Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

A Peek Inside the Greenhouse 2

It's been a month since I last showed inside the greenhouse, so I thought I'd revisit it as part of The Greenhouse Year meme at The Patient Gardener's Weblog by Helen Johnstone (you can read her post here, and if you're curious about others' greenhouses, you can find links in the comments).

It's getting more crowded in there, so I've already given up on the thought of putting a chair and little table out there for sitting. I visit the greenhouse at least once a day, sometimes just to check on things, but also to sow seeds (and listen to the rain drumming on the roof). I did a post recently about all the seed sowing I've been doing, you can read it here.

I sowed grass seed in the small round area on the right, but so far no germination. But it's been less than a week.

I've moved all of my indoor over-wintering plants out to the greenhouse now, so real estate is getting precious, especially if I still want to be able to move around in there without knocking something over.

My Walla Walla onions are germinating like crazy. Don't they look cute with their seed hull hats?

So far only one artichoke. I'm hoping for more from seed I saved from my own plants.

Lettuce is doing well too.

Are you wondering what's in the bins? They're the ones I was planning to use in my hoophouse. I decided to move them in here instead. Inside the bins are heat mats and pots with seeds of Ricinus communis 'Carmencita' and 'New Zealand Purple,' as well as Solanum marginatum and Solanum pyracanthum. So far, no germination, but they've only been out there a couple of days.


All of the tropical plants that I either bought recently or that I had been over-wintering inside are going like gangbusters.

My Musa sikkimensis, which indoors produced all-green leaves all winter, has now started producing green with dark stripes again.

Ctenanthe oppenheimeriana 'Tricolor' is flowering

My variegated orange Abutilon has started flowering since I brought it out here too.

Remember all those ghostly white leaves my Brugs started producing in the garage? They've all greened up nicely, and are looking so lush.

And the variegated one is variegated again

It looks good next to this Begonia.

The new fronds on the Cycad are almost finished unfurling


I recently repotted a bunch of little Agaves, and while moving them around, I managed to impale the back of my hand on the large Agave 'Baccarat' in the brown pot. That was a big ouch!

The Bromelaids are all out there now, cowering from the sun underneath the table.

My rusty bat from Blackwaters Metal is hanging beside the door.

If my seeds don't all sprout, I'll have to unleash my flying monkeys (also from Blackwaters Metal).