Spring (?) in Northern Vermont

Last year in the beginning of April we were two weeks earlier than normal. This year the weather has put us at least two weeks later than usual. The photo below is our "pansy house." Normally we would have the sides unrolled, tables set up and be filling it up with our hardier annuals. Those bulges in the plastic along the ridge line are huge chunks of solid ice. Until they melt we can't get the darned thing set up.

Our largest greenhouse is packed to the gills, and we have to move plants somewhere, so we are putting them into the "geranium house" where we managed to get the sides down, but it still has snow on the floor, as you can see by the photo below.




Meanwhile the big greenhouse is packed and the plants are happy for the time being, but we are pinching and are going to have to spread things out soon.


The plants in the greenhouse do not know we are having a colder than normal spring outside and they are growing in leaps and bounds. I'm excited about most of the new varieties and will post photos in the next blog.

Happy Mothers' Day

The snow is falling lightly (I hope!) outside and I just wanted to post a few photos before I head back to the greenhouses. Business yesterday was good, despite cold, windy and wet weather. Praise be to the mothers!

First some photos of damage from that last freak snow storm ... the day after.



In the next photo my son is on the right with the red hat. He took apart all the wood and with the help of my pal Rose and a carpenter, rebuilt all the tables.


Part of the roof...



And now for the good stuff - nothing was hurt inside the greenhouses.



"The tomato house" -





A lot of fuchsias went to new homes yesterday...



And here is a "Kids' Corner" customer. I sell plants for ten cents each for children 16 and under (limit five plants each.)



And now I must scurry back to the greenhouses.

The Snow is Melting ...

... And I am in my usual spring frenzy of planting seeds, transplanting seedlings and getting ready to uncover and dig perennials. I was wondering how people find the time to write in their blogs and thought it would be fun to take some “before” photos, with every intention of having fabulous “after” photos to show later in the spring.

The “big greenhouse” has a peeked roof and the two layers of plastic stay on it year-round. In the fall we roll up the plastic on our three larger hoop houses, as it gives the plastic a longer life and saves potential cave-ins from snow, which I did have one year.


Above and below is the “pansy house” right now.






And the pansies have been started in the big house..


Below is the "tomato house" as it looks right now.







Stay tuned!



The benches outside are empty and will slowly be filled as it warms up.



We haven’t put the glass (recycled doors) on the cold frame (above) along the big house because if we have a late snow it would break the doors. We are filling up the big house and even have some blooming thunbergia.






The red-winged blackbirds have arrived. The children next door are playing on the swing and I have even seen some motorcycles go by. They are predicting 60 degrees today and then back into freezing temps. Onward.