Country Living in a Cariboo Valley

Homesteading in BC

The Five “W’s” – Spring Chores

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My days are really full right now with lots of outside stuff going  on. I have a bit of the garden planted – the peas are all planted, as well as some carrots, lettuce and spinach.

I am early this year getting things in the ground but these cool weather veggies should be fine. We’re looking forward to a good harvest in a month or two. Things grow quick in the Cariboo.

Spring is one of the busiest times around here. We usually try to get a project done during this time – the bugs aren’t out yet, there isn’t a huge amount of garden work to do and we will NOT have time later in the season to get much done.

But, even without extra projects, it’s a busy time. Here’s what I’m working on, every day, in one form or another. I call them the “5 W’s”.

 

 

spring, garden, grow your own food

 

 

Spring Chores on the Homestead

 

Weeding – Who doesn’t dislike weeding? I am continually trying to stay one step ahead, but each year the weeds still seem to win. I am not seeing much chickweed this year (yet).

I’m thinking that all those hours put in a couple years ago with Jaime and I pulling chickweed together has really slowed that stuff down. A good thing.

I’m putting in at least two hours daily on weeding, whether it’s in one of the garlic beds, the veggie beds or the flower beds. The more time I spend now pulling weeds, the better it should be come July and August.

I use a stirrup hoe, and have for years. One of my favourite garden tools!

 

a fully growing garden sits behind a fence

 

 

Watering – Lots of watering going on here right now. It has been really dry and hot for the last week, so extra water is needed.

Plus I still have little seedlings emerging that I don’t want drying out. Not everything here is on a sprinkler, so I’m carving out some time to get extra water onto everything.

Standing at the end of a hose is never a bad thing – I can take some time and look around and all the beautiful things going on right now in the Valley.

Standing at the end of a hose while holding a homemade beer is even better!

 

Weedwhacking – It seems these days if I’m not riding the John Deere to get the lawn cut, I’m pulling out the Stihl and weedwhacking.

The lawn mowing will slow down once the temperatures really start to rise, but there will always be weedwhacking on my list.

Although we won’t be getting pigs this year, we will have the cattle. I’m looking into secure fencing so we can let them in the yard. That should help with the lawn mowing.

 

 

firewood, woodstove, cooking on a woodstove

 

 

Getting Wood in – We try to fill our wood room in the Spring. This is definitely a chore that needs to be done in the off season.

It takes days to fill our wood room, but then, we use the wood stove a lot for heat.

Graham takes down the trees with his chain saw and he bucks the logs. I work on getting the wood over to the splitter.

Then we can start splitting and stacking. We like to stay at least a year ahead  – this winter we will be burning the wood we got last year.

The wood we get in this year will be used next year. It would be great to keep three years worth of wood all the time.

 

grow rhubarb, perennial food, farm

 

 

Wine – It’s close to that time of year. If we’re not making it, we’re maintaining berries and fruits. I harvest a lot of the rhubarb and get it in the freezer.

A fair bit of it will go towards making wine, but we will definitely have more than enough for wonderful pies and fruit crisps.

In early Spring, I get started on a batch of Dandelion wine, next up is making Rhubarb wine, and later I will make our Saskatoon Raspberry wine.

 

 

 

make your own wine, beer, garden, flowers

 

 

It’s a good thing I spend late afternoon on the porch, usually with a beer in hand. An hour or so of relaxation after all that work is my reward for the day!

 

Cold Room Inventory

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Before I sit down and write out seed orders, I take a trip downstairs to do a Cold Room inventory. There is no point in taking up space planting a wide row of beets, if I still have 5 dozen jars of them waiting to be eaten. So, yesterday I spent half an hour down in the Cold Room, writing down everything we had canned and stored away.

Here’s my Cold Room Inventory:

 

 

Jars of canned cherries sitting on the counter
We like to can cherries every year while we freeze other fruits and berries

 

Chicken Broth – 38 quarts

Tomato Sauce – 46 pints, 4 quarts

Beets – 32 pints

Pizza Sauce – 8 half pints, 3 pints

Applesauce – 3 quarts

Beef Stew – 21 pints

Pickled Beets – 25 pints

Sauerkraut – 13 pints

Salsa – 24 pints

Pickled Garlic Scapes – 7 pints

Canned fruit – (Pears & Cherries) – 10 jars

 

canning, preserving

 

 

Taking an inventory is a good idea before you get too carried away with planting in the garden. From spending the time to count and note everything, I now have a good idea of what to plant and what not to plant.

You can see Green Beans didn’t make the list above. That’s because we ate them all! So, this year, I am going to have to try to get a lot of beans planted, harvested and then canned.

 

canning, preserving, cold room

 

 

From looking at the list, we may not go to Lilloet for our annual tomato picking and saucing. We’ll see – it depends on how many more jars we use up. We both really like tomato sauce, so maybe we will need to put more jars by.

It seems to me that we need to get more apples this Fall, to make more sauce. I also slice them up and store them in the freezer/ We make pies and crisp over the Winter. We have our own apple trees, but I think we will need far more than we can harvest from our two trees. For beets, I may just put in one row and can up the harvest to give us a few more jars than the 32 we already have.

How has your Cold Room fared over the Winter? Do you still have a good amount of food there or are you going to have to refill your shelves this year?

 

 

The 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow

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Vegetable gardening is supposed to be fun, right? It should be, even as a beginner. So why not focus on the easiest vegetables to grow?

It is so tempting to plant a huge garden with dreams of preserving most of it and having fresh vegetables all season long. It’s so wonderful to see all those rows full of food. But, hold on a minute! Don’t get carried away just yet!

Easiest vegetables to grow, growing in garden
Grab our list of the five easiest vegetables to grow when you join our Newsletter.

Whether you want to grow just enough vegetables for fresh eating all Spring, Summer and well into the Fall OR you want to grow some extra food so you can preserve it for eating later, you’re going to find out which vegetables are the easiest to grow!

 

food garden in full growth in summer
This guide will explain the 5 easiest veggies to grow, so even the most inexperienced gardeners can enjoy fresh produce and start learning about cultivating home grown food.

Why Grow Vegetables?

There are plenty of reasons why you should grow your own vegetables if you don’t already! You can save money at the supermarket, be more sure of the quality of your produce, and have easy access to the veggies you want and need for nutrition.

Plus, there’s a sense of accomplishment when you harvest food you’ve grown yourself! Whether you’re roasting them, tossing them with a salad, eating them raw, or preserving them, your veggies will taste just a little bit better when you know you’ve grown them yourself.

Pea plants growing up a fence.
Peas are a vegetable we grow every year!

And seeing a trellis crawling with plants, a pot with a thriving plant, or a garden teeming with life can really liven up any home!

There are so many veggies that are viable to be grown in a wide variety of climates. Cucumbers, radishes, spinach, carrots, snow peas, green beans, zucchini, potatoes, summer squash, bell peppers, and more can be available right at your fingertips. Even herbs like basil, rosemary, and thyme can be grown indoors or on a balcony in the right conditions.

Now, realize that some of these vegetables mentioned above are more difficult to grow than others. Peppers and tomato plants, for instance, can take a lot more care, especially if you live in a cooler climate.

But with this guide, (no matter where you live!) you will easily learn which 5 veggies are the easiest vegetables to grow. Even novice gardeners will be able to produce fresh produce right in their backyard!

 

The 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow

If you are downsizing your garden this year or just starting to plant a vegetable garden, you may want to think about planting the easiest vegetables to grow.

Direct Seeding

It takes less time and it’s easier to directly sow seeds rather than starting seedlings in the house, then having to transplant them into the garden.

So, this list focuses on vegetables that can be seeded right into the garden. Starting small with gardening is always the best way to go.

a tractor sits just outside a garden full of vegetables
We love having a fairly large crop of vegetables, but you can start much smaller than this. Be realistic about what you’ll be able to manage!

What Does Your Family Like to Eat?

For starters, focus on what your family likes to eat and then plant that. Find a way to easily preserve the extras.

You can use what you learn this year for next year. Expand if you want or keep your garden the same size.

a basket full of freshly picked garden greens
Beautiful vegetable bulbs and leaves are so satisfying to see and enjoy after a good harvest.

Plant the Easy Vegetables to Grow

Different vegetables take different growing conditions. Some are heat loving, some like cooler weather. Some prefer direct sunlight, others like partial shade or darker conditions.

Other vegetables take more care in terms of the labour you have to put in. Instead of planting veggies that take more time and work, just plant the easiest ones to grow!

 

It will make your time in the garden less stressful and yet you will still get fantastic harvests for fresh eating and preserving.

And this is where reality can (and should) bring us to a screeching halt. It’s the work part of things we all need to keep in mind. We need to be realistic with ourselves about how much time we have to spend in the garden. We all have priorities and things to do every day!

a full bowl of garden peas ready to be shelled
Fresh veggies are a fantastic source of healthy vitamins and minerals!

Planting too large a garden can easily cut into the time you need (or want) to spend doing something else.

If you live on property or have a large yard, you already know there are a lot of chores to be done.

Maybe you’ve got a full time job, or coaching sports or doing other things that keep you away from home for most of the day. Maybe aging or medical issues need to be taken into account.

Our List of Easy Veggies to Grow

With all of that being said, I’ve made a list of the top 5 easiest vegetables to grow. 

Of course, your results are going to depend on a few things that are common to any gardener. I mean things like:

– You’re going to have to spend some time keeping the weeds out of the garden, right?

– Your soil may need to be improved. Is it hard and compact, making it more difficult to grow plants. 

– You will almost certainly need to add organic matter to provide lots of nutrients for plants to grow healthy!

– Any garden needs at least 5 hours of sunlight a day, more is better but this will work!

a garden in summer
Save this to your Pinterest board.

 

 

originally published 2017; latest update September 2022

How to Sell Your Produce at the Farmers Markets

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Do you love gardening and growing your own vegetables? Ever wondered how to turn your love of growing into cash? Been to the local Farmers Market and wondered about getting a stall and giving it a try? 

From Dirt to Dollars: A Guide to Selling at the Farmers Market

will give you the low down on what to plant and how to sell it!

 

Markets can be a great way to supplement your income – in fact, some people attend several weekly markets and make enough from markets to pay their monthly bills.

 

vegetables in baskets at market
Special tips we learned that we’re sharing with you!

I enjoyed doing it so much, I wrote this book about it and I want to fill you in on a ton of information that will help. Here’s how to sell your produce at the Farmers Market.

a book cover about how to sell at the farm markets

 

 

 

How to Sell Vegetables at Farmers Markets

 

Get an idea of what SELLS at the market

Hit up a few local markets and take note of what is selling. It is a great idea to go first thing in the morning and scope out all the stalls.

Make some notes! Then go back about half an hour before the market closes and see what is missing and what is gone.

This will give you a fairly good idea of what items sell.

 

Plan (and plant) your vegetable garden

Take the time to thoughtfully consider your seed choices and get them in the ground.

You can plant seeds closely together; thin them as they grow.

You can take thinnings (of a decent size) to market and sell as “babies”. Baby carrots, baby beets, etc.

 

 

grow your own food

 

Plan Your Farmers Market Booth

You NEED a good looking stall. Actually, you need a GREAT looking stall – presentation counts. Make it inviting and colourful!

Put some thought into it and get feedback from friends and family.

Accept constructive criticism to make your booth even better!

 

Grab my book!

 

$7.99

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Learn everything there is to know about how to sell your produce at the Farmers Markets. My book will show you just how to do it!

 

how to sell your produce at the farmers markets

 

 

From Dirt to Dollars: A Guide to Selling at the Farmers Market – it has everything you need to think about and then some.

Over 40 pages of information, from what to plant to how to present it and everything in between!

This book will take you through all the steps in learning how to sell your produce at the Farmers Markets.

 

Includes:

  • how to plan for success
  • how to present your veggies so you sell them all and don’t bring them back home
  • should you include value added products? Which ones?
  • what to do on a weekly basis to get ready for market

 

Ready to get going? Grab my book From Dirt to Dollars:

A Guide to Selling at the Farmers Market

 

$7.99

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originally published Feb, 2017 updated Jan, 2021

How to Build a Greenhouse Cheap

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Want to find out how to build a greenhouse cheap? This guide is full of great tips for constructing your own greenhouse on a budget!

A DIY vegetable greenhouse is a great way to extend your growing season. You could even possibly grow vegetables year-round if you ensure your little greenhouse is heated through the cold months.

Since we live in a fairly cold climate, we NEED to grow tomatoes and peppers under covers and a greenhouse works perfectly for us. Although we can’t grow enough tomatoes to preserve a lot of tomato sauce, we can fit enough plants in here for fresh eating.

A cheap poly greenhouse sits in a backyard beside blooming iris plants.
Save this to your Pinterest Garden board!

There’s nothing better than picking cherry tomatoes right off the vine and popping them into my mouth!

How to Build a Greenhouse Cheap (Outdoor Greenhouse DIY)

DIY greenhouses are surprisingly affordable and offer lots of options. Our greenhouse is unheated and it’s usually used from April to October.

And we’ve outlined just how we built it below, to give you some free greenhouse plans that will work for you! But first, here’s some general important greenhouse information you should know.

Is it cheaper to build a greenhouse?

In our case, yes it was definitely a LOT cheaper to build our DIY home greenhouse instead of buying a full greenhouse kit. Keep reading to see exactly how we built ours for some greenhouse ideas for your yard!

What is the best direction for a greenhouse to face?

Try to site your greenhouse so it faces south or southeast. This holds true if you live anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason for this is to allow as much possible sunlight in, which is especially important of course in the winter months. 

Siting your structure properly will allow that winter sun in, even in January and February.

Small greenhouse in a backyard
Small greenhouse in backyard

Do I need a permit to build a greenhouse in my yard?

Well, that all depends on where you live. Many areas do require a building permit for any structure over a certain amount of square feet. 

Call your local town office and speak to the building department. It could be you don’t even need one, or it could be that the finished project can only be 10 x 10.

You won’t know unless you just ask how big a backyard garden shed or greenhouse can be before you need to apply for a permit.

What is a Cold Frame Greenhouse?

Cold frame describes a clear and insulated outdoor structure that can be used to shelter plants during the colder months. Instead of using gas or electric heaters, a cold frame garden depends on light from the sun to create solar heat.

They’re great for creating a more consistent environment, especially if you live in a climate where the weather can be unpredictable.

This kind of greenhouse allows you to start planting earlier and harvest later without having to worry about frosts, sudden dips in temperature, storms, or any other unexpected obstacles that gardening in colder weather may bring.

Cold frame greenhouses will typically offer a space that’s 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the temperature outside but also offer options for ventilation.

A cold frame garden is also a great option for transitioning any herbs or seedlings that may have been planted indoors but now have to come outdoors.

The environment it offers is stable and more controlled, which will allow your plants to adjust to the outdoors. They can then be transitioned to another garden, transplanted in grow bags for your patio or deck, or left in the greenhouse.

 

Here’s How to Build a Greenhouse 

You already know that a greenhouse is a fantastic addition to any home and it can be built cheaper than you think.

We built ours stick frame but you can easily build hoop greenhouses, which would be less trouble constructing than the one we built.

Ours is very durable however and we are glad we went with stick frame. Our winters are severe enough here we need a steep roof on the greenhouse, so the winter snows will slide off.

Since hoop houses don’t shed the snow as easily, we thought it was best to go with the steeper roof.

Temporary Greenhouse ( One Season)

diy greenhouse in a backyard.
We love the way our greenhouse adds to our yard.

The picture above is a temporary greenhouse that Graham made soon after we moved here. That year, we grew squash, beans and cucumbers under that cover.

For the permanent greenhouse plans, Graham wanted to reuse those roof panels that you see in the picture.

roo panelling for a greenhouse made of wood and plastic sheeting
It doesn’t take much to make functional roof panels for a greenhouse.

The roof panels were in two pieces. When it came to deciding where to site the permanent greenhouse, we had some thinking to do.

In the end, we decided to build the new greenhouse right on top of the oldest compost pile. Why create extra work for ourselves?

This way it would be easy to rake out, take away the excess, and leave some really awesome soil underneath the plants.

Right next to the site, we had a second pile of well composted manure. Nice and easy to move into the new greenhouse!

DIY Cheap Wood Greenhouse Equipment List

You’re obviously going to need the very basic tools to build a greenhouse, such as:

  • hammer
  • tape measure
  • nails
  • screwdriver and bits
  • drill
  • screws and bolts
  • brackets, if needed and other hardware

But there are additional tools that you will need, or at the very least will make this backyard project a lot easier. These include:

 

DIY Greenhouse Lumber List

Use this list to estimate your lumber costs, depending on the size of greenhouse. Ours is 12 feet long.

Your costs will vary, of course, depending on the finished size and lumber costs in your area.

  1. 4 – 12 foot 2×4
  2. 16 – 8 foot 2×4
  3. 6 – 12 foot 2×2 (for roof panel)
  4. 1 roll polyethylene sheeting
  5. staples, nails, screws & the rest of the obvious!

 

Building a DIY Vegetable Greenhouse

The frame for the first side of the greenhouse.
The frame for the first side of the greenhouse.

 First, we framed up the one wall.

Finished frame for a greenhouse.
Here’s what the basic finished frame looks like!

Then another and another and voila. The basic frame was ready.

Reinforced greenhouse frame.
We reinforced the frame with some more wood for stability.

Next, we worked on framing in the walls.

greenhouse frame around a compost pile
Using logs as reinforcements was a great and free way to make the structure even safer.

Can you see where we laid logs inside where we needed to level the site out? You know why logs are good? Because they are FREE.

Then I started raking smooth all the compost and also adding the great soil from the pile in the back. The compost that wasn’t quite ready, I just shoveled onto the other compost pile. Siting the greenhouse right here was a LOT less work in the end.

Of course, we had put the piles in a good spot to begin with! Nice and close to the garden and far enough to the edge of the lawn that they weren’t under the trees.

You can really see the lay of the land we were working with. See the slope? And that middle hump inside the greenhouse is the left over pile of finished compost.

Over time, I raked that over to the edges to fill out the raised beds inside.

logs layered as reinforcement for a greenhouse frame.
This was a great way to make sure the frame was even and level.

Here’s a better picture of the log details.

installing roof panels on a greenhouse frame.
Though we used roof panels from a previous greenhouse, it’s easy to construct your own!

Once that was done, we started working on putting the roof panels in place. Graham added a ridge beam from timber we had here, then attached the panels to that.

Graham put a great pitch on the roof and it should hopefully be able to withstand all the snow in the winter.

Adding Plastic Poly to DIY Greenhouse Roof and Walls

Later, we stapled the plastic poly around the sides. We stapled it very well, so the wind couldn’t catch the plastic sheeting and start lifting it off.

For the greenhouse covering, , instead of buying the special plastic, we just used 6mm plastic off a roll that we had laying around for a building project. Some people prefer to get greenhouse weight plastic.

installing plastic sheeting on the greenhouse frame
Plastic sheeting is a cheap way to line your greenhouse frame.

Since the bottom areas of the front had open spaces, I played around with building rock faces on either side. Easy and FREE!

image of a greenhouse next to a shed.
The updated greenhouse has an even cleaner look and is just as functional, if not more so!

And here’s what it looks like from the porch – we are very happy with the way it turned out. It was a fair bit of work, but it will add a LOT to our homestead. And no tutorials or instructables were necessary; the structure was simple and easy to put together!

This greenhouse project has enabled us to grow peppers and tomatoes. If you live in a northern climate, you really can’t go wrong building a backyard greenhouse.

Using basic tools, you save a lot of money building your own, as opposed to buying a new greenhouse.

Build your own greenhouse for about $300, including electricity – extend your growing season, start your own seeds and grow your own organic food!

The cost for ours was well under $200, even if we would have had to buy that roll of greenhouse weight plastic.

A small DIY greenhouse with an open door and plants growing inside.
With a little bit of hard work, you can construct a DIY cold frame greenhouse in your own backyard!

What if the Greenhouse gets too hot?

Sometimes, in the heat of the summer sun, it does get really hot in the greenhouse, even though we have there is no plastic up close to the gables. You can see that in the photo.

If this happens with your greenhouse, you have a couple of choices, one being to install a greenhouse fan. Even if your greenhouse doesn’t have electricity, you could always run an extension cord from the outside of the house and run a fan.

You can also install greenhouse vents, the automatic vents make the most sense, because you don’t even need to be there to open and close them.

Or check out these solar greenhouse vents and fans!

What we do though, is we water the greenhouse – on the outside! I just hose down the clear roof and walls from the outside. If you do this, make sure your hose has been sitting in the shade. 

Or, run the house for awhile so all the hot water inside it runs out. You don’t want to be adding hot water from a sun baked hose to the already hot greenhouse.

I spray it down a few times a day in the heat of summer and it helps a lot.

Framing the walls for a home made greenhouse
Framing part of the construction of a small greenhouse.

 

Other Ways to Build a Greenhouse

There are a number of other materials you can employ when putting together your DIY greenhouse plans.

PVC pipe is a fairly inexpensive material, and the piping is especially great for a mini greenhouse, for adding internal structure, or for cold frame gardening.

If you’re particularly handy, sometimes old windows can be upcycled and used in your greenhouse. This may also be more easy to work with on a smaller scale. Here’s a beautiful greenhouse made from old windows.

Build a CD case greenhouse! Believe it or not, CD cases can also be helpful for planting. Making a small greenhouse out of the plastic cases is a great way to repurpose them if you have CDs lying around that you’re no longer using.

You can also buy CD cases in large quantities. The sturdy plastic is a reliable material for planting, and would be great for DIY cold frames.

Plastic bottles in excess can make a fantastic outer shell for a greenhouse. Check out this guide for more detailed instructions on making a plastic bottle greenhouse.

 

More Articles about Growing in a Greenhouse

 

originally published 2017; latest update Dec 2024

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