Shoot Me: 10 of 52 - Working the the Greenhouse

Ack! I can't believe it is time to put myself in front of the camera again already. With everyone busily humming along, we haven't seemed to have an opportunity to take any group pictures, so we're stuck (again!) with me holding the camera at arms length and snapping a shot. I keep telling myself this a good way to get used to having my picture taken...sigh...I'm getting better, but still not there yet!


I've been working in my greenhouse. (Do you remember that Superman built this for me for about $150 including the two milk house heaters?) I thought you'd like to see that my purple petunias made it through the winter! (Woo Hoo!) They're hanging up in the greenhouse and waiting anxiously for the nights to warm up so they can be placed outside. (Ignore the dirty hair - I did shower, I promise. Also, ignore the door to my garage in the background...I need to put a spring on my greenhouse door so it will close behind me.)

My seedlings are popping up and I'm getting more ambitious and have decided it is not too late to plant a few more.

Head on over to Carin's place (Forever In BlueJeans) to join the Shoot Me party. Jen at Our Daily Big Top has reached 52 of 52! An entire year...kudos to her!

Fertilizer Friday - Greenhouse Edition

It is Fertilizer Friday, the time Tootsie asks us to share our gardens, our inside plants, or anything else we're using to beautify our homes as we long for spring.

This week, I'm ready to share images from my greenhouse. I've finally figured out the temperature maintenance and my plants are recovering from the freeze they experienced right before we got the greenhouse finished.

My petunias are blooming.

My geraniums are coming back.

My Gerbera daisies are recovering, but not yet back.


Even Buttercup's tomato plant is trying to give us a tomato.

Things are definitely looking up, but I desperately need Tootsie's help! Tootsie, I can't get a handle on the moisture level in the greenhouse and I'm struggling with powdery mold (the white stuff) and, I presume, other fungus issues. Most days the greenhouse is only getting up to 60F...should I be aiming for higher to dry out the air? Help!

Fertilizer Friday

It is Fertilizer Friday, but I've got nothing to fertilize. Instead, I thought I'd show you some of the Fall projects we've had going on the past few weeks. Aren't you curious?


The garden is gone. A few nights that dipped into the teens took care of that. Sprinklers are blown, hoses are put away, lawns have been winterized, and perennials have been cut back for the long winter's nap. Frankly, the yard looks barren and it is difficult to get used to after spending 42 years in So Cal where the difference between perennial and annual was never quite clear to me.

Now we're focusing on next year. We've really wanted a greenhouse, but it just wasn't in our debt-reduction budget. Then we saw this post about a $50 Greenhouse and Superman was up to the challenge. Ours ended up costing about $150, but that is including our "milk house heaters" and leaving us plenty of extra 6 mil plastic to cover possible damage during winter. The floor is insulated and separate from the deck (which is partly on dirt). This is our "starter" greenhouse and if we feel like we can make it work, we'll go forward with a more substantial one, but this is the greenhouse that will be wintering our potted plants and housing our seedlings in the spring. I think Superman did a great job. What do you think?


Now this little beauty is what I teased Tootsie about. I had pointed out a smaller version in a neighbor's yard and at Harbor Freight, but Superman felt he could do better for a lot less. Well, since he built this out of scrap wood from a neighbor's old fence and pieces of 2 x 4 he had saved, I'd say he did just that. How much did it cost? $0! Can you believe it? Free (besides his labor, which he gives freely.) And since we had little tree that didn't survive last winter's snows, we had the perfect spot for it. Can't you just picture wave petunias pouring out of a big galvanized steel bucket in the spring?


Superman is just the best, isn't he? He did this without plans. We're letting the wood get seasoned this winter and then we'll decide if we want to stain it or just leave it be...what do you think we should do? This is how it looks in relation to the house:

(See, all my flowers are gone...sniff, sniff.) So, Tootsie, pretty cute, isn't it?

Don't forget to head over to Tootsie's Garden to see what everyone else is doing these days...not everyone is dealing with snow-is-coming-blahs.