The Greenhouse

The magical greenhouse.

I dreamed of a greenhouse for yeeeeeeaaaaars.

I mean, what gardener doesn't?!

The owner prior to who we bought from built this.

He used old RV windows.  There's still a bunch in the barn.

It wouldn't have been my first choice, but the slide openings make it pretty handy for ventilation.

And it's certainly functional.

It has water and electricity, so that's a definite plus.

There's one window that leaks really bad, so that will need to be fixed.

It's open to the shed side at the top of the wall, so that needs to be sealed up, 'cause the poor birds who find their way in get trapped.

I found a dead hummingbird in there one day last summer and it was heartbreaking.

Also, the back door has a big gap under it, so I lost my first batch of seedlings last year to some sort of little critter.

All in time.

When we first moved in, the greenhouse was the dumping ground for all the garden crap I brought with me.

These photos don't fully represent what I started with that first spring.

I had already started moving stuff over to the shed side.

This pile of grower's pots is an example of just how many plants I had been putting in the ground.

Just a few.

Hahahaha!

Such a mess.

But I headed out there on a sunny day in March, and got everything pulled out.

Then it was time to clean it.  

Thankfully, with the paver floors, I could just hose everything down.

Then came the fun part!

I hauled our fake fireplace from the old house in.

Found some cinder blocks laying in the garden, so hauled them in and added a piece of wood from under the barn for a shelf.

My old rocking chair got a spot in the corner.

A table and chairs that was given to us went in on the other end.

Then I just filled in with other random stuff we had.

When I shared pictures to Facebook, once I was all done, so many people made comments about it not being used as a greenhouse.

I was just so excited to make it a cute place that I'd wanna go to.

And I did have flats and pots filling the shelf and all over the floor once it was seed starting time.

And who wouldn't want to plant seeds next to a fireplace?!

Hahahaha.

A couple days later, I decided to hang up these lace panels to filter some of the sun, as much as just for fun.

I only got one up, the other is still out there waiting, almost a year later.

Ha!

The first night I took my glass of wine out was magical.

Proof that there was indeed seed starting going on.

This was taken in April.

And as of this month, the babies that I hauled in as a trial run are doin' pretty good.

I'm still learning how to use it.

Yes, I want it to function as more than just a cute she-shed.

So yes, I'd love to have more shelving.

I was usin' what I had when I set it up and it worked fine the first year.

But knowing now that the critters want my babies, I would like to be able to get more flats up off the ground.

I'm also on the hunt for some sort of storage something or other.

An old dresser or drawers of some sort.  I want to be able to FINALLY organize all my plant tags and seeds. 
As of now, they're spread out all over the place...the house, the garage, the shed...and it makes me crazy.

I figure the greenhouse is a perfect spot to consolidate everything.

Anyway, that's where it's at now.

I look forward to learning more about starting plants from seed and experimenting with what I can and can't overwinter in it.

Fun stuff, kids.

Until next time......