The Mindful Blog

Installing Automatic Roll-Up Sides for a High Tunnel or Greenhouse: NRCS EQIP-Friendly Ventilation Setup If you are building out a high tunnel, greenhouse, NRCS, EQIP project and want better temperature control without constantly babysitting sidewalls, an automatic roll-up curtain system is one of the most useful upgrades you can make. It cuts daily labor, improves airflow, helps manage humidity, and gives you more consistent growing conditions with a lot less manual cranking. On our tunnels, this setup uses a controller, motors, a temperature probe, and an optional rain probe to open and close the sidewalls automatically. Once it is dialed...

Crop Rotation Guide for Home Gardeners: Save Time, Labor, and Money While Building Healthy Soil Crop rotation is one of those gardening strategies that sounds fancy, but the concept is simple: you change what you plant in each garden area over the course of several seasons. Done thoughtfully, crop rotation helps you manage pests and diseases, use nutrients more evenly, build richer soil, and create a system that saves you labor. I’m a big fan of making things easy and abundant. That’s the whole point here. When you plan your garden like a living system over multiple years, you get...

Grow 40 lbs of Tomatoes Per Plant?! Trellising, Pruning, and Growing Tomatoes, Organic Tomatoes, Trellising Tips Goal: Big, flavorful heirloom fruit from indeterminate vines Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing until something stops them. Left unchecked they become long, sprawling vines. The practical approach is to corral that vigor so the plant funnels energy into fruit rather than endless foliage. With the right approach to growing tomatoes, organic tomatoes, trellising, a single plant can produce 20 to 40 pounds of tomatoes in a season. Quick overview of the system Start strong: seed-started in soil blocks using a balanced potting mix and planted...

High Tunnel, NRCS, Greenhouse: Practical Guide to Selection, Construction, and Funding A reliable protected growing space can transform a small farm or garden. This practical guide walks through the essentials of planning, building, and maintaining a high tunnel, and explains how NRCS cost-share programs can help cover construction costs. Use these steps to choose the right site, avoid common mistakes, and get the most value from your greenhouse investment. Why a high tunnel? A high tunnel lets you extend the season, protect crops from extreme weather, and boost productivity on less land. Compared with field production, a well-built high tunnel...