Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Cleaning my greenhouse

My greenhouse has had it's annual cleanup-it took me most of last week to complete. I moved all the plants off two tables and placed them on a 3-tiered shelf in the greenhouse. The plants were packed so tightly together that if I touched one a domino effect would take place and they would all crash to the floor. I watered them thoroughly before moving so I wouldn't have to worry about their drinks. We moved the tables out to the patio, cleaned them with soap and javex and then my husband proceeded to remove some warped slats and replaced them. The tables are 20 years old and have only been painted once. I bought a semi transparent colour stain and after applying it, realized the original stain was a solid colour. Rather that drive back to Home Depot I decided to use it anyhow. Pine darkens with age and so does the stain and when the plants are on top of the table, the wood colour will be unnoticed. So... the tables were painted and returned to the greenhouse and due to the muggy weather mid week, they took 2 days to completely dry. Before returning the tables to the greenhouse, I cleaned all the windows and scrubbed the mildew off the aluminum and mopped the floor. It was a BIG job. On Friday, it was a cool day and I worked all AM-moved the plants back to their home tables-cleaned the 3 tiered shelf-it will get painted next year. While putting the plants back, I repotted any that needed it and prepared a couple to flats of plants for our Horti Fall Sale on Sat., Sept. 10th. My greenhouse looks great now and hopefully I can keep it that way. I brought some of my red geraniums inside recently and divided them into 3 plants and they are doing very well.
The garden is looking good these days, thanks to the rain that Hurricane Katrina sent to us. I have been eating and giving away lots of Tiny Tim tomatoes. My sweet red peppers are absolutely delicious-I have been roasting them on my George Foreman grill. YUM! I have been drying lots of herbs and will take some to the Plant Sale. The flowers are doing better. The squirrels have not discovered the new regrowth of sunflowers-I have Giants, Red Velvet and Lemon Yellow and Teddy Bears. I look out the window every AM and luckily they are all still there.
Yesterday, a beautiful hummingbird spent the whole day in my Petunias - what an amazing creature!
Kids start back to school today - and it is gorgeous here-I will be out in the garden this AM for sure.
HAPPINESS IS COOL FALL WEATHER!!

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