It looks like it was a good decision to put up my hoop house last fall. As it looks right now, it could be a late start to the outdoor gardening season, although that could turn around very quickly.
The soil is still frozen in some parts of the garden, but in the hoop house, the soil temperatures range from about 64 degrees F in the center of the planting area to around 48 degrees F right along the edges.
That means it’s time to plant some of those cool season vegetables into the hoop house. My plan is to get radishes, spinach, and lettuce all in this week. The seeds are going directly into the soil.
Since these are all cool weather plants, they will do fine even if we happen to get one last Arctic vortex blast.
I messed up the red fluid in my soil thermometer when I dropped it out on the way to the hoop house. Instead, I went to the kitchen and got out one of our kitchen thermometers and used that to take the soil temperature –it’s the same one I used to check the corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day.
I’m using a kitchen thermometer to measure the soil temperature in the hoop.house
It is good wholesome garden out there after all and the thermometer probe cleaned up nicely with a little dish washing detergent. But, don’t tell Judy, I’m not 100% sure she’ll buy that argument.
Bob