Nervous About the Salad

It has all been somewhat experimental thus far, and academic.  Up until now I have been trying things; observing the results; seeing what I might learn.  Suddenly, however, the stakes are higher.   Thursday is Lori's birthday and I promised a mixed greens salad.  As of yesterday, I was smugly confident.  The spinach was booming, the lettuce was readying for yet another cutting; even the mustard greens and arugula were promising an initial harvest.  And then last night I glanced at the thermometer reporting conditions inside the greenhouse -- low forties and falling.  By late evening the number hovered around the freezing point and I fearfully crossed my fingers.  This morning the flashing report announced a chilly 28-degrees -- this inside the greenhouse with a space heater running.  To be sure, the exterior temperature was standing in the single-digits, 20-degrees colder; but I wasn't planning dinner around anything out there.

I had noticed throughout the day that greenhouse conditions had been cooler.  I don't know if it accounts for the difference, but anticipating Sunday's drop in temperatures we had filled and stored in the greenhouse two large garbage cans with collected water in the rain barrel, and returned the barrel to the barn.  Now perhaps 75-gallons of water share space with the growing plants -- the garbage cans, plus buckets and an assortment of milk jugs.  Perhaps all that water is attracting and storing the cold, reducing the ambient temperature in the space.  Who knows.  All I know is that it got cold in there last night and I dreaded my daily trip to water.

What I found upon opening the door was chilly air, ice-filmed water containers, a heater struggling to catch up, and five planter boxes filled with lush, green, hardy and intrepid plants.  The arugula and mustard may have looked a little weary, but hardly burned; the spinach looked proud and resilient, and the lettuce seemed ready to take on whatever winter might have left to offer.  The good news is that steadily warming days and nights are forecast throughout the rest of the week. For the moment I have added a little extra heat just to pull the space back toward normal, and I have begun scoping out seams that could use a little extra sealing.

In the meantime, birthday dinner on Thursday appears, at this point, to be safe.