A piece of paradise

Amid a haven of lush vegetables and fragrant flowers, Shannay Witte has created her own little paradise in the yard of the Witte family farm near Regent.

Sheltered from destructive winds and roaming rabbits, her garden is tucked away inside a high tunnel. The 100- by 30-foot structure was placed in 2012 on the Shannay and Keith Witte farm through a cost-shared Natural Resources Conservation Service program for high tunnel kits.

When asked to take part in the program as more of an experiment than anything, Keith was fairly certain the space would be storing machinery after a couple years.

But Shannay has diligently been planting early and harvesting late, as she finds the benefits of the semi-indoor garden.

The high tunnel arrived as a kit to build a metal frame covered in plastic. The ends made of fabric with zippers have since been replaced with polycarbonate.

The sides roll up and down, with chicken wire lining the bottom to keep critters out, but to allow a breeze inside to help regulate the temperature. Unlike traditional greenhouses, plants are grown directly in the ground inside a high tunnel. The high tunnel traps solar heat and protects plants from harsh weather and pests.

Shannay grows both vegetables and flowers inside her high tunnel.

“Whatever makes me happy, I put in here,” she says.

Her lush garden includes 8-foot-tall sweet corn and a bounty of other vegetables, with the vining plants creeping up panels rather than spreading across the ground.

Yellow gladiolus flowers come from Keith’s grandmother’s bulbs. Zinnias are used to create church bouquets.

Tucked in the back are aromatic perennial mint and lemon verbena.

A section of grape vines are producing enough to make grape juice with a steam juicer, with over 40 pounds of grapes produced last year.

Ripened lettuce in early spring and fresh tomatoes in October are just a few of the benefits of a high tunnel garden. Shannay was still cutting lettuce in Thanksgiving the first year, but has tempered her gardening ambitions since.

“Be realistic about how much size you need,” she offers to others considering a high tunnel. “Be realistic about how much input you have to put in here, like the water.”

“You have to love it, because once you have this going on, you can’t just walk away,” she says.

So, she’s in her garden at 5:30 a.m. most mornings, sometimes simply sitting inside the high tunnel during the spring just to soak in the warmth.

Shannay also participates in variety trials through Tom Kalb, an NDSU Extension horticulturalist. Over 300 families work with North Dakota State University every summer to evaluate promising vegetable and cut-flower varieties in their backyards through the trials.

This year, Shannay planted squash, zinnias, cucumbers, corn, carrots, beans, peas and lettuce through the trials, then will share the results of her trials to help develop a list of recommended varieties for the state.

The trials have also encouraged her to experiment with different varieties of vegetables, including planting yellow wax beans instead of green beans one year.

“I won’t plant green beans again,” she says. “I love the yellow wax beans.”

Shannay puts her analytical talents into developing a spreadsheet each winter to plan her next garden inside the high tunnel.

“My husband, the farmer, has lots of advice for me and one of those things is you can’t plant the same thing in the same place all the time,” she says.

“He’s like, ‘You have to rotate your crops, honey,’” she says with a laugh.

“It’s just very enjoyable,” she says. “You can control so many more factors when you have this enclosed space. It just increases your ability to be successful. You don’t get the 100-mile-an-hour wind that knocks all your corn flat on the ground. And light hail isn’t going to do anything.”

The climate inside the high tunnel can be controlled by raising and lowering the sides, especially during the spring and fall. In the summer, the sides remain raised to allow the breeze inside.

On a sunny January day, it will be 50 degrees inside the tunnel while it’s freezing outside. But planting too early inside the high tunnel won’t reap more rewards, she says.

“One thing I’ve learned, though, is that plants are attuned to the slant of the sun,” she says. “While I could probably plant stuff in here in February or March, it’s not going to do well, because the sun is not at the right angle.”

While the high tunnel traps moisture, keeping it humid for plant growth, she does have to watch for fungal diseases.

Another downside is the high tunnel’s inability to allow rain inside.

“Every single drop of water, you have to put in here,” Shannay says.

Rather than watering at ground level, Shannay uses an overhead sprinkler system to water the plants.

“It waters so much more efficiently. Instead of watering for five hours, I only water for two-and-a-half or three hours and get the same amount of water,” she says.

A hose is attached to a hydrant outside, then leads to the sprinkler system down the middle of the tunnel.

“The watering system was a huge improvement,” she says.

Weed control is accomplished with weed barrier and hand weeding within the rows.

“I couldn’t do this without weed barrier,” she says.

“And, I can keep the bunnies and the deer out,” she says.

And plants thrive inside the tunnel, because they don’t battle the wind.

“Wind is one of the things that keeps your plants stunted,” she says.

Without the wind, however, pollination can be an issue. But last year, the tunnel was filled with bees busily buzzing around the plants, coming and going through the wire openings on the side.

The plastic covering the high tunnel has survived the weather, as the structure is surrounded by protective trees as well. She has lost one cover to hail, which also damaged the siding and shingles on the family home.

Inside the high tunnel, Shannay plucks a cucumber from the vine, sharing her bounty with friends and family from within her little paradise.