Monday, December 17, 2012

Getting the grow lights up!!

Baby lettuce's under grow lights
Me...a total vision. Nuff said.
Back in the house with my cold feet.
Greenhouse bed with lettuce. Flattened by water.
Swear to God, the whole back yard glows.
Looks like the mother-ship has landed.

7 comments:

Mark Willis said...

Please tell us about the orchids in your greenhouse.

Erin said...

Well Mark, this orchid has quite a story. My husband bought it for me a few years ago. It was a smallish burgundy cymbidium in a one gallon pot. Wen I tore the greenhouse apart in June of '11 to turn it over to veg from tropicals, I took the orchid which had by this time split its pot but not really flowered, tossed it onto the green recycle pile and left it. It sat in the pile for almost a month. We had three nights that went below zero. I glanced over at what I thought would be a blackened orchid. No, actually it looked perfectly fine. I thought, anything that is that hardy, and it split its pot right in half, deserves to live. I brought it back to the greenhouse. In the spring I googled the potting mix for cymbidium a and created a mix and transplanted it into a five gallon pot. It flowered this spring amazingly. And as you can see, it is in full flower again. It has four spikes and and a new spike of buds. The funny thing. It is starting to rise out of the pot already, Literally. It was sitting about an inch below the rim. It is now about an inch over the rim. The roots are unbelievable. I am going to cut one of the flower spikes in the morning to take into the store to put in the huge vase of holly, cedar and variegated holly I made for Christmas. It will be lovely. I'll take a picture.

Pam's English Garden said...

Erin, I'm still laughing -- 'mother ship' indeed. I admire you for your winter gardening. I take a break for the whole season. Happy Holidays! P. x

Gardeningbren said...

The Mother Ship!! Loved that. What does the temp go down to in the greenhouse? Is it heated overnight?

The story of the orchid is wonderful and I can imagine it will glow in the vase at the store.

I need to start some greens inside as well! Thanks for the reminder.

George said...

You could probably get a tan out there at night!

Erin said...

I think you're right!! I should put a deck chair in there. Iced tea. You may be onto something my friend.

Erin said...

Brenda, I never answered your question. How did I miss that! I do have a heater in the greenhouse. It was set at 12 degrees. This year I am changing it to 5 degrees.