Cornice, Hardy and Kieffer.
Harvest while they are still green and appear to be immature. Choose fruits that are free of blemishes and bruises. Wrap pears in newspapers or nest them in straw or clean, dry leaves. Store in boxes or barrels, trash cans, or buckets, covering with 2 inches of packing material on top. Store pears away from other fruits and vegetables. Maintain a temperature as close to 32 degrees as possible, as well as a high relative humidity of 85 to 90 percent.
Beets to Endive
Many vegetables, especially root crops such as potatoes, can be kept well through the entire winter, as long as the required temperature and humidity are provided. If you’re a beginner, start with the most stored root vegetables: beets, carrots, potatoes, turnips and rutabagas. The following vegetables are good for cold storage.
Beets
Beets stored at 32 degrees will keep for four to six months. Harvest beets in late November, when the night temperature reaches 30 degrees.
Remove most of the greens, which might otherwise rot, but leave a 2-inch stub. Never cut off the greens right at the root. You might very well cut the vegetable, inviting quick decay. Don’t wash.
Pack the beets in containers surrounded by straw or in moist sand for keeping in any outdoor storage pit or a root cellar. Place them in an area with temperatures slightly above freezing and a humidity level of 95 percent. You can also leave the beets in the ground covered with 6 inches of straw and harvest them as needed.
Brussels Sprouts
You can keep Brussels sprouts in the garden for a remarkably long time, sometimes right up to New Year’s Day in areas that enjoy moderate winters. If you aren’t blessed with such weather, create a basement “garden” of Brussels sprouts so that you can pick them as you need them.
To do so, don’t pick the sprouts off the stem, but dig up the whole plants carefully, keeping the roots and the soil clinging to them. Plant them upright by burying the roots in a box of soil. Lightly water and pick sprouts as needed.
Cabbage & Chinese Cabbage
Late cabbage stored at 32 degrees will keep for five to six months, while early cabbage stored at the same temperature will keep for only a few weeks. So, consider choosing a late cabbage cultivar.
Prepare cabbage for storage by removing the loose outer leaves. You can store individual heads, separately wrapped, or entire plants. If you store only the heads, wrap them with newspaper, burlap or other material, and store them in boxes or bins at a temperature just above freezing in a damp area. If you want cabbage heads to stay crisper longer, leave the roots on and store them outdoors in a container of damp sand or soil.
Cabbage emits a strong odor during storage, so most people prefer to store it in an outdoor storage arrangement.
Carrots
Carrots stored at 32 degrees keep for seven to nine months. Store as you would beets.
Cauliflower
Cut off the roots and leave the leaves intact. Use covered boxes or baskets with moist sand layers. Cauliflower can be stored for one to two months.
Celery
Celery stored at 32 degrees will keep for two to three months. To ensure the best storage time, pull the crop, leaving the roots intact. Leave the tops dry; don’t wash.
Keep the plants at a temperature of 32 to 34 degrees and the roots in slightly damp sand or soil. To avoid odor contamination, don’t store with cabbage or turnips. In areas without severe winters, you can leave celery in the garden, covered with a thick layer of leaves or straw.
Endive
Stored at 32 degrees, endive will keep for two to three months. Store this leafy vegetable with its roots in slightly moist sand or soil. You can also use your basement to store the roots of witloof chicory until they sprout delicate, mild heads of Belgian endive. Here is how.
Grow the chicory all summer in your garden and harvest it in late fall. Put the roots in a box of moist sand and set them in total darkness in your 50- to 60-degree basement. After several weeks, small endive heads will sprout. Harvest them before they reach 6 inches tall.
Garlic to Onions
Garlic
Stored in a dry place at 40 degrees, garlic will keep for six to seven months. Just like onions, you must cure garlic before storing it. Dry garlic thoroughly, making sure the bulbs aren’t in direct sunlight.
If you have large quantities, lay the plants in the garden with their tops covering the bulbs. If you have just a few, bunch, tie or braid them and hang them in a well-ventilated cool room to store and dry. Or remove the tops and roots with a knife or shears, leaving 1 inch of roots on the bulb, and store them as you would onions, in a cool, slightly humid (60 to 75 percent) area.
Green Tomatoes
Green but full-size tomatoes will ripen in up to two months if held at 55 to 70 degrees in moderate humidity. Ripe tomatoes don’t store well, but hold green ones in storage and encourage them to ripen there.
Harvest all tomatoes that are of good size, ripe and still green, just before the first killing frost. Remove from the plants, wash and allow to dry before storing. If you remove the stems, there is less chance that the tomatoes will puncture one another. Separate green tomatoes from those that show red, and pack green tomatoes no more than two deep in shallow boxes or trays for ripening.
Horseradish
Whole roots can keep for one to two months at 32 degrees. Dig out whole horseradish roots and store them in a root cellar in damp sand in a bucket or plastic bag. Or leave the roots in the ground throughout the winter.
To make digging easier, cover the rows with about 1 foot of leaves or straw before the ground has frozen. Horseradish roots are thin-skinned, and the quality deteriorates once dug up, so you might dig up no more than a two weeks’ supply at a time.
Jerusalem Artichokes
Stored at 32 degrees in high humidity, they’ll keep for two to five months. Store as you would horseradish.
Kohlrabi
Stored at 32 degrees, kohlrabi will keep for two to three months. Remove leaves and roots, and store them in an area with about 95 percent humidity.
Leeks
Leeks stored at 32 degrees will keep for one to three months. Harvest after nights reaches 30 degrees. Cut off most of the green tops and leave the tails intact. Use boxes, cans or buckets lined with a plastic bag. Layer the leeks with sawdust or moist sand; use peat moss or straw for outside storage. Keep them at a temperature of 32 degrees and 95 percent humidity. You can also leave leeks in the ground covered with 6 inches of straw and harvest as needed.
Onions
Onions will last throughout the entire winter if stored in a cool, dry place. Pull the onions when their top falls over, shrivels at the neck of the bulb and turns brown. Keep the bulbs off the ground in the shade or bring them inside out of the direct sun for about two weeks or until skins are papery and roots are dry, before storing. Then remove the tops and place them in bins or string bags or braid their tops together. Store onions at temperatures ranging from 33 to 45 degrees in an area with about 60 to 75 percent humidity.
Iaroslava/Adobe Stock
Parsnips to Turnips
Parsnips
Stored at 32 degrees, they’ll keep for up to six months. Store as you would beets.
Potatoes
Stored at 40 degrees and 95 percent humidity, potatoes will last throughout the winter. Leave tubers in the ground for about two weeks after the vines have died—as long as the weather is dry—to make sure that the potato skins have toughened up for storage. Then dig the potatoes, and store them in a dark, humid place at about 40 degrees. Lower temperatures tend to turn starch into sugar and change the flavor. Never store with apples, which give off ethylene gas and encourage potatoes to sprout.
Iaroslava/Adobe Stock
Pumpkins & Winter Squash
Harvest when very mature, before frost, with the stem attached. Cure for about two weeks in 70-degree temperatures so the skins will toughen.
Wash pumpkins and winter squash with a mild bleach solution to prevent mold from forming during storage. Or wipe them with a soft cloth moistened with vegetable oil to deter mold. Store on a shelf in a dry, 55-degree place. Don’t pile them up, as their weight may crush the bottom layer. Store on the top shelf near the ceiling of the root cellar as long as it’s dry.
Pumpkins and winter squash can be stored for four to six months, depending on the cultivar.
Sweet Potatoes
Stored in a warm (55 to 60 degrees) area that is well ventilated and the humidity is 85 to 90 percent, sweet potatoes will keep throughout the winter. Store sweet potatoes that are free from injury. Cure them for one to two weeks in a warm (85 to 90 degrees) and humid (80 to 90 percent) place until the skin toughens and the wounds at either end grow a protective, corky coating.
Radishes, Winter
Stored at 32 degrees, winter radishes will keep for four to six months, with nearly indistinguishable changes in flavor or texture. Store in the root cellar as you would beets.
Rutabagas
Rutabagas stored at 32 degrees will keep for up to four months. Store as you would beets. You can also wrap them well in plastic wrap that clings tightly to protect their skins and keeps their strong odor contained.
Turnips
Stored at 32 degrees in the root cellar, turnips will keep for four to five months. Store as you would beets. As with rutabagas, you can wrap turnips in plastic wrap that clings tightly to protect their skins and keeps their odor contained.
This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
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This women’s Beta Jacket is water- and windproof and made from GORE-TEX fabric with GORE C-KNIT backer technology. The streamlined hood adjusts with a single pull and the fit accommodates a range of midlayers.
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Toronto orchardist Susan Poizner talks fruit-tree care, community orcharding and more with Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good podcast host Lisa Munniksma.
Hear about the evolution of the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto, now in its 15th year. Susan admits to knowing less than she should have about fruit-tree care when she undertook the development of a community orchard and shares her journey through an orcharding self-education. Hear, too, about the volunteers coming together to tend the park’s orchard, pollinator garden and other spaces, and how this community orchard has birthed others.
Susan shares her advice for getting started with a fruit tree so you can be set up for success from the start. (Hint: Some cultivars are disease resistant!)
Also get to know Susan’s books, Growing Urban Orchards and Grow Fruit Trees Fast, her online orcharding courses, and the monthly Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast.
Tulips are perhaps some of the most beautiful and iconic spring flowers of all. Gardeners everywhere look forward to seeing the cheerful blooms each spring, but tulips are more than just a garden statement piece. Tulips can actually be an excellent source of additional income for your farm or hobby farm.
Growing tulips as cut flowers and selling to florists and at farmers markets can produce an excellent profit for a minimum amount of work. But unlike planting tulips in your garden for pure enjoyment, there are some specific considerations and growing techniques to know before you grow.
Get Quality Bulbs
Whether you’re a home gardener or growing tulips for cut flower production, starting with healthy disease-free quality bulbs is critical. The main producer of tulip bulbs is the Netherlands, but many great importers in the U.S. bring in the highest quality tulip bulbs from the Dutch tulip sheds.
Look for a good quality wholesale supplier with a reputation for healthy and disease-free bulbs.
Pre-Chill in Warmer Climates
Tulips grow best in USDA growing zones 3 to 7. Any warmer than that and the tulips may not bloom properly or may have short stems. Tulips require a period of vernalization—a period of cold or cool—to bloom properly. Tulips require eight to 10 weeks of temperatures at 45 degrees F or under to bloom properly.
This is why tulips should be planted in the fall and allowed to overwinter.
With that said, many warmer climates do not have this level of cold, so tulips can be pre-chilled for an additional charge by wholesalers or a walk-in cooler or fridge for six to eight weeks to help ensure a proper chill period.
Plant Using the Trench Method
Unlike tulips grown in the garden, where you’ll plant a bulb here and a bulb there, tulips grown for cut flowers should be planted using a trenching method. Basically, you’ll dig a large trench roughly 8 inches down and plant the bulbs in the trench like placing eggs in egg cartons.
Harvest with Bulb Attached
When harvesting your tulips in spring as a cut flower, it’s certainly tempting to just cut the flower stem. But tulip production is unique.
To preserve the life of the flower, tulips are harvested with their bulb attached. By leaving the bulb attached, you leave the tulip attached to the food source, and they can be stored for weeks in cool storage. Tulip growers can then cut the bulbs off and rehydrate the tulips for sale.
Sales Channels for Tulips
Once you master the art of growing tulips for cut flower production, it becomes critical to sell your flowers. Common sales outlets for tulips with local florists can easily fetch between $1 to $3 per stem, depending on the variety of tulips. Farmers market bouquets and grocery store sales can also produce excellent profits.
Many other farms have had success with planting u-pick tulip fields, profiting off the cut flower sales as well as charging for photography sessions. This has proved an incredibly successful model.
Overall, the opportunity to grow a successful additional income stream from growing tulips is very easily done. Thousands of tulips can be grown in a very small amount of space, yielding thousands of dollars in profits.
Whether gardening is a hobby or a profession, a lean-to greenhouse is a great addition to any property. By building onto an existing structure, you can save on materials and provide an ideal environment for more efficient gardening and extended growing options. With a basic design, it is an affordable, popular and eco-friendly greenhouse option.
When we purchased our property, it came with a large portable shed. Over the years, we added a three-sided structure to the west of the building as a shelter for our hobby farm animals and a chicken coop. We also renovated the interior of the building, which serves as our garden shed and tack room. Over the winter, we added a wood stove and knew a lean-to greenhouse would be the perfect addition to the east side of the structure to complete the overall building design.
We briefly considered using a premade aluminum frame kit, but we wanted to be able to work with wood to fully customize the size, shape and function of our lean-to greenhouse. Our main structure was already multipurpose, and by going the DIY route, we knew we could customize the lean-to greenhouse to fit our specific needs and space requirements.
Our project gave us all the advantages of a hobby greenhouse in a familiar, yet custom walk-in design. A lean-to greenhouse is perfect for smaller backyards and limited spaces such as a balcony or patio.
Because we were able to customize our lean-to, we could have added an exterior door, but we opted to access the greenhouse through the main part of our garden shed. We wanted to incorporate electricity, and this option allowed us to maximize all three walls and roof panels. Our situation is a bit unusual with the greenhouse opening into our garden shed, but we love the fact that the structures are connected and that the greenhouse has access to our new heat source.
During the cooler months, we monitor the humidity of our greenhouse regularly and ventilate as needed.
From the garden shed, we have a step down into the greenhouse. This allowed us to maximize the vertical space yet incorporate the roof line with the existing metal roof of the main structure. To do this, we measured carefully and factored in the rise in the metal roof seam (1 1⁄2 inches) before adding the top beam. With the lean-to design, we wanted it to complement the roof-line pitch of the other side of our barn yet allow us to stand up straight inside and have plenty of space for shelves. To do this, we carefully measured the height and factored in the rise in the metal roof seam (1 1⁄2 inches) before adding the top beam for the barn’s interior wall and the exterior.
We decided to have two side windows that open for venting. The windows were designed so that they were overhung slightly versus flush with the outside wall of the greenhouse. (This was to ensure that rain or moisture never finds its way behind the polycarbonate plastic panels or the greenhouse’s interior). Both windows were framed with hinges on top so the windows could be opened from the bottom.
Our design allows the windows to be opened outward, not inward. Likewise, our door opens outward as well to maximize the built-in shelving and the interior surface area of the lean-to greenhouse.
When we drew up the rough plans for the greenhouse, we confirmed we would be able to source all materials locally. With a treated wood frame and polycarbonate panels, we knew we would have a structure that would offer an ideal growing environment and protection from inclement weather. Hopefully, by walking you through our DIY process, you’ll be inspired to build your own lean-to greenhouse!
Building Plans
When designing our custom lean-to greenhouse, we wanted the structure to match the pitch of the other side, but it wasn’t necessary to use as much space for the greenhouse. (The other side is for our farm animals.)
We settled on a simple 8-by-8-foot structure with optimized shelving to suit our winter growing needs and limit heating costs.
Materials & Tools
(3) 8-foot 2-by-12s
(14) 8-foot 2-by-6s
(3) 8-foot 4-by-4s
(12) 8-foot 2-by-4s
(5) 8-foot 1-by-4s
8 clear polycarbonate panels
joist hangers
ring shank nails
pole barn screws
deck screws
roof screws with rubber washers
4-inch wood screws
lag bolts
table saw
miter saw
reciprocating saw
electric drill
level
hammer
tape measure
carpenter’s pencil
steps
1. Level Ground Surface
Ensure the ground you are working on is level or nearly level. This is most important when framing out the base (next step). But you’ll want to level off any humps in the floor as well (lest you’ll find your roof much lower than you anticipated).
2. Build Base
We attached an all-weather ground contact 2-by-12-by-8-foot boards to the foundation of our barn using lag bolts. We next attached the sides and front board using 4-inch wood screws, then reinforced the corners on the barn side with galvanized corner supports.
We added treated 4-by-4s next to further support the base and provide the corner wall supports. Then, we added treated 2-by-8s to complete the base. We chose to go four boards total in height, but you can go shorter or taller depending on your needs.
3. Framing & Door Installation
After removing the exterior window on the garden shed wall, we cut out the door and framed it using 2-by-4s. We built this opening strong on both sides, so the door frame was very solid, and added cross supports to the existing barn frame for additional stability.
The roof header was added using a 2-by-4 lag bolted into the barn’s frame boards, then the sides were framed to meet the pitch requirements. If you are unfamiliar with cutting angles, measure the distance from the outer wall to where the top board will meet the wall, then repeat the process 3 1⁄2 inches down. (A 2-by-4 is smaller than its stated size.)
Measure the distance on your outer frame board, draw a line, then cut the angle. For easy installation on the outer wall, simply screw the board in and cut it with a reciprocating saw.
4. Frame Windows
We built the window frames using treated 1-by-4s. The windows themselves were 1-by-4s we ripped down to 1-by-2 inches, and then reinforced them at the corners. The hinges were added on top and attached to the header board.
5. Attach the Exterior
We attached the clear paneling with regular 1-inch galvanized pole barn metal screws. (They have a rubber washer already attached.)
It was important to factor in the height of the panels when planning the greenhouse. We also double-checked that the overhang from the gambrel roof on the main barn had a good overhang to allow rainwater to flow freely onto the downward slope of the new structure.
6. Building the Interior
The interior was built with treated 1-by-6s for the top shelving and then framed out for better aesthetics using treated plywood. The top shelves were narrower by design to accommodate smaller planters and jars.
The bottom shelves were framed with 2-by-4s and topped with treated plywood and scrap trim for a more finished look. We wanted to keep the area beneath the shelves free, so we built angular supports cut at a 45-degree angle on both ends and attached to the 4-by-4s for additional stability.
Key Features
Clear polycarbonate plastic panels block up to 99.9 percent of UV rays, are virtually unbreakable and provide 90 percent light transmission (resists moisture and rot).
Custom windows provide airflow and regulation of heat and humidity levels.
A treated wood base and structural beams provide high stability.
Once the lean-to greenhouse was complete, we added a vintage chandelier to enhance the overall aesthetic of the structure and a digital thermostat with a humidity meter. We love to garden and, being in southern Illinois, our greenhouse addition has helped us achieve our goal of sustaining our plants and flowers throughout the year.
We have used our greenhouse to start vegetables and flowers and to shelter frost-tender plants during the winter months. It’s truly one of our favorite places to be!
