You know we had rabbits in our garden. On 2015 we started to transfer my greenhouse to bunny house. Later on, the bunnies got old and we had to put them away. We planned to fix the bunny house's outdoor pen on summer 2020 and get more rabbits on spring 2021 after my final graduation. But then hit COVID-19 and our plans changed and Pii moved in.
Having rabbits and 2 hunting dogs in the same garden would be far too exciting for the dogs and far too frightening to the rabbits. It is easy to control one hunting dog, but when they get inspired to hunt together... oh my oh my.
Since we decided to have Pii I have been thinking what to do with my greenhouse. It is not as simple as it sounds. That's why my green house was at rest last summer. See...
I live on taiga. My exact location is just for about 100 km south from the arctic circle. That means I live at the edge of arctic area. More exactly -in this village- the wind blowing from Gulf of Bothnia hit first at my garden. Golf of Bothnia gets frozen and we need ice breakers over the winter season. That means it is not anything near something we could call a warm sea. All that means my garden is squeezed between the arctic area and freezing winds. It is pretty challenging. Without Gulf Stream here would be even colder. (Please, stop the global warming and climate change: when enough arctic ice melts it pours water into Gulf Stream, slows it down and at the end turns it to the opposite direction and them I am living in ice age!!! Now I am living only in a freezer, ha ha ha.)
So, what's my problem with the green house? I need a heater for it if I desire to grow tomatoes or cucumber etc. I have learnt they never get ripen enough without extra heat. I can't use electricity to grow my own vegetables. I would need an electric wire for it. That's impossible because the dogs would dig it up or jump to take it down. Oil heater I don't want to use for environmental reasons.
This spring I learnt something and had an idea and that's why we decided to take my green house back for gardening purposes. I show it to you just in case if you want to grow something exotic but have too cold for it.
We used my old bunny nests to make plant boxes. We just turned them upside down. I put some news paper on the bottom.
We didn't remove the inside walls of the bigger nest. The roots will seek their way through the doorways. He cut
Finnfoam frost insulation sheet to cover the boxes inside.The Finnfoam pieces are not permanently attached to each other so they let extra water leak through from the seams. That's very important point because it prevents the water staying in the boxes and the roots get frozen.
It is ok the door ways don't have the wooden cover because there is this Finnfoam to keep the frost away. Finnfoam is strong and stays forever like Styrofoam or plastic.
This box is for the grapevine. It is new and bought from a hardware store. Grapevine!? Yes. I know, it is not for this climate at all. I had one long time ago but it got frozen. Oops! Now I am more competent and can create a frost insulated growing box for it. (I already have frost insulated floor in my green house because of the rabbits, remember...)
At the bottom of the boxes I put some branches. It's because I want to create some air pockets and form out a compost style structure for the soil of the boxes.Then I pour some old soil over the branches. At first I made sure nothing actually grows there anymore. (I picked up the bulbs for the further use.)
Then I pour in some fresh new compost. I fill the rest of the grapevine box like this. Grapevine needs a lot of nutrition.
There it is. My little grapevine Zilga. I donated three earthworms for it to make sure the soil stays good. We'll see if grapevine survives or not. At the moment it is the end of the spring, rainy and around +5 Celsius degrees. No night frost anymore but few days ago we had some snow that melt right away.
For my two other boxes I needed some rotten wood.
I covered the bottom of the boxes by the rotten wood for the same reasons as with grapevine. But also to create a growing environment that reminds forest.
I have dreamed about blueberry shrubs since I heard about them. Despite our taiga forests are full of wild blueberries these shrubs are not planned to be grown here. It is too cold for them. Now I decided I could try out with them like I do with grapevine. Grapevine is for even warmer climates than blueberry shrubs so at least I could succeed with the blueberries. Then losing grapevine won't feel so bad.
Over the rotten wood I poured some soil to cover some air pockets, hide the wood and create compost-like layers in the boxes.
I water it all every now and then.
After that, I put some soil from the woods into these two boxes to create forest-like growing environment for my blueberry shrubs.
I filled all 3 rooms of the bigger nest in the same way despite I will plant only 2 blueberry shrubs into it. The roots will find their way...
This in NorthCountry.
These are NorthBlue.
They are just tiny plants but I count on it that everything always wants to grow and stay alive in the nature. I've learnt that, if nothing else, doing arctic gardening.
Now we just need to pamper them, wait and see what happens in the future!
