I snapped a few pictures of the greenhouse over the weekend and thought I would share.
The tulips and daffodils are still looking good. I’m been trying to decided what I’ll plant once the flowers die back. Ideally I’d like to have something tall in the flower pots. Something that will last all summer long.
What do you think would work well?
Check out the gutters. Don’t they look cool with all those veggies growing in them?
Spinach seedlings.
Swiss chard {I’ll have to start thinning these soon}.
Mesclun salad greens. They should be ready to harvest in about a month or so.
The heads of romaine lettuce are doing AWESOME. I was going to transplant these outside, but they are doing so well in the gutters I think I’ll leave them in there until it’s time to harvest.
The strawberry crowns I transplanted into gutters are thriving as well. If you’ve never tried growing strawberries in gutters before it’s a piece of cake. Just remember to make sure they have plenty of room to spread out and you’ll be fine. If I remember correctly I planted the strawberries about a foot apart.
First strawberry blossom of the season.
Even though the Chinese and purple cabbage is thriving in the greenhouse, I think I’ll plant the starts in the main garden this weekend. I need the room. My goal over the next week or two is to re-pot all the tomato plants we have growing inside under grow lights and move them out to the greenhouse.
Typically I plant tomato plants outside in the main garden around Mid-May. They need a week or two to harden off and placing them in the greenhouse for a few weeks should help with that.
How about YOU? When do you plant your tomatoes? Do you grow them for seed or are you happier buying tomato starts instead?
~Mavis
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Cellar Door says
How did you build that greenhouse? Looks great!
Mavis says
I didn’t build it. 🙂 I had it installed, but thank you.
Robin says
Have you thought about growing borage in those pots in place of the tulips. It gets tall has pretty blue flowers and the bees love them. http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/index/srch:borage
Another pretty one is Amaranth to consider.
Just a thought. The green house is looking mighty fine.
Lauren says
I am thinking about strawberries in gutters next spring, but I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to keep them from drying out too much. The old Aussie summer can be pretty rough. I think i may be able to rig up some soaker hoses or something similar.
Cecily says
I usually put my tomatoes out the first Saturday in May. Mine are starting to get flower buds and I will start hardening them off this weekend. I’m in zone 7b.
crlzmmr says
What do you mean when you say, “once the flowers die back”?
You need to leave the daffodils and tulips foliage until it dies-off (turns yellow)
otherwise they will not bloom again.
It will look messy/ugly until they are done storing nutrients for next year.
Will you be able to stand it?
Are you planning on digging them up (trashing the bulbs), planting something else,
and buying new daffodils and tulips bulbs next year? Seems expensive…
Or are you planning to dig them up (without destroying the foliage),
and plant them somewhere where they can naturalize
(multiply and come back year after year)?
Mavis says
No, I won’t be able to stand it and I will remove the soil and bulbs and plant them somewhere else. 🙂
Meredith C. says
Zinnias would be great in those containers–if you can grow them where you live. They grow great here in Texas!
Michele Mercer says
I started with seeds this year for tomatoes, but they weren’t going well. So I got aggravated (bad idea) and re-started my seedlings…then they all sprouted! I am separating out my little guys and (most recent count) I now have 62 Roma Tomatoes, 35 and counting large tomatoes (can’t find the seed packet!) And I have probably 70 cherry tomatoes going…not to mention all the extras of everything else I planted. Completely overrun!!!
Handing them out to coworkers and friends as soon as they get bigger and healthier. Anyone in the DFW area what a few…dozen?? Lol. Hopefully the Texas heat doesn’t bite me in the butt later this summer. Still setting up my garden and putting in the soaked hoses to keep things watered well…I hope.
Mavis says
Seed starting is so much fun. I totally over seed too. 😉
Margaret Bushee says
Looks great! How did you attach those gutters to your greenhouse? Thanks!
Maria says
Yes, how did you attach the gutters?? Would love to do this in my greenhouse.
Cary says
I love your blog!!! Funny story… there’s a worksite about 2 miles from our home (solar farm) and they have stacks and stacks of pallets. Yesterday I drove by and saw they are destroying them so I turned around in the middle of the road (my 8 year old was freaking out- Mom what are you doing? Are you okay???) and went back to ask if I could have 8. Guess who’s building compost bins this weekend????
😉 I usually start my tomatoes inside. Ours are about 8 inches tall right now. Did you build the greenhouse?
Amanda says
Mavis, have you ever used Jiffy pots? Did they give you a mold problem? I grew quite attached to my little seedlings this year, and I’d put 2 seeds in each pot since some of them were old seeds, so I decided to thin them very early on and transplant the ones I pulled to jiffy pots. I think proceeded to grow something I didn’t even have to plant seed for: massive quantities of mold. I mean, some of the pots are an inch thick all the way around the pot. Most are white and fuzzy, but one is green. The one other time I used these pots, I had a mold problem, too! Interestingly enough, the ones with Jiffy brand seed starting mix (which is really crumbly and loose) are fine, while the ones with another brand of seed starting mix (which is more soil-like) are fur balls. I took out the ones that weren’t moldy and put them in a separate tray and then spread out the moldy ones so there’s plenty of air circulation, but I’m thinking about just washing and bleaching some old plastic pots from prior years’ purchased plants (my mom has saved, I would say, easily over 100 of them) and moving the little guys to those instead (and returning the packages of unused pots!). What do you think? Is it something I’m doing? They’re in a little indoor greenhouse and I have lights on them for about 15 hours a day. I’ve started leaving the bottom of the greenhouse unzipped on both sides about 1-1 1/2 feet…I’m thinking perhaps I may put a fan in there. The only other thing I read online was hydrogen peroxide in the water (which, by the way, helps with fungus gnats on houseplants).
Mavis says
I’m not a fan of the jiffy pots. I like using the jiffy pellets much better. I think the pots are too thick and don’t break down that great. I hope that helps.
Kim says
Your romaine lettuce looks great. I think you need to add to your harvest numbers and start picking some. I like to go along the line and snip off one of the outside leaves from each plant I have. It is a great start to a nice dinner salad. I then wander around the yard looking for other things to add such as chives, beet or radish leaves or other herbs starting to pop up.
Amy says
Mavis, have you thought about snapdragons for the pots that now contain daffodils?
Mavis says
Yep! I love those and have some seeds. Thanks Amy. 🙂
Sandra Sanders says
I bought 6 Rutgers tomato seedlings 2 weeks ago from one of my favorite farmers at the market. They have been individually potted and are outside on my deck soaking up the sun! I’m in South Carolina, and right now, we’re having moderately cool nights and very warm days.
Debbie says
Will you keep all your lettuce and greens in the gutters or are you just starting them in the gutters and then planting them outside? I just got the top on my greenhouse and am ready to start planting!
Mavis says
Both actually. In the colder months I’ll keep them inside the greenhouse and the warmer months I’ll plant them outside. 🙂
Sabine says
I want to try to plant strawberries in the gutter as well and hang them in my greenhouse. How do you take care of them in winter?
Lisa W says
How did your chard do in the gutters? Was there enough space and soil for the plants to grow very large? I’m trying to find an ideal system for my new kitchen greenhouse. Yours is incredibly beautiful!