This has been a busy week. We have been working hard to get the greenhouse up and running. I was optimistic at first that I would be able to plant by Friday, Saturday at the latest. But as the week wore on, I was beginning to wonder if I’d be able to plant before some time next week.

We had the woodstove sitting in place but the chimney wasn’t hooked up. We had various parts and pieces for chimney’s, but discovered quickly we didn’t have all the right ones for this application. It took several trips to town and my son-in-law stopping several times on his way home from work to get all the parts and pieces. Some needed exchanging several times, while others were too long, too short, or we took back what we needed and had to go back and get it!

In the meantime, my husband wanted to paint the cracks in the floor again before I started getting the floor dirty and wet. We need to insulate the floor because the greenhouse is above ground. We don’t want any water getting through the floor to the insulation. When we first built the greenhouse, we coated the floor in a waterproof paint used on boats. But over the winter it had cracked around the edges, and some of the joints in the middle of the floor had opened up a little bit.

We ended up putting down a mesh type tape and then painting more waterproof paint over top of the tape. Hopefully this will seal the cracks up. We’ll see next spring, as it seems the extreme dry winter has a lot to do with the drying out and cracking as well. Hopefully things have dried out and stabilized now that it’s been up for a year.

I also needed to finish filling the beds and amend the soil. Last year we got a huge pile of cow manure from a friend of my husbands. We went and scooped up some of that with the backhoe, or tried. It was still mostly frozen, but I was able to get some I could use in the beds. I also added a mix of 2 parts bone meal and 1 part blood meal and just added a couple of handfuls to each bed. From here on out, I’ll use a liquid fertilizer when needed as I water.

We finished all that Saturday evening, and I was tired. We didn’t have any wood hauled over to start more than just a small fire to season the fire bricks. We did that to check and make sure everything was functioning properly and then headed inside.

This afternoon after Church I decided it was time. I have been itching to get stuff planted out there for over a month, and everything was ready. I took my tomatoes and peppers out along with my marigold’s and a couple of the herbs that were mixed in with things.

I discovered I don’t have enough tomatoes though. A friend is bringing me a white tomato to try, but I may have to go and buy a few more tomato plants. I still have to plant the green beans, cucumbers, and the rest of the herbs. I may still have a little room, so I might try something else from the greenhouse. We’ll see what we end up with for space.

I am excited. Last year was a bit of a learning curve. This year I am on the alert for aphids, as that’s probably the only pest that I’ll have in my greenhouse. I’ve already had some in my house, and I didn’t even bring 3 pepper plants in the greenhouse as they were covered. I don’t want to fight them off before I get started.

So, I guess it’s the end of one project, kind of (we still need to insulate), and the beginning of the next, the summer garden season! I am so excited to get my garden outside up and running now too, but that will have to wait for at least 3, probably 4 more weeks.

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