Thirty years later and my enthusiasm for gardening, has not waned. I still get a thrill when the first seeds germinate, and cuttings taken from mature plants, take root. When I putter in the gardens, I feel a sense of accomplishment when I look at a flower in bloom, and remember that I started that flower from seed. Or my eye rest on a shrub and I realize that shrub started in my greenhouse as a small cutting.

Because so many of our plants began in our greenhouse, they have become a living diary of our gardening journey on this tiny plot of land we own. They are a reminder of my gardening mood the year those particular seeds were selected: Victorian, Urban, Country, Zen. They also bring back memories of past growing seasons, some good, some not.

There was the year the power went out during a late spring snow storm. We scrambled to set up folding tables in the kitchen and dining room to set all the flats of seedlings (23) on. For two days, getting to the fridge or into the cupboards, meant moving a table with ten flats on it.

One year, the cover of the greenhouse ripped, and risking our own safety, we struggled to tape the rip together, perched on ladders, in a blustery wind, to save the flats of seedlings growing inside the greenhouse.

There were funny moments too; Losing a boot and my balance, in a mud puddle while attempting to close the ventilation flaps on the outside of the greenhouse. Opening a bale of potting mix only to end up wearing and/or eating a goodly portion of it. Neighbourhood cats hopping on the benches and chowing down on the catnip transplants.

The 2008 growing season has begun. It is on a much smaller scale this year. The enthusiasm is still present, but lack of time has forced a cut back on production. Instead of starting several hundred plants, I’ll only grow a few hundred.

The annual mind boggling task of making up seed orders is underway. As expected, the list has grown wild and a severe trimming will be required to get it under control. There just isn’t enough room in the greenhouse or the yard to start all of the seeds that are currently on the list.

Plants for our container gardens (thirty-seven last season) dominate the order list, with herbs a close second. This year I’m toying with the idea of growing drying flowers again. Vegetables, shamefully, are few (who has time to can and freeze anymore?). A couple of houseplant varieties have even made it onto the list.

Every year I promise not to order so many seeds .Every year, I break that promise and don’t doubt the same scenario will be played out again this year. The next couple of weeks will be a frustrating, hair pulling time.

When the seeds orders begin arriving, I’ll be kicking myself for the seeds I did not order. Once the seeding has begun and the greenhouse fills up, I’ll be kicking myself for ordering order so many seeds. As the planting out starts, I’ll be questioning my sanity. But, come June, when everything is planted and growing and blooming like crazy, I’ll be reminded why this obsession with gardening is worth it.

Poinsettias are not my favourite plant, but I loved the challenge of growing them in a chemical free environment, something the “experts” claim is next to impossible. They are wrong! But, I’m not going to bore you with the technicalities of growing poinsettias.

One of the most often asked questions asked by our customers was “How do I care for my poinsettia when I get it home?” Here’s our answer:

As soon as you get the plant home, remove the protective sleeve. This prevents damaging ethylene from building up. If you’ve purchased the poinsettias as gifts, but don’t intend on giving them right away, remove the sleeve until just before you deliver them.

Place the poinsettia in a bright location, away from cold drafts. They deeply resent cold.

Poinsettias do not like wet feet! Keep the soil on the dry side, but do not allow the plant to wilt. That just shortens its life.

When to water? When the pot feels light. If the bracts (leaves) are beginning to wilt, you are not watering soon enough.

Remove the decorative pot cover before you water.

When you water, drench the pot, being careful not to splash the foliage.

Fill the pot to the rim with water and allow the water to drain out the bottom of the pot. I usually water them in the kitchen sink so I know they’ll drain well.

After ten minutes or so, replace the decorative pot cover and you’re done!

You should not need to fertilize the poinsettia over the holidays.

And on a final note, Poinsettias are not poisonous! That is a myth. Research, tests and studies have proven that poinsettias are not toxic to human or animal life. The sap can, in sensitive individuals, cause a very slight case of dermatitis that lasts for a very brief time, but that is the worst thing that can happen.

There was a period of about three or four years that I did not have my own greenhouse, and no prospects of ever having one again. But ingenuity and a passion for recycling made my hobby greenhouse a reality. It began by accumulating old windows, with the thought that I could attach them to a frame and build a greenhouse. I soon discovered I could not afford the lumber to build a greenhouse large enough to satisfy my greedy addiction to plants. Never one to give up easily, I continued accumulating (scavenging) bits and pieces of “stuff” that I would use in and for the greenhouse I knew was going be in our garden someday.

While shopping at one of those giant box stores, I noticed a sale on one of those easy-up temporary car shelters. I glanced at it, but carried on through the store. As I wandered and shopped I started thinking about this shelter. When we left the store, we left with the shelter, a.k.a. the frame for my new 10’ x 20’ greenhouse. One of my (free) recycled finds was several pressure treated 6” x 6” of varying lengths. They would form the sill for the greenhouse. A neighbour was throwing out old wooden screen windows. When she heard of my greenhouse plans, the screens were offered to me, free, for my project. Now I had ventilation for the greenhouse. Another neighbour was renovating and offered about fifty pieces of 1” x 2” x 8’ lumber to me, free for the taking as well. Now I had a frame, a sill to set it on, ventilation, and lumber to close in the end walls. All that was needed now was a plastic cover. I could not and still can not afford greenhouse plastic, but vapour barrier is affordable. Two rolls of greenhouse repair tape were more than enough to piece together the vapour barrier into one sheet of plastic big enough to cover the entire frame. Make that two sheets, because I put a double layer of plastic on the greenhouse. Out of the 1” x 2” lumber I built the end walls and a door, covered with more of the vapour barrier.

Every greenhouse needs growing benches and again, my penchant for recycling paid off. The benches are made up of wooden pallets and concrete blocks that were destined for the landfill site until I put my pride in my pocket and asked if I could take them. For free. The potting bench was also rescued from a trip to the dump and was also free. Next, I needed a solid path between the benches. Ideally, I would prefer a gravel walkway, but that was beyond our budget. Keeping my eyes and ears open, I heard of some patio stones that were being removed. I offered to remove them and take them away, for free.

It took about one full year to gather everything the build the greenhouse, but it was certainly worth being patient for! Every spring I spend hours upon hours in there, listening to Vivaldi, planting seeds, pinching seedlings, fertilizing, transplanting, or just puttering away. Nothing is as enjoyable as the hours I spend in the greenhouse. What makes them even more special is knowing I saved the landfill from filling up with “stuff” and what few things I did have to buy, cost me less than three hundred dollars in total!

By the way, do you know anyone who could use some old windows of various sizes?

The annuals that fill the greenhouses every May, actually began their voyage early the previous fall. The greenhouse grower, armed with seed catalogues and sales statistics from the growing season just past, begins the slow process of determining next season’s annuals crop mix There will always be geraniums, petunias and pansies to grow, that’s a given. The tricky part is selecting the colours. What is the current colour trend and what is the new one on the horizon? Has that trend exploded onto the gardening scene, or is it creeping in? The answer helps determine the number of plants of each colour required of a particular variety of annual.

While awaiting the seed order’s arrival, the amounts of pots, trays, soils, fertilizers, pesticides and growth regulators required to produce the crop is calculated and those are ordered. Hopefully they are delivered before the seeds.

Next the greenhouses and growing benches have to be cleaned and sterilized, top to bottome, before a new crop can be started.

When the seeds arrive in the fall, some will need to be started right away (geraniums), some shortly after the Holiday Season to ensure a saleable plant by the first week of May. Before the seeds can be planted, hundreds of the seeding flats must be filled with “soil”. Then they can begin planting seeds. To give you an idea of the vast quantities involved, in our greenhouses we used to plant 50,000 petunia seeds every year and the same for pansies and impatiens.

Waiting for the seedlings to reach transplant stage, all the pots and cell packs must be filled with potting mix and set into trays. By now it is the middle of winter, still cold and snowy outside, but warm and sunny inside the greenhouses. But that warmth doesn’t come cheaply. If you think your heating bills are high, think of the greenhouse operations that must spend three, or five thousand dollars or more per month on heating just to grow annuals.

When the seedlings reach the transplanting stage, all those flats of seedlings need to be potted up into their final containers. Again, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of tiny plants needing to be potted up by hand. Once that is completed, the fertilizing and pinching, applications of growth regulators and pesticides, all need to be attended to daily.

Even though it is winter and your favourite greenhouse is closed, the owners and staff are not relaxing on a warm sunny beach throughout the winter months. They are busy in their greenhouses, seven days a week growing annuals for your gardens.

In May, when you go to the greenhouses and purchase annuals, think of the many months it took to grow them. Think of the thousands of dollars and man hours already spent producing the crop. And, if the greenhouse operator has increased the retail price by a few cents, perhaps now will understand why.