Category Archives: Greenhouse

Under Construction

Posted on June 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

In January, we said YES! to helping the neighbors move a greenhouse over their pool to our backyard.

We made it this year’s big project.

In March, I wandered over and labeled the parts and then sketched the layout to match the labels. We thought it was going to be difficult to take apart and even more difficult to put back together.

All those pavers! All that dirt! All those posts!

In April, we pulled up, scraped off and stacked the pavers on pallets and used the skid steer to get them to our backyard.

And finally, at the end of May and into June, we transported the dirt and moved all of the pieces of the greenhouse over…not piece by piece, but section by section.

Now, the bones of the greenhouse are in our yard and our neighbor is ready to turn the pool back into a…pool.

It was over a week of heavy lifting, scraping and transferring to move the pavers.

Then, a week of hard work in sweltering temperatures to get the dirt out.

When it came time to move the rest of it, it took two days and a few friends to help carry the light but unwieldy parts.

Operation Greenhouse has come a long way since the beginning of the year, and now we are only a weekend or two of work away from using our very own greenhouse.

A greenhouse out back
Filled with produce of all kinds
A garden all year

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Posted in Garden Stories, Greenhouse, Haiku, Writing

The Raised Beds

Posted on June 5, 2017 | Leave a comment

We shoveled, wheelbarrowed and transported dirt this weekend from the greenhouse at the neighbors to our yard.

Because the greenhouse is, well, a greenhouse, the crew had to work early mornings and at dusk when the temperatures were not so high and the air was not so still.

Midday on Saturday, before quittin’ time, they brought the raised beds over.

I watched the skid steer lumber over the yard, that first bed in its metal arms and felt giddy.

Even with all the garden space we have, I’m excited about these raised beds. Most of them will go in the greenhouse when it is up, but a few will stay out along the deck holding lettuce, spinach and all the leafy greens.

Once we set up the first bed, I started preparing the soil. I raked in egg shells and vegetable fertilizer and watered it thoroughly.

Once the bed was ready, I planted:

  • 2 rows of kale
  • 1 row of spinach
  • 6 rows of four different varieties of lettuce
  • 1/2 row of lavender
  • 1/2 row of rosemary
  • 1/2 row of basil

I labeled everything, but as I don’t have much luck with labels staying in one spot (ahem…cats and kids), I also drew a map.

The “MG” stands for marigolds. I planted 3 rather sad looking specimens down the center and plan to get a few more to add this week.

I might be a little “off-schedule” with some of the varieties I planted, but it is definitely not too late to start a garden.

Most garden centers have a seed starting schedule specific to your area/zone that is based on the average last frost date.

All those greens, broccolis, cabbages, beans, brussels sprouts and other cool season crops can continue to go in the ground from now through mid-August.

So don’t give up if you think it’s too late to start a garden! Plant now and you’ll have fresh garden veggies for the fall.

Fall gardens are best
For yummy sides and salads
And the taste of sun

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Posted in Food, Garden Stories, Greenhouse, Haiku, Preparedness, Writing

Day of Dirt

Posted on June 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Yesterday was a day of dirt.

Digging.

Shoveling.

Crushing.

Ray and a team over at the neighbors started transporting dirt from the greenhouse to our yard.

Joe and Jake helped by stomping and crushing the pile.

Meanwhile, I dug holes and transplanted raspberries and seaberries out in the swales.

There are seaberries coming up everywhere in our fedge. They run under the ground and pop up in, around and between other rows.

The root system runs wild under the ground from plant to plant. This means that when you dig one plant up, you usually end up with two or three all strung together.

It wasn’t until I’d dug up the third plant that I’d noticed the nodules.

All of those bumpy white nodes that look like a cluster of eggs are packed with nitrogen. They are just waiting to spread and feed the plants and trees around them. Pretty cool!

After all the raspberries and seaberries were in their new homes, I mixed water with some Superthrive, a liquid multivitamin for plants, and gave them a good soaking.

By the end of the day, I’d transplanted 10 raspberries and 8 seaberries and we had a large chunk of dirt in our backyard.

Playing in the dirt
In the hot summer sunshine
Gives me a warm glow

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Posted in Garden Stories, Greenhouse, Haiku, Life, Poetry, Writing

Second Step: Patio Pavers

Posted on April 22, 2017 | 2 comments

We’ve taken the next step in Operation Greenhouse Transport.

We’ve labeled the poles and posts, now it is time to get started pulling up the pavers and transferring them to our house.

Even though I am SO excited that we are getting a greenhouse…I was dreading this part. Pavers cover the ENTIRE floor of the inground pool the greenhouse was built on.

The. Entire. Floor.

We trudged over to the neighbor’s to get started. The boys in tow.

“Should I bring my tools?” asked Joe.

“I don’t think we’ll need them for this step buddy.”

Once inside, I stifled sigh.

This was going to be a big job. It was going to take a long time.

Once we got started though, it went pretty quickly. We got into a rhythm.

The boys and I pulled up the pavers and scraped the dirt and sand off with putty knives so they would stack easily. Ray did the heavy lifting and hauled them over to stack them on the ledge of the pool.

Our neighbor opened up one of the sides, and Ray handed the pavers out to him to put on a couple of pallets we brought over.

By the time we left, we had removed about half the pavers. Half!

I headed home to start dinner and Ray stayed a little longer to chat with the neighbor and pull up a few more pavers.

The boys and I were tired and dirty, but we felt a sense of satisfaction with our work.

“Well, I guess I didn’t need my tools,” said Joe.

The greenhouse is close
And we will transport it soon
Excited for fall

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Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge, Garden Stories, Greenhouse, Haiku

The Greenhouse: Labeling

Posted on March 11, 2017 | 3 comments

We are finally getting started on transplanting the greenhouse from our neighbor’s pool to our backyard.

We knew it was going to be a big project. I’m not starting as many seeds this year, nor am I planning to order any new trees and shrubs to put in. This project, I’m certain, will take up more than enough of our time this Spring and Summer.

Earlier this week, we trekked over to the neighbor’s to take stock and form a plan.

You know how sometimes a situation can seem like more work in your own head?Yeah, this is not one of those times.

This is going to be an undertaking.

We will have to remove the greenhouse in pieces. Short of inventing a shrink gun, there’s just no way we can transport the whole thing in one piece.

We will be bribing family and friends to come over and help us move all this…stuff. The fridge will be stocked with cold beverages, the steaks will just keep rolling off the grill and cookies will be available at all times.

I will not, I admit, be doing most of the ‘heavy lifting’, but I will be project managing this beast.

The first step is to label the pieces so that when we take them out, we will be able to (ahem) easily put the whole thing back together again.

Then…we will need to slowly move all of the patio pavers from the bottom of the pool to our back yard.

Then…we will need to get a vacuum excavator to pull out all the soil under the patio pavers.

Then…we will need to carefully take the whole thing apart and move it to our backyard.

Finally, we will start the reconstruction process using my sketch and labels as a guide.

Easy, right?

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Posted in Garden Stories, Greenhouse

This Year’s Project

Posted on January 23, 2017 | 2 comments

Our neighbors…the ones who built the gorgeous greenhouse…moved to Florida last fall.

We were sad to see them go. They had been wonderful neighbors. We helped each other out with the odd project. We went out to dinner a few times. We used their greenhouse to start seeds.

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“Maybe you could advertise that the house comes with a free gardener,” I told them over dinner…only half joking.

Once on the market, the house sold quickly.

“If they don’t want the greenhouse, tell them we’ll take it off their hands,”  I said when they told us. I was completely serious, but I didn’t think that it would actually happen.

Then, one day 6 months after they’d moved in, the new neighbors called us.

They wanted to take the greenhouse out and turn it back into a pool. Were we still interested in it?

“How much do you want for it?” Ray asked.

“If you take it out, you can have it.”

We were filled with joy and, at the same time, dread. This was going to be a big project.

Scratch that. Planting 80 trees  was a big project. This was going to be a huge project. 

The greenhouse, the fan, the pavers, the dirt, the tables….all of it will be ours. All we have to do is figure out how to get it out of there.

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Gulp.

We are going to wait until the weather is a bit warmer before we start. In the meantime, we are making plans.

Where are we going to put it?

What are we going to do to heat it in the cold months?

What are we going to do for the floor? Pavers? Concrete? Or will we leave it open so we can plant directly into the ground?

And, perhaps the most important question?

Can we get it out, rebuilt and ready for planting by the fall?

I sure hope so.

Stay tuned! This is the first in a series of posts about this project. 

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Posted in Garden Stories, Greenhouse, Permaculture