No, we're not finishing up this job... far from it! But we have been doing some wrapping...
Today we got up early to take advantage of the clear, dry, sunny day to whip out a quick greenhouse job: stapling in the vapor barrier before the guys come out on Friday to backfill the dirt.
Then we realized our staple gun was in our storage unit, which meant we had to drive into town to dig (climb, etc) through the packed room. Of course a drive into town also means we'll stop at the post office... and the library to return my book... and the coffee shop to pick up a couple more buckets of coffee grounds... and give a couple of young women a ride from the coffee shop to their apartment across town, because they asked.... and stop at the hardware store for staples... and then run all over town trying to get one young woman's wallet back to her, since she left it in our car...
Luckily it was a very quick job, since we didn't get back until afternoon, at which point we of course needed to finish off our leftover green chile stew before starting in.
We had a 10' x 100' roll of plastic to drop behind the retaining wall. I rolled it out on the upper planting bed and cut the roll lengthwise. Chip stapled the top of the 5' width to the top rail, and we both pushed the rest down behind the metal. Half way around, we overlapped the second 5' x 100' section and Chip continued from there.
I went back to the top and disassembled the horizontal rail from the concreted-in steel frame posts, and marked the posts so the Bobcat won't mow them down when backfilling.
That done, we can talk more food!
Our greenhouse will be anchored by the 15 trees planted in the dirt of the lower level, described in the Planting Plans post. The first year or two the trees will be pretty young and spindly, and we will fill out the floor with some potted plants. Bananas grow well in pots, and the main shoot dies back to the ground after fruiting, making them easy to move. We plan to grow a couple of banana plants and at least one plantain in pots, starting out on the floor of the greenhouse, and maybe moving into our house when it's (eventually) built.
We also want to grow tamarind. Full-size tamarind trees are huge, but you can grow them even as bonsai and they will still produce fruit. We love eating plain dried tamarind as candy, and their seeds are beautiful for beads or buttons. Tamarind pulp is also a nice addition to sauces or drinks.
Another fruit that we tried at Christmas and loved is the horned melon. It is a true melon, so we'll just grow that in our regular planting beds. The skin is bright orange, and the insides are vibrant green. It has edible seeds in a viscous green slurry that is really much more delicious than it sounds. It's a light, bright flavor and is fun to eat.
We will probably also grow grapes, maybe sweet potatoes, other vining plants that don't take up much ground space and can just meander through the jungle. Russ's greenhouse (shown below) utilizes every cubic inch (sort of like our storage unit)!
We also would like to grow some potted flowers that will be beautiful in late May... flowers are definitely NOT my forte... any suggestions?