The Rangeview Community Greenhouse will provide us with many opportunities to learn and grow together. The greenhouse will provide us with ample heat and light to grow crops indoors year-round and to get an early start on plants that we will be growing outdoors in the summer.
Some of the plant materials that we will focus on growing indoors during winter months will be leafy greens and vegetables that tolerate shorter days and cooler weather within the greenhouse. These winter crops include microgreens, radishes, carrots, beets, spinach, Bok choy, kale, and chard. We can also experiment with indoor tropical plants like Sansevieria (Snake Plant), Dracaena (Dragon Tree), Epipremnum (Pothos), and varying species of Philodendrons, Bromeliads, and Ferns. We are also planning to have tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and zucchini seeded up for production in the greenhouse early this summer, if all goes well, we will have fresh beans and zucchini in early June, and tomatoes and cucumbers by mid-late June.
Before the spring solstice, most of our crops will be started indoors in the greenhouse, from pumpkins to nasturtiums, we will have a solid head start on the growing season. From mid-May to early June, we will move our early starts out into the community garden beds for the outdoor growing season.
During the summer, the greenhouse will be a space for heat and sun-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and herbs like oregano and rosemary. It will be so hot and sunny within the greenhouse that we will have to use shade cloths to protect our plants from damage. These sun-loving crops can be grown both in the greenhouse and outside in the garden, however, they will have different growing requirements and will develop and come to harvest at contrasting times. This will allow us to have a staggered harvest, which makes eating fresh and storing excess a bit easier than harvesting everything all at once.
The seeding and transplanting dates for each crop are scheduled in the programs and events calendar. All residents are encouraged to join the RHOA (Rangeview Home Owners Association) Garden Club and to take part in these hands-on gardening activities. Many hands make light work, and nothing is more satisfying than sowing a seed and bringing it all the way to flower and fruit. Everyone should experience this, no matter what their gardening experience or confidence level is, all Rangeview residents are welcome to grow and share with the community.
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