Movin' In

Here I am moving into the greenhouse on March 29th. My DH, and he truly is "dear", installed the stove, sprayed with sudsy bleach water, and picked up all the refuse on the gravel floor. (He informed me that I am NOT to eat pistachio nuts in there again, unless I put the shells in the garbage!)

As of today, April 2, I have over 40 flats out there, and more going in as I transplant and move things around. The plants seem happy, in spite of the fact that there is snow covering the lower half of the greenhouse, and the outside temps dip into the teens at night. You've got to be a tough little green baby to live in Alaska!

Wow Wz that's beautiful,40 flats??? Whew,ya sure have you're work cut out now,lol' Lucky Lady''' Love seein' those new babies pop up every spring' Wish I was there ta help ya'''

Boy, I could use the help, Sis! The 40 flats in the greenhouse are just the tip of the iceburg. In the Red Shed, I have another 60 or so, and in the basement are about 20 flats were just planted or need to be transplanted. Needless to say, I'm pretty busy, and I still have lots to plant!

OMG''''Whatcha gonna do with all these babies????

For the last couple years, I've been selling plants to local gardeners, and every year I plant more and more, so I guess we're going to be a nursery! I like to concentrate on perennials, but you just have to have perennials for baskets and borders! We're a small community, but options are limited for purchasing plants, especially locally grown and hardened off.

Wow, can't believe how many plants you have!! What temp. do you manage to keep the greenhouse at when it's so cold outside?
Do you find the plants grow well with the artificial light indoors? been wondering about getting some.
Lovely to see a photo of you and your green babies. That's some dedication!!
:)

Yes, Philomel. The seeds and seedlings do fine under ordinary fluorescent lights. I have many, many 4 foot fixtures with two bulbs each. I keep the lights very close to the domed lids to prevent the seedlings from becoming "leggy".

Of course, the plants prefer the natural light in the greenhouse, even when filtered by the snow and fiberglass. They always take off like a house afire when they get out there!

I have a really great heater in the greenhouse. Since DH is a Toyostove dealer, we have several around here. Were one to buy a new stove like mine out in the greenhouse, it would cost about $1,200. It has thermostat control and can be set to maintain lower temps at night... not an issue at the moment!

The greenhouse gets up to about 70 degrees on a sunny day this time of year, and the stove shuts down. As soon as the sun goes behind the mountains, the stove runs again. The night temps, with the stove running can drop just below 50 degrees. On one occasion last year, the stove quit and the temp dropped to just above freezing, but the seedlings survived. These little babies have to be tough around here!

i got a programable thermostat for my greenhouse
70 in the morning
75 in the afternoon
65 at night
i tried to mimick nature a bit

Good idea, Troy. We hope to have our environment under more control when we get into the big greenhouse, with venting,fans and perhaps waste oil heat which would be affordable. It's all a gradual process!

Isn't it a great feeling to walk through the snow and open the door to a tropical paradise. I love to sit in mine if it is snowing out.You can almost forget that it's still winter on the other side of the door.

Good grief! My ghouse never looks that neat and clean and organized! Great set-up you got there! Have fun!!!

g-h neat organized hahahahahahahahahahahah rotflmao

Hi weez looks like a great set-up. Nice to see ya!

It looks bright and sunny there. Nice to meet you and yes, your green house does look neat.
We have gas heat set with thermostats. If you keep the day and night temps at 0-dif, the plants stay shorter, also you can drop the temp right at sunrise by 10 degrees or so and this helps regulate the height. Just a thought.

So THAT'S why I'm having such a difficult time this yr with some of my plants! I couldn't figger out why some of them are getting so leggy...especially since it has seldom happened before! Course now...I'm trying to figger how to drop the temp at sunrise...once the sun is up my g-house starts heating up like crazy! (even with the fans on). How do ya'll do that?

Looks like you are having fun and that's the main thing! good luck with all the little ones.Elaine

The only reason this greenhouse is so clean right now is that we clean it every spring and spray it with soapy bleach water to get rid of any aphid eggs that might be hanging around. By the time I'm ready to set things out, there will be over 70 flats in that little greenhouse, so I can't afford to have anything eating them up!

Right now, I've got the heat set the same for day & night, since the heater really has to work to maintain 50 degrees at night, and sometimes it's even lower. Our spring has been clear and cold so far..down in the teens many nights!

Good job your Tom Cat's got a good stove there - and you've a built in repair man LOL!

Hello Weezingreens,

One of the things I like about garden forums is that one gets a little insight into the garden lives and localities of people so far away and who may have to cope with conditions that are difficult on the downside and idyllic on the up.
I get a little confused with all the forums in DG but I'm sure that I looked at a photo of your good self holding a tray (flat)and -dare I say- eloquently posing for the pic.
Your surroundings looked so tidy and meticulously clean. That would just suit me. When I was in horticulture I liked everything to have and be in it's place.
One of the things that finished me off and decided me on early retirement was that my position as a propagator in a local government nursery became intolerable when it became policy that all work was shared amongst nursery staff irrespective of ability or experience. Anything could happen - and did - when week/end maintenance duty was carried out by people who new little of the requirements of specific plant types. I believed that if you could not grow quality there was little point in growing at all.

Just found the pic mentioned above and got completely and utterly lost with regard to where I was before; so the mail I was replying to has now become this one - and, if you can work all that out you should not have any trouble with your tax forms :)

Peter.

This message was edited Friday, Apr 5th 5:10 AM

Oh, Peter63! I'm afraid I could not live up to your standards of neatness once everything starts to get going out in the greenhouse. I get so busy that I can't keep up, and the plants start to grow so fast that I feel like throwing a tarp over the greenhouse and taking a break! Sad but true, I'm much more clean about my growing than I am about the house, which is literally abandoned over the summer months. We have so little time to grow things that I just can't bring myself to stay indoors!

I can understand completely your dissatisfaction with sharing the plant keeping with others. I feel that way about my seed starting and transplanting. People offer to help because they would like to "learn", but I don't want to see my little green plants killed because someone doesn't know what they are doing. I offered a class in transplanting at our local garden club, and 4 people attended, so I don't feel guilty about refusing help and hurting feelings.

Yes, I can work out all the twist and turns in your posting, but, alas, the taxes are less clear. I fear my ability to retain information is directly related to my interest in the subject matter, so my brain is mush for taxes, but clear as a bell for plants!

Weez, so that's why I have such a hard time with the taxes!! And all along I'd been blaming it on the computer!!