Greenhouse Progress

We are just frantically finishing fall projects around here! The boys got paid "commission" (not allowance as we have learned in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class) last Saturday for working their little hiney's off! We dug and dug! Last week Jeremy took his tractor and took out the sod in the location of the greenhouse. The bricks you see were my idea for the flooring--A.) They were cheap--FREE as a matter of fact--they were a garage in a previous life. B.) They were SO cool looking--much like terra cotta tiles laid down flat. While we were trying to get a clue, a brainstorm hit--and we decided to "sink" the house slightly into the ground, giving us tall people another foot of headroom.

Whatcha think?? The sand is not quite stuffed in all the cracks yet, but I love the concept. It will take me some more work after everything else is accomplished! The hole with no bricks is the area that now has the duct for heating, electricity and water. This is on the west end of the house.

J had to trench an area from the woodburning furnace to the house and then another the short distance between the furnace and the greenhouse. The boys and I cleaned out the dirt from the tractor started trench while J and Dev fought with some very stiff tubing to get it ready to go into the trench! That took hours! While I spent the same hours on my knees trying to get sand into the crevices between the bricks. The bricks have 2 hollow areas between the ends, so the sand is settling in to the hollow spots.

We moved the frame out to the foundation Sunday after lunch. It was about 94 degrees! Where did fall go?? We clipped the house frame onto the base frame and then we were ready to put up the poly carbonate panals. Now, here is where I need to mention that the directions had no words--just pictures! And not very explanatory pictures at that. So a little religion may have been lost as we tried to figure out what attached to which gasket and went where! Unfortunately, about that time, I had a 4-H planning meeting inside the house that I had to be at. So God sent a good friend from down south up to see what J was doing. He spent a couple hours helping him put the panals on. The directions went out the door, and so far not too many things have been leftover. There was some ad-libbing that went on, but Jeremy has assured me that it will all be FINE! As you can see, we have just 2 windows and the sliding door to go!

Here is another picture viewing from the north side of the house. The shrubs to the left are a lilac hedge with some knockout roses in front and to the right is a forsythia bush. The outdoor furnace matches our house quite nicely and isn't far from the greenhouse. To the north is where our grape vines and apple trees are residing.

Here are the tomato, pepper, basil, and cilantro seedlings. I also started a few leftover sweet pea seeds to have a little color in there too! I repotted the seedlings last week into their own little pots and in few weeks will move them to their bigger pots in the greenhouse. There are actually 6 varieties of tomatos--to help me see which ones we like best. (honestly, I had to have a minimum order on the seeds, so I wanted to try everything that I had ordered!) The nice thing is that there will be plenty of seeds for the next several years after I store them in the freezer.

The lettuce is growing good at least on the east deck. Something likes the lettuce on my south deck--so I decided to start over once I moved the pots to the greenhouse.

My soft colors inferno garden came Thursday (luckily on my day off) so while C slept, I put 29 plants in the ground. Had some sore hands the next day! The plants once again, were beautiful and hopefully will grow as well as the Russian garden did! Here's the little tiny plants in the new garden. At the back of this garden is some zebra grass, 3 crape myrtle plants, and some dwarf maiden grass from Lowes in August and 2 rose bushes that I transplanted from my yard. Neither of them were flourishing in their locations, so I hope this move will help them out. Both bushes have wonderfully fragrant flowers and unique colors (both were gifts), so I would love for them to endure!
Last night I planted some lily trees in a few spots, as well as some "naked lady" AKA surprise lily bulbs that my mom dug up for me a couple of weekends ago. I am still ecstatic about the naked lady bulbs--I just love those and they are such a nice reminder of the impending fall season. I have been wanting to order some, but they are nearly $12 per bulb--so I was very thankful that she was so gracious!! Thanks again Mom--in a few years I will have some nice "baby" bulbs to share!

We also collected some corn husks while at mom and dad's and I beat the lid off this cream can that I had in one of my flower beds. The gourds were all volunteer coming up in my flower beds. Both came up next to the driveway side so were not a hassle to leave in the ground--they just tumbled over the rock wall. We were tickled to see 2 different kinds of gourds on them, lumpy warty ones, and little green striped one that turn different shades of yellow and orange. The big green things were hedge apples that Grant and Dev picked by Granny's house.

So, just a few more things to tidy up before we are ready to hibernate for the winter!! Enjoy the cool season weather!