About a month ago we finally got around to setting up our new greenhouse. Actually it isn’t really new. I received it as a gift about 3 or so years ago. In the process of setting it up, we had a malfunction that delayed the setup process, then eventually I just decided to scrap the whole project. But this spring I decided that I would try to set it up anyway and make some on the fly adjustments to the malfunction. Anyway, after 3 or 4 hours of setup, our mini greenhouse was finally up. So far it has served us well and has withstood a number of spring storms with high winds.
I’ve been starting my own tomatoes and peppers from seed for several years now. But a couple of years ago we started experimenting with starting more perennial and annuals (herbs, vegetables, flowers) from seed. We’ve developed a pretty good system with a few wire racks and fluorescent hanging lights in our basement rec. room, but we lose our rec. room for 4 or 5 months a year.
We moved our racks of seedlings out to the new greenhouse and they seem to be thriving much better than they did in the cool basement. We’ve got a lot to learn about starting from seed and growing seedlings in a greenhouse, but the part I like most is that we will be able to get the seedlings outside much quicker and I assume that the transition to the garden will be less shocking to the seedlings.
We currently have our racks on the left side of the greenhouse and a work table on the right side. I plan on making a 1 foot wide raised bed on the right side this fall for starting fall/spring vegetables, and for some experiments with overwintering some crops.