Spring Fever!

I am not usually a fan of winter. .primarily because I HATE being cold. .and I find it only fun to put on more clothing if I can still keep my arms down at my sides!

The seed catalogs are coming in droves. .and most of them have pages dog-eared and items circled.  I'm thankful for a small respite from anything winter in my greenhouse. .and wanted to show you what's up!

Here's my "row" of tomato plants.  I started them around the first of September. .and should even try a little earlier next year. .though it may be hard to achieve with the height of summer gardening going on then.  We decided to do more of the Black tomato (black seaman) this year, since it was BY FAR the best tomato harvested last winter.  I also started several grape tomato plants.

They are coming along fairly well. The big tomato plants are all blooming and most bushes have several tomatos growing.  The grape tomatos are still small, but appear to have some blooms coming on as well.

In all, there are 12 tomato plants in there. .twice as many as last year. .and I think I can easily get several more containers in next year.  The plants, because they are determinant (only grow so high), don't get really big. .or at least they didn't last winter. .so you can pack them in pretty tight and continue to have good air circulation. I am still in the experimental stages :-)

These pepper plants are the ones I started last March after I baked the first set in the oven. .If you missed that story. .You can find it here

Looks like the varieties will include both red and yellow bells.  Yummy!

I ordered several different lettuce blends last spring. Unfortunately, since the Christmas season was SO busy, I haven't sown much lettuce. I will probably start sowing a patch every 2 weeks for a while. 

We ate a cutting a few days ago blended with some iceberg lettuce from the store (it would take 2 solid greenhouses full to feed my family of 6 a whole salad!!) It sure is pretty. .but then I AM biased! And it makes a nice combo with the plain green lettuce.

This photo shows the north side of my greenhouse. .with my recycled shower doors used as shelving on the same terra cotta brick used in the floor (recycled as well). I have some herbs. .oregano, chives, basil, lemon thyme and lavender on the top shelf. .peppers, lettuce, orange tree and coleus cuttings on the second shelf. . and on the floor is another pepper, some baby elephant ear bulbs and 2 succulent plants salvaged by my friend Jen from the local nursery after they got partially frozen one night.  They are making a great comeback!!  I also saved one small purple fountain grass from my deck and hope to divide it into several plants this spring.

Several of the coleus cuttings rooted in and will need transplanted soon.

And I am enjoying their pretty purple spiky flowers! I also successfully rooted in a couple of passion vine flowers.  You may remember that I tried that late last summer, with a failed attempt!! This time I tried 6 cuttings. .3 in soil and 3 in water.  1 in each medium croaked. .the 2 in the soil have rooted and are putting on fresh growth.  The cuttings in the water are alive, putting on new growth, but have not sprouted any roots yet. . I think I will soon go ahead and try to root them in soil. .and then decide where to plant all these climbing beauties in the spring! What a great science experiment!

I'm still working on learning my new camera. I HATE the fact that I have to make time to open and navigate the instructions on the DVD provided. .I'm a little old fashioned and would prefer to have a little book to flip open! Here's a photo of the red berries that are on my nandina bushes (heavenly bamboo).  I think that some little critter is eating the berries. . but I'm not sure what it may be!

And, is this unbelievable to anyone but me?? This is a flower bud on my red honeysuckle vine. This photo was taken on December 30!! There were 2 buds. .despite the low temps hitting around 8 degrees! IMPRESSIVE!  Looks like I'm not the only one around here to have a little

Spring Fever!!

Have a great weekend!