Using Mulch in my Greenhouses

On Facebook I see a lot of photos of people's greenhouse. Here in Hawaii, they are often actually high tunnels as opposed to the greenhouses one finds on the mainland. But regardless of what you call them, folks here use them to grow food. Sometimes plants are grown right in the ground, but more often than not, they are growing in some sort of raised bed or container because of our lava rock ground. What I've noticed is that no one seems to use mulch in their greenhouses. I'm not sure why.

I mulch the soil in my greenhouses, for the same reason I use mulch in my outdoor gardens. 

... Weed suppression

... Soil moisture retention

... Add to the soil fertility 

Due to the sun and heat, the soil inside the greenhouse dries out quickly. It's common for me to water a greenhouse every other day if it is not mulched. By mulching, I can reduce the need to water to about every 5th day. When it's not windy and sunny, the greenhouse can go a full week between waterings. 

I prefer to use fresh grass clippings for mulch, especially for the greenhouses. It's easy to use and easy to control the thickness of the mulch. 

Mulched basil and young tomato plants in a greenhouse. 

A Couple of Pictures

Here's a couple of photos of things I was talking about yesterday.

Kitchen garden at the house----

One of the gardens right outside my front door. Yup, no lawn! 

Actually, the gardens totally circumvent the house. Sweet potatoes and comfrey in the more shady spots. Pineapples in both sun and shade. Various herbs and onion greens in the full sun. Also beans, peas, chard, bok choy and other Asian greens. Turmeric in the shade. Taro in full sun and semi-shade. Pipinolas climbing the trees.

And here's the hugel style pit I just filled in. It still needs to be topped with compost before planting. Getting a good photo is impossible with just a cellphone, so I took several to give you a better idea.

                           

The green grass clipping are fresh cut today. The other clippings are a couple days old. 

General Update

First of all, I had assumed (wrongly) that my life's activities would be getting back to normal along about now. But alas, not the case. I've been busy off the farm helping out seniors that are still avoiding social interacting due to coronavirus. There are trips to the pharmacy to pick up medications, runs to the dump to haul off their trash, shopping trips and visits to the food giveaways to keep meals in their kitchens. I've also made a few visits to check out health problems with their pets, and set up pig traps to eliminate the feral pigs that have  moved onto their places. Then a good friend of mine badly sprained her ankle the other day, so I've now added another daily stop to my schedule. Don't think that I'm complaining. I'm not. I'm just explaining why I haven't had much time for farming and blogging recently. Add to this the farmers market, and my schedule is full. 

I'm managed to get a little farming squeezed into each day. I've gotten another small hugel style pit almost filled in. It's one alongside the driveway, created by the new rock wall being built. About 20' long and 2' deep at the rock wall, sloping up 8' wide to join the hill. It took a lot of vegetation, cardboard, and manures to fill it in. It was like making a gigantic compost pile in the hole, starting out with compacted layers of wood (branches, tree truck pieces, and discarded heat-treated pallet wood), then layer after layer of organic material. I have a seemingly endless supply of organic material for such pits. It's just a case of time and effort to collect it. Anyway, it's filled in and now only needs to be topped with a layer of finished compost and mulch. Once done, I plan to plant pineapples there. I have a couple dozen pineapple tops just begging for a place to be planted. 

Up at the house I've kept the kitchen gardens going. I make a lot of soups out of those gardens. Peas. Beans. Onions and green onions. Beets. Potatoes. Chinese greens. Other greens. Herbs. By growing them near the house, it's easy to harvest what I need to finish off the soup or stir fries I'm working on. 

A month ago I plant little seedlings in the greenhouses. Tomatoes. Basil. Cilantro. For the past two weeks I've been able to harvest the herbs as I need them. The tomato plants have tiny baby tomatoes already! But it will be a while before I'll be harvesting ripe tomatoes. 

Almost each day I manage to get something seeded or planted. Not much, but I'm focusing upon getting at least something planted each day. This past week I've gotten 42 papaya seedling started. Also potted up a couple dozen taro keikis. Sowed some green onion seeds, and planted a few ounces of bean seeds. Started some more pipinolas. A friend just gave me 3  baby trees, so it's a priority job to get them planted in the next couple of days. 

So you see, I've been keeping busy. Just not farming as much as I had been. And not working much on the house or the cat sanctuary pens. But I did make a bunch of picnic tables for our local restaurant. I feel really good about that! The past 2 Saturdays we've been eating breakfast there, using one of those tables. It's set up in a side garden, so it's secluded, private, and alone. A rather safe place to eat out.