Hopewell Gardens is waking up after the winter months and is actively preparing our spaces for a ramp up of production. This month was characterized by the installation of different features for productivity and hospitality. In particular, our nursery received some much needed work during a work project time from The Academy for GOD and the Institute for GOD with Rebecca Castellanos from the Institute and Mr. Jason Roufs with his class from the Academy. Together, we were able to pull all of the nursery materials out, install a plastic liner, and bring all materials back in in under an hour. While this seems like a simple project, I explained to all the students that this plastic will end up saving 20-40+ man hours of weeding throughout the course of the year. The white plastic will reflect sunlight creating a brighter space for seedlings and will make for a cooler space in the summer time. Having plastic on the ground will allow one more space at the garden site remain chaos free from the incredible willing weeds from taking hold.
In just a few weeks, this nursery space will be entirely enclosed, allowing all manner of spring plants to be stored inside even overnight in the coldest weather of the day. On average, a greenhouse will make a space up to 8 degrees warmer during winter months. While we cannot keep certain crops such as peppers and tomatoes inside without supplemental heat, crops such as lettuce, kale, and cabbages can survive and grow weeks before the last frost date (approximately April 21st). This means we can have mature plants ready for harvest in May or earlier if we're able to transplant into our gothic style caterpillar tunnel--another greenhouse mean for in ground growing rather than nursery production.
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