Greenhouse plants

I've been working in the greenhouse the last two weekends and thought I would share a few pictures. I'll be starting six pack annuals tomorrow.

Another picture

and one more

LOOKING GOOD!

I am so in awe of those of you that do this for a living. Can I ask if you truly love it or does it become 'just a job' on this scale? I talked to a local grower and told her of my dreams. She told me even if you do it because you love it, sometimes it becomes just a job. That makes me kind of sad. But I also believe anything you want is worth working for!

Badseed, that's so funny you asked that...It's something that concerned me before I started and I was just thinking about it before I read your post. I just got started last year and so far it's still fun and exciting - what I was just thinking about was the importance of KEEPING it that way. A big portion of the reason I decided to do it was because the job I have had for the past 20+ years has gotten to be a real downer - the company is 1/3 the size it was two years ago and I've watched coworkers that spent their lives building the company let go at an age where it will be difficult for them to find anything else. I don't want anyone else having that kind of power over my life. This business is my attempt at taking some control back. But what's the point if it isn't enjoyable? One of my goals is to keep it fun and exciting. Wish me luck (smile).

That is a really great answer and you have a wonderful attitude about it! I can barely stay in the house when it's nice. If I had a serious greenhouse with a monster heater, I don't know that my family would ever see me. :) I am so fascinated buy the huge number and variety of things out there to grow! I don't know how anyone could be bored with it. I always say anything worth having is worth working for but I can't say all work is bad. :)

Wow, Shelley! If I lived nearby I'd ask YOU for a job! I've actually thought about visiting Companion Plants at the end of the year to see if they could use an extra pair of hands. Gardening is very high on my list of post retirement activities. You sound like you'd make a great boss. You have THE RIGHT attitude! Tell me what's coming up in that top photo. Those are nice little babies. And may I ask, did you have a hobby greenhouse before you decided to go big time? Sometimes I think I sure would like a little one, but then I think about having to provide the foundation for it, run a water line to it and sink a hydrant, have electric, heat it...and it starts to feel like it would be a lot more expensive than necessary. So I will remain green with envy of your beautiful place. Oh yes, I also noticed your tables. Great idea. I may ask my DH to construct one of those for me and set it up in the basement to start seeds on top of.

I don't think it would ever become "just a job".
I like the idea of doing something & being rewarded. That never happens on a "real" job. You do something to enhance the company & somebody else will take the credit. (Of course failure works the same way.)
Good looking greenhouse shell--, you will have that sucker over full before long, LOL!

How come all the helpful people live so far from me ? We could use the extra hands & even pay good!

Best to everyone in their GH this spring.
Bernie

Thanks for all the positive comments and encouragement.

The top photo is echinacea Magnus. Various stuff in the other photos. Lots of dianthus and candytuft was started when I took the pictures. I have about 22 flats under lights in the basement and a lot more in the GH now.

Weather was cooperating for several weeks but it's been colder than you can imagine the last few days - even with the woodburner going we are sucking the propane. Come on warm weather!!!

Yes, we had a small GH for a few years before we decided to buy a large one and turn it into a small business. The story is on our Website http://www.perennialtreasures.com/

DH and I were installing a small RO system last night for my misting system. Started a lot of cuttings last year but they all bit the dust because there is so much limestone in our water (well). Propagation is my passion and the only way I was gonna be able to do it on a larger scale was with an RO system. This is a small one - suited for under the kitchen sink.

Also, reserved my space for the first market sale yesterday. They are starting a few weeks early this year (May 7th) because of some other local events. I'll have some cut flowers by then to sell along with the plants. Our GH open house is May 14th.

Still have thousands of plants that need transplanted...when I get home from my paying job I'll just through a few more logs on the fire, crank up the tunes, and dig in the dirt for awhile. If things work out as planned in 20 months I'll be doing it full time (who's counting) :)

shelly, sounds like your are well on your way to a great retirement!!!! business. Looks good. Do you try to do all the transplanting. I only have a hobby greenhouse, just because I love plants, but the transplanting sure gets my upper back. Good luck in your endeavors. DonnaS

Oh no Bernie, in a big company, when you fail, you fail alone! LOL Do something great and someone else will get the credit. Fail and YOU did it. :)

I also forgot to say I'd beg to work for any of you if you offered me a few acres in the rear of the property AND lived in a warmer zone. LOL Nobody in a warm climate ever offers to take me in. :)

It was 42º here this afternoon. Down to 30º now. Looking for 15º tomarrow morning, is spring only 10 days away ?
Bernie

The lows here have been around 15 degrees the last two days with wind chills WAY below zero. I'm one of those that doesn't appreciate the beauty of winter - we went to Hawaii last year and it was facinating! Perfect weather ALL the time and NO bugs!!! If it does rain where you are at you just drive to the other side of the island where it's sunny. around 75 - 80 F all the time. Beautiful clear blue water. Paradise on earth. Ahhh

Shell , check out Ebay for RO systems .. there used to be tons
on there for cheep , units that made like 90 to 110 Gals per Day.
and from my readings they work pretty good ..
http://stores.ebay.com/WaterFilterDepot_W0QQssPageNameZl2QQtZkm

Got to ask, whats a RO system ?
Adding a pic for some color.
Bernie

Reverse osmosis - takes my poor quality well water and filters it through 5 high pressure filters so that it ends up like the bottled drinking water you buy in the store. We had to do it to prevent the limestone build up on the plant cuttings. We used two standard filters on the misting system last year but the filters weren't fine enough to remove the linestone. Ended up with sand all over the inside of our small GH. I had a bucket with sand to store my handtools and I swore a critter was spreading it around the GH. Moved the bucket and still had sand - found out it was actually small particles of limestome from the misting system. Lost the flats I had started because the limestone coated the plants (they looked like they had been coated in flour).

Get a long hose & you can borrow water from here. We don't even need a softener.
Most MN water is very good, although a lot is hard & lots of iron some places. Taste is hard to beat though.
Bernie

What great pictures and lovely story on your web page! Thanks for telling me about it. I really like your hobby greenhouse! Are you done with it??? J-u-s-t kidding! It has however given me an idea!!!! My DH has talked some of putting up a garden equipment shed (with a porch on one end for him!) out near our garden. After looking at your cute as a button ex-goat shed and hobby greenhouse I think something like that would be just the ticket for us! I like the way you situated the 2 sets of doors to get into shed and then greenhouse. The windows with window boxes are cute as can be. It looks perfectly charming! That new greenhouse is awsome. Did you put down a weed barrier inside after the plastic was up? If so, what did you use? Your husband is awsome. He deserves LOTS of applause. This is me clapping my hands x x x x x x x x x x x x

Darleen thanks for your message (I passed along your praise to my hubby. Think he feels a little unappreciated at times)

There are loads of easy plans for building a similar GH. We leardned a lot from using ours. We pourd a concrete floor and I will never do that again in a GH. You just can't keep it clean. Miricle Grow really does a number on it. Also, it's a lot easier to heat it in the winter with a small electric heater than it is to cool it in the summer. Ours has two automatic ceiling vents and a blower at the bottom - still gets over 120 deg F in there when the outside temps reach 80 (even with shade cloth). When you build it do a lot of research on ventilation.

The shed windows were just some people gave to us. You can't see it but I have a double pane sliding screened window in the back. The inside of the cottage (we don't call it a shed - lol) has nice white cabinents, vinal floor, closet for garden tools, and a table and chairs. Has been an awsome place for me to spend quiet time in the spring and fall.

Yes, there is weed barrier under gravel. The barrier makes sure I won't spend my valuable time weeding inside and the gravel keeps my feet dry. I use landscape fabric every time I can. Just put a new shade bed in outside of my craft room last year and used it in the nonplanted areas. It's going to be heavily planted in a few weeks so I don't think weeds will be a problem in the planted area.

I don't know how far Athens is from here but if your ever in the area contact me and I'll give you the "grand" tour (smile) - also, if you want to ask any questions about building the greenhouse I'll be glad to answer anything me or my husband can.

Your greenhouse has a volume of about 14000 cubic feet of air,(30x48x12).
A 36" fan is rated for 12000 Cu.Ft. That should be enough to keep it cool. You also need the same amount of air intake space.
We have a 16" & a 32" in our 25x60x12 and a 36" in our 25x48x12. In our 30x96x12, we have 2 - 32" fans. They all seem to work out well.
The good test is the big house has tomatoes growing in it. They never had any aborted blossems last summer. They will abort if it gets to hot.
Anybody got an extra house laying around ? We are filling up fast!
Bernie

Shelly,

Your story gives me hope. I have begun in earnest the process of acquiring plants that I love and are fairly easy to propagate, plus would be attractive to the general public. My plan is to have a large inventory of 'mother' plants when we move to our 25 acres a little further north of here so that I can set up a greenhouse or two and continue to grow a business that works more on my terms.

I have a small hoop house and several growing tables at this point in time and am working diligently to learn the ins and outs of propagating each of the plants, as well as growing in a greenhouse environment. (HUGE learning curve there!!) I have a couple hundred plants ready for a local plant sale in April and will be planting seeds tomorrow for numerous other offerings. I can hardly wait until the day I can load my trailer http://dstartz.com/Truck.jpg with plants and head to a plant sale instead of loading it with drilling equipment and heading for the dusty boonies.

Thanks for being an inspiration!!

alot of propagated plants require license----
which means---- if you are caught progating a plant without license they will charge you so much per plant.
Most of the time---you get a license to progate a certain plant ( like geraniums) and they charge you so much per propagation( like $0.04) each.
Not all plants require license. You just have to check into it.

Bring that big rig up here, we can fill that baby up & away we go. Might have to rent an extra space at the market though! LOL!!
Bernie

I have a quote on my desk at the office that says..."A goal is only a dream with a deadline" Without getting too serious, I think it's sad that so many of us spend our precious lives earning a living doing something we don't enjoy. My paying job isn't awful - but it doesn't give me joy. We will have to do without some of the things we have now once I run the greenhouse full time - but who cares if I can afford new clothes or to redecorate the house? If we manage things with some sense we should still be able to travel some in the winter (my second passion) and enjoy our family and friends more often. Digging in the dirt, propegating beautiful plants and watching them grow give me joy.

I wish you all the best. I sincerely hope that soon you will be able to do what gives you joy - I know we all have to earn a living but there is no reason we can't work at something we love. Your life is a precious gift.

A few years ago I 'temporarily' worked in Houston. After being there a year it took all 40' of the lower deck to bring my plants home.

Oh, how my husband loves to tell that story!!

So Shell,

For a hobbyist such as myself, you would recommend a gravel floor. What would you think of situating a little greenhouse in such a position that it received dappled shade by a diciduous tree in the late (hot) ----summer---- afternoon?

Since I don't yet have ANY structure I guess I could "move one around" on paper to suit.

You mentioned earlier that it was hard to keep it cool, that sometimes it got too hot in the summer. For my purposes I would probably only use a little greenhouse to start vege and flower plants in the spring for the garden and flower bed. I don't think I would ever try to heat it in winter. I have lots of land and trees here and there.

yep - in my opinion gravel is the way to go. Have you tried starting plants under grow lights? We save lots of $ by starting them in the house and once they geminate we move them to the GH - allows us to keep the GH at 50 deg. instead of over 70.

Yes! Two years ago (my, time flies!) was my first attempt under lights. Quite successful with several perennials. Found LOTS of great seed starting tips in the book From Seed to Bloom! DH bought a metal/fiberboard shelving unit from which we hung the lights...way too big & heavy for me...and far too nice for my needs . It's now in the garage holding "stuff."

This spring I hung the lights end-to-end over one long board shelf down in our basement. I have three 1/2 or nearly grown kitties this spring that I KNOW I will have to keep away from seedlings, therefore the move to the basement for the lights. The year I started seeds under lights I kept the seed trays on the unit in the LR. I checked on them every evening. Wouldn't my rambunctious new kittens have a field day this spring!?! Augh!

I've dreamed how lovely it would be to move developing baby plants to a GH (if I had one) after they've sprouted and gotten some leaves and a little growth. I've thought that I could "progressively" start by rotating new seedlings under lights, old seedling out to GH. Perhaps that method would allow me to start MORE than a mere 2 banks of lights alone permit. Phototropism caused some of my seedlings near the outer edges to "lean" inward and I found it necessary to rotate the trays daily.

I just had too many flats for the lights. As the plants grew the limitations of lights alone became clear.

Shelley - nice shots of the greenhouse. Since IN gets rain and you have so much roof space, have you considered water harvesting for the misting operation?

Great idea - I'll mention it to my handy dh.

Mother Earth News has had some good articles / examples.

hey shelly----how are those new transplants coming along. Do you have an updated pic. I could look at greenhouse set ups and plants all day.

cricket

I'll try and get some pictures posted this weekend.

Funny you should mention Mother...I have every hardcopy and now electronic copys for the first few years and several additional years of hard copies. i'll have ta chek it out

The last one I remember has been in the last year I think. In fact I just dug that got that one and another recent about log homes and sent to Mom/Aunt in CO.

Won't be able to post pictures until later in the week. DH is headed for Atlanta to the Nascar race and took the camera with him....tra la la la la....I'm hanging out at home by myself...kids grown, husband traveling...la la la....sorry - haven't been by myself for about 20 years (smile)

omg what a lucky man he is!!!! im hoping my nascar driver has a GREAT weekend for a change!!!! ;)

oh he is so darn LUCKY!!!

He's not a huge fan but his brother is - they are driving from Northern Indiana to Atlanta tomorrow...race Sunday, driving back on Monday. Hope it's all worth it.

oh its worth it yes it sure is! i hope they have a safe and memorable trip!

Id luv to go to any nascar race-i want to go to bristol under the lights just once before i leave this world! Ive been to one here at the michigan speedway and got to see all 3 earnhardts race(forgot my camera)that day, it was so COOL!

Id love to go back to bloomington indiana where my favorite pop singer is too!!!! :)