Friday, August 5, 2011

Mini-greenhouses or raised beds? Both!

Driving through La Pine, Oregon, (home base for our Central Oregon outing) in route to a nursery (you’re not surprised are you?) Andrew spotted these mini greenhouses... On top of raised beds… And they are built to open and close with ease! Smart huh? More smarts…they are using water filled milk jugs to slowly water the beds. We later learned that the temperature can fluctuate greatly here, it can be in the 80’s during the day and at night, below freezing. So it makes sense to be able to open and close these covers on a moment’s notice. The water filled jugs shown above also probably help to even out temperature fluctuations. The same complex had a charming and functional rain barrel catchment system. Smart gardening in small town Oregon!

8 comments:

  1. My sister lives in Baker City Oregon and she has all of her warm-season crops under hoop houses. The temps really do fluctuate and she can't depend on it staying above freezing before everything is ready to harvest. I really like the system you have photographed. It's very tidy and looks efficient.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most impressive, but the pristine condition of everything is almost scary.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very creative!!... it sure attracts anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is a clever system, and it looks so nice. I should save milk cartons for my next vacation - stick a small hole in the bottom and let them water a few plants that get missed by the sprinklers. Will have to file that idea away!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is an amazing idea. I have the little cages with netting over some of my beds. I think I need to give them winter covers too. Unfortunately they won't slide like those you saw.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Darla, someone was using their noggin!

    Grace, "freezing"...how I hate to think of that! I've got a gazillion tomatoes that I want to harvest ripe, not green!

    ricki, it was rather tidy...and we couldn't find the actual entrance to the complex. Andrew parked next door and I walked through an empty lot to take pictures. Odd.

    B&K, indeed.

    VW, me too, perfect for the tomatoes!

    Lancashire Rose, the sliding really was the best part, so simple to open and close.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome! I want a couple!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. The amount of spam that get's through is incredible, so comment moderation is on. I'll try to approve and post your comment as soon as possible!