Monday Garden Club

Another Monday and yet again I have lots of photos of what's been happening outside and also inside my new greenhouse! First the outside stuff.
The raspberry bushes are off to a nice start all full of new growth and healthy as can be.
The rhubarb too and they are now especially happy after I spent the better part of 2 days weeding and tilling the ground around them. My arms and abs are killing me but the rhubarb needed the attention.
Still not quite big enough to pick but soon, very soon.

The strawberries got some much needed attention yesterday also, yet were much more difficult to weed around because the plants are small and the weeds managed to tuck themselves right up in next to the strawberry plants. After much swearing and using almost every tool in the potting shed, we were finally done. Oh yes, the Gardener helped too...
Hello asparagus! Still kind of skinny and young looking but I'm hoping to get out there with some (almost finished!) compost very soon to see if that will beef them up and produce more than just a handful this year.
I picked these three stems this morning and didn't even bother bringing them to the house to wash off or share and popped them right into my mouth. Yumm!


The trees are starting to bud and this beauty is already showing off some bright red leaves!

The greenhouse is complete and full of plants! We're still trying to figure out the best way to use it without letting the plants get too cold over night (hauling the flats down to the basement each night is too much work) and too warm during the day with the sun shining down on the windowed structure. There are two removable vents on each end of the greenhouse that we have been playing around with to find the right balance of warm and humid but not too hot.
So far between 70 and 80 degrees seems to be the best temperature but once yesterday (with only one vent open) the thermometer read over 100 degrees and the plants looked a little droopy and dry so I quick opened the door to cool things down and gave everything a big drink. I also left the other vent open for the rest of the afternoon. Today I tried something different. I propped open the door at the top a little bit to allow the hot air to escape while still maintaining a warm environment. We'll see....

Over night, the temps have still been dipping down below freezing so we wheel the greenhouse into the garage and put a small space heater inside it set on low to make sure that the plants don't get too cold. We also throw a packing blanket over top for insulation. All for plants!!! Sheesh, you'd think these were our children we are caring for and not tomatoes and petunias!

Anybody else going nuts gardening? Either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, greenhouse, basement or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments and I'll add it to this post.

Participating Bloggers

Out In Them Sticks
Joe