Greenhouse News

The mailbox is filled every day with seed catalogs. As my friend said the other day while paging through hers "I'm like a man looking through playboy magazines." I got quite tickled at that--I might rate right up there with that too. I browse them while eating my breakfast, browse some more throughout the day anytime I have a break, and then again in the evening. The other day I picked my favorite two (so far--still haven't gotten my Park catalog which is actually my favorite) and dog-eared the pages I needed to return to and circled which seeds I wanted--so when I am ready to order, I can calculate which catalog has the best deals and go.

Our new thing this year will be pumpkins. I picked out 3 different kinds to try. We hope J will mulch us a spot by the apple trees (sticks) with baled hay so we can plant in between the mulch rows and not have to be so scared about stepping on a rattler when we check on them.

The greenhouse is doing well, as you can see from the pictures I took the other day. We harvested 2 bush beefsteak tomatos last week. The report from the critique (AKA--J) was "Pretty good, not as good as summer varieties, MUCH better than that crap you buy from the store." I thought that was a good summary. We sliced one up and ate him on our sandwiches--I thought it was good. The green tomatos in the picture are a pink variety--not sure how they will be, but they are sure getting big and heavy. I finally got some of the plants staked up this weekend so they don't break. My little grape tomato plant has a couple clusters of tiny tomatos growing now too. All 6 varieties have tomatos--I can't wait to try the black/purple variety (you know me, I always have to try something a little unusual). The taste is supposed to be phenomenal--we'll see. We have eaten the lettuce mix several times. I usually mix it with regular iceburg lettuce from the store and it makes a good salad. As luck would have it, when we were in the city a few weeks ago, long planters were on my list to start a couple more patches of salad mix. Lowes had some long ones like the ones in the picture on sale for $2.25--down from 8-10 bucks a piece YEAH ME!! I have yet to get them planted, but this week I will get them fixed. The green onions are getting bigger--bet they'll be ready in a couple more weeks. The pepper plants are not thriving--not sure what the deal is, but they have a couple buds on them, despite their very small size. Maybe we'll get some peppers by planting time in May, might even just transplant them into the garden and see what happens.

The lemon tree has been just LOADED with blooms and the greenhouse smells divine when you go in. The other night there were probably 15 tiny lemons on it--now, the last 2 lemons have turned yellow by the time they were the size of an almond, so I have little faith for these--but hope to get around to researching what I need to do different to get them to grow big--because they should reach full lemon size.

I have small pink geraniums blooming as well as my beautiful coleus plant that I brought in. J's grandma also brought me a few cuttings off her coleus with very unique markings. I got them to root (which is supposed to be an easy thing--but I have never tried it before and was thrilled that it actually worked!!) Even had one sweet pea bloom which Cami quickly picked off. I have found out that she is really not a helper AT ALL when it comes to the greenhouse--she wants to pick everything. . . NOW!

Moral of this story--the greenhouse has been a blast!! I have a ton to learn--but I think after a few years, I will have it down. I am concerned about the space when I start all my bedding plants, some perennials, and the veggies, but I'm sure I will be able to make it work. Jeremy is not at all convinced that I can make all my big garden plans work, but I explain to him that I have never had this much time available before to devote to it (I hope I can prove him wrong!!) I have the perfect setup for a roadside farmer's market--not that I would EVER decide to do that, but it is an option. I finding that all the sudden my life is full of "options" and I like it. My friend Missy always said our place would be the perfect place to have a pumpkin patch--she's right. . .HMMM. . .Maybe. . . Someday!