Today I want to give a virtual tour of our greenhouse and show what’s growing in there this December. I generally grow winter hardy greens and herbs plus brassicas like purple sprouting broccoli this time of year. It’s nice to have a few fresh harvests this time of year, and the greenhouse plantings certainly do that for us. This year I decided to skip the broccoli though and set out collard greens and kale instead in the u-shaped beds that run down both sides and the back of the greenhouse.
looking in the greenhouse door
The collards have done quite well, and I haven’t harvested any of the leaves yet since the ones out in the vegetable garden are still alive and well. They don’t always survive the winter though, so the ones in the greenhouse are an experiment to see if they can keep us supplied with greens this winter. They are looking good, and so far I am pleased with how the experiment is going.
collard greens in greenhouse
closeup of collard plant
I also have lots of lettuce planted in salad boxes on the greenhouse benches. The lettuce needs another couple of weeks before it is ready to harvest, but it is looking good so far as well.
lettuce in salad box
red and green oakleaf lettuce
I have three flats of lettuce seedlings I potted up for planting later in both the salad boxes and in-ground in the greenhouse beds. These are ready to go now, and I will set out some in the beds soon. Some of the leaves are big enough to eat, but I will restrain myself and wait.
lettuce seedlings
more lettuce seedlings
I did snip some of the leftover seedlings that were still in a flat. They gave us enough baby greens for a salad or two. I often do this with leftover seedlings, since they are too good to waste and also perfectly tender and edible.
baby lettuce
I always plant parsley for the winter greenhouse, and it survives the winter and keeps us supplied until the following spring when it flowers. Parsley is one of my favorite herbs, and it gets a lot of use here in all seasons.
parsley in greenhouse bed
Arugula is also popular here, and I have two planter boxes of it going now. It also generally survives the winter in the greenhouse, and like parsley will keep us supplied until it bolts to flower next spring.
arugula in planter box
That’s about it for the greenhouse update. I hope you have enjoyed this look at what’s growing in the greenhouse in late January. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!
Your greenhouse looks great. I do have a couple of questions for you. Do you use staggered planting for your lettuce greens? Also what size and build is the greenhouse. I have been out of gardening the past few years and want to get back into it. I have a pool deck I am going to disassemble and use parts of it to build one. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks
I do stagger my planting for my greens, though this time I sort of started too many at once. Our greenhouse is 8×16, with shelves and benches to hold plants. Here’s how it looked when it was newer: https://happyacres.blog/2019/10/24/another-greenhouse-update/
Thanks for sharing. It seems your size is about what I was looking at. Merry Christmas!
You certainly make good use of your greenhouse over winter – ours is on a sabbatical.
Ours is frozen up at the moment Sue, and it will be interesting to see what survived when it thaws out.