Rocky Mountain Gardening: Rocky Mountain Winter Gardening, 1 by Solace

Solace wrote:
Pollengarden, sounds like you stay involved even in winter, one way or another. Regarding the water jugs for the cold frame, that should help with a lot of sunshine. For about $20, too, you could get a black barrel (thirty gallon, I think- not as big as the 55 gal. drums) and fill it with water to absorb heat. I six of the 55 gallon ones in the greenhouse. They haven't gotten hot, yet, but they do hold the temperature pretty steady in there. I run a little milk house heater at night, along with an oscillating fan. You could also use 5 gallon buckets with lids for your cold frame. I saw a comparison of materials that held heat best, and water was at the top of the list.

Steve (Petset), we've had a low of 23 degrees, but it didn't get below 40 in the hoophouse. I'll probably have to add another heater after it gets down to 0 degrees or below. May even have to rig some kind of cover for nighttime. I'm not worried about daytime, because by about 10:30 in the morning, with the sun shining, it's already around 72 degrees. I want to keep the nighttime temps around 50 though. When I get some lights in there, it should help a little with nighttime temps, as they'll probably stay on sunset to midnight to give the plants 14 to 16 hours of light per day. I hope everything survives the winter. I have squash almost ready to pick growing now, and tomatoes coming on, too. All of them need longer day of light, though, I know. Especially the corn and watermelons. The green beans are bearing and blossoming still and the corn is about four feet tall, now. I started another batch, "Smoke Signals", which is an heirloom Indian popcorn. I grew some in a straw bale this summer, but frost got it just as it was tasseling. This greenhouse is on cement block piers that are 4' tall with 2x12s running between them all along the sides, upon which rest the cattle panels. Center of the hoop is eight feet high. We're using just 4 mil plastic that we got at Big R, but I wish it was the 6 mil uv resistant kind. Unfortunately, the shipping on it is very pricey, to order it online, but eventually I probably will. There may be a place that carries it in Pueblo, but I don't think Green Spot has that. Hard to find the right dimensions to cover all the panels without having to patch it together.

1. 55 gallon drums are host to "Smoke Signals" corn seedlings, and some developing sweet potato slips, with Bantam corn in a raised bed with Cosmos in the foreground. Left are some of the tomatoes I transplanted from outside after frost hit them.