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How to Build an Underground Winter Vegetable Garden
How to Build an Underground Winter Vegetable Garden. Winter months in northern climates are hard on a gardener. With few frost-free days, it can be hard to grow fresh vegetables. By the time your tomatoes are ready to produce, the season has ended. Fortunately, farmers have come up with a solution for growing plants in climates with short growing...
Winter months in northern climates are hard on a gardener. With few frost-free days, it can be hard to grow fresh vegetables. By the time your tomatoes are ready to produce, the season has ended. Fortunately, farmers have come up with a solution for growing plants in climates with short growing seasons: go underground.
Things You'll Need
Shovel
25 lb. manure
25 lb. topsoil
Storm window pane or fiberglass square
Dig a 3-foot-deep pit in the ground. The hole can be of any shape, but must fit underneath your window pane. For larger pits, you may need more manure and topsoil, as well as a larger pane of glass.
Fill the bottom of the pit with 1 foot of manure.
Add a 1-foot layer of topsoil on top of the manure. Plant your plants in the topsoil.
Cover the pit with glass (a storm window pane or fiberglass square). The glass will warm the vegetables from the top for a greenhouse effect, while the decomposing manure will warm them from the bottom.
Tips & Warnings
If your plants grow taller than your pit, line the sides of the pit with hay bales and move the glass covering to the top of the bales.
At night, cover your pit with a layer of straw or other insulating matter to keep heat in.
For areas with a high water table, dig a sump hole beneath your pit to trap water.
For areas with sandy soil, reinforce the sides of your pit with metal sheeting.
