The greenhouse and house were under construction through 2022, and I was still building the raised beds, hauling in soil, and assembling the irrigation system during the first half of 2023, so 2024 was the first full growing season in the greenhouse. This is a record of this year’s plantings and my thoughts on what worked well and what didn’t.

The greenhouse is 60′ long by 36′ wide on an almost perfect east-west axis so the long side of the greenhouse faces south. The house is situated slightly east of center. The food garden is roughly the west third of the greenhouse and that is divided into roughly 40% raised beds, 25% fruit tree section, 35% paths¹ covered with wood chips.

One of the challenges to growing full sun-loving plants is the light level throughout the season and throughout the day. My property is surrounded by tall evergreen trees. The trees are not very dense along the east-southeast section but are very dense along the southwest section, and then full afternoon sun for a few hours. This means that even in the heart of summer there is no area of the west end of the greenhouse that gets an uninterrupted 8+ hours of sunlight. Best case is maybe 5-6 hrs of full sun, then dappled shade, then a few hours of full afternoon sun.

100% of the irrigation inside the greenhouse is from two 2,500 gallon rainwater tanks. I use rainwater to also fill the swimming pool so I’m still learning how to manage the amount of water, and when I can divert water to the pool versus reserving it in the tanks to water the food garden.

Fruit Tree Section

The purpose of the fruit tree section is to have 1 tall tree that provides shade from the afternoon sun to the pool and house. Peaches are difficult (not impossible if you can provide the right microclimate) to grow outdoors in the Pacific Northwest but I’d seen video of a peach tree inside a greenhouse so was intrigued by the possibility of using a peach as the shade tree. I selected a Sam Houston variety due to its low chill hour requirement and that it’s self-pollinating. The entire floor of the west end will be raised as I have time to haul in material so to be at the right height for the eventual ground level, it was planted in a temporary raised bed.

Planted as a 4′ bare root twig in November 2022, it bore 3 perfect peaches in 2023 and topped out at around 8′ and bore around 12 peaches in 2024. I did very light pruning between 2023 and 2024 – mostly taking out only some crossed branches and limbed up the lower branches. It has now reached the roof at that area which is about 14′. I’ll do a heavier pruning for height and to open the center a bit more in the spring.

In 2023 I impulse bought an olive tree that was temporarily planted in this area that was intended to be outside the peach tree’s canopy. But the peach grew much faster than expected so I moved the olive tree to the raised beds section in early 2024 where it will get full sun.

Ultimately, for 2024, the peach and a single volunteer sunflower were all that grew in this section while most of my attention was on the raised beds section.

Raised Beds Section

Throughout 2023 I took photos and video of the food garden section of the greenhouse to capture a record of the light levels and mapped the ‘average’ for the raised beds section – yellow is ‘full’ sun, magenta is near full, orange is light shade, blue is dappled shade.

The plan for 2024 was to follow square foot gardening density, plant only things I personally enjoy, use up seeds left over from 2023, and try locating some plants at the edge of their light needs.

I started a hundred or so plugs of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers on heating mats in early March. There was very high germination rate (even from 2023’s seeds) so I was able to test some plants in multiple areas with different light levels or over-plant in some areas in case of die-back after transplanting. This worked well.

This year the stars aligned that my truck was running and I had the time early in the season to get a bale of straw and then to spread it across all the planting beds.

Normally the rainy season extends into June so in the spring I used rainwater to fill the pool to about 28″. I found a leak that stopped further filling the pool but there was little rain in April, May, and June so the rainwater tanks did not get refilled before entering peak growing and heat months. Although the straw mulch helped reduce the watering frequency, the rainwater tanks went dry for about 3 weeks. Fortunately I have a small pump that was able to feed a hose from the pool that allowed minimal watering through the dry spell. I’ll need to get a stronger pump for next year.

Insects and mice were a moderate problem this year. I’d planted calendula in several places to serve as aphid trap plants. Then I purchased 1 container of ladybugs that took care of the aphids. Although most ladybugs either died or left within a couple weeks, I did see an occasional ladybug for about a month or so after the release. There was visible insect leaf damage on several plants that for most of the season I thought was from ants until I saw pill bugs on a few of the affected plants. I’ll need to read up on how to control pill bugs for next year.

Since I work from home and sit at a computer all day, throughout the day I’m able to look at the garden along the south wall. I’d seen a rather fat mouse running under the protection of the bottom purlin but easily got that with a bit of peanut butter on a trap. Also would occasionally see a grasshopper that I could, mostly, take care of with a fly-swatter. Then I got a cat. She’s a hunter who just kills her prey; she doesn’t mutilate them. Each of the first 3 nights she was allowed into the greenhouse she brought me a mouse ‘gift’ and there hasn’t been another since. After the mice she switched to grasshoppers that I’ve watched her snag out of the air in mid-hop. I love this cat!

What worked well this year:

• The new soil brought in over the winter was much better soil quality so I didn’t need to fertilize as heavily
• Starting seeds to be able to plant early
• Dry weather kept humidity levels low so powdery mildew was not an issue for most of the growing season
• The new location for both the olive tree and calamondin tree
• Having the pool as a source of water for the garden when the rainwater tanks went dry
• Companion plantings
• Ladybugs took care of the aphids
• Just about every fruit, vegetable, herb, and flower with very few exceptions
• Getting a cat for rodent control

What didn’t work well this year:

• Square foot density planting was too dense in the beds along the greenhouse walls. I think there wasn’t enough air flow that harbored conditions for powdery mildew growth and spread.
• Rainwater management
• Support for the sunflowers, potatoes, and tomatoes
• The pump from the pool is not strong enough to supply the irrigation system
• Watermelon produced 2 fruit but both died from blossom rot
• Pill bugs and grasshoppers

¹ There are plans to install permanent trellises in and over portions of the paths that will reduce this percent over time.