August 19, 2023 April Antics

 Right on schedule in late March, warmer temperatures arrived and the spring thaw was here.  Joel was able to kayak down from his house to ours right before dark one night.

 

We reassembled the greenhouse before all the snow melted in preparation for seed planting.   Joel and Audrey make a great team.

Reinstalling all the plumbing for the heat tables takes Carl a good day to accomplish, but it is much more efficient to provide the plants with bottom heat than to heat the entire greenhouse.  This year's plant count was just over 3000 annual and vegetable seeds which is about average.

The greenhouse is only up from late March until June; it would make more sense to keep it up all year round, but the location isn't ideal, so for now, it is the ritual every year.  

Once I had the seeds in the ground, it was time to do another annual chore, bending, welding and painting cemetery planters.  Carl's late father has made these planters for decades and after he entered assisted living, the torch was passed onto Carl.  He spends weeks cutting, bending and welding the iron before I get involved with the painting.  With our good friends, Jerry and Terry's help, we were able to get them all painted in one day. 

 

                                      Yes, I've got a cool hat.

                  Jerry and Carl hard at work with the paint.

For early April, it was a very hot day and we were glad to get the chore done.  Several local greenhouses purchase from us every year for their customers.  Carl can spot them from the car whenever we drive through a graveyard.  

With the planters done and the seeds planted, we had a little time to decide what was next on the agenda.  

The spring flowers were putting on their show though we barely had time to look at them.  Our hens were enjoying their time roaming around the garden, looking for bugs and scratching all of the mulch out onto the lawn.  Oh, chickens, you gotta love 'em. 

What I really don't love about them is their strolls across the front porch.  I haven't porch-trained them yet, and they leave evidence about every two feet on the concrete.  Such a mess!  Time for screens on the porch next year.

Carl was able to reinstall his ball fountain creation by the front porch this spring.  We'd disassembled it back in 2019 for the remodel and it sat forlornly in a pile for the last four years.  He had to make quite a few repairs and adjustments which took a few weeks to perfect. 

We had overwintered a slew of geraniums and coleus last fall and I was able to make about 100 cuttings. 

Before long, the greenhouse was chocked full, especially when we made a few visits to greenhouses. So, at this point in late April, things were on schedule, not much to do at the moment other than keep things watered and fertilized until planting in early June.  

What to do with the month of May?  Well, it was time to bid my late parent's home goodbye.  

Up next.