Potting Season is here!

It has been a busy spring!  We've gone from loafing around the house to working our tails off getting ready for our respective selling seasons.  I've been working in the basement on soap and candles and such, and Steve has been transforming the backyard into a plant nursery!  Because he is starting fresh, everything is getting done in the reverse order - ideally he'd be working in the greenhouse, then moving to the outdoor area, but the plants have to be potted up within a specific time frame, so that has to come first.

Here's what we started with - not much there:

This picture is from when I moved in - it doesn't show the shed I had built last summer.










Here is the back yard when things got going.  It's March 31 of this year - finally warm enough to start working outside.  And it's time to start potting up the root perennials that came from a Nova Scotia grower - things like hostas, astilbes, perennial geraniums, daylilies and lots more.  You can see supplies like bales of potting soil, pots, and pallets - Steve uses these to make raised tables to put the potted plants on.  The pallets allow the water to drain so the plants aren't sitting in too much water.  The pallets are used ones that the building centre is happy to give him.  :-)

The first pots are done - we started with the hostas; there are 4 different varieties.  The blue and pink sticks (plant names) in the pots are from old window mini blinds - nice way to recycle/reuse, eh?  :-D 










So here is the main view of the back forty on Day One.  You can see the lumber at the right that will be the frame for the greenhouse - when we actually get to it!   It's pretty bare, but it won't stay that way!
 

Fast forward a week to April 6th.  Lots more plants in pots and there are now tables for the pots to sit on - well some tables for some pots to sit on anyway! 

So here we are - tables on the right and the basic shape of the greenhouse laid out.

Here's the supply pile.  All the lumber in this pile is scrounged - from the same building centre where we purchased the lumber for the greenhouse (it's hard to find scrap 6"x6" pressure treated stuff  LOL) and where we get most of the discarded pallets.  There are some nice 4x4's for table legs and some good 2x4's and other stuff there.





 And here is a special plant - the only outside plant I 
brought with me from my old house.  It's the About Face Rose; the one I thought the deer had killed by eating all the buds off before they bloomed.  The one that didn't come up the year before I moved, but did the last summer I was in that house.  It got stuck in the ground at my new house (supposedly only temporarily) and apparently loves it where it is.  It's growing again - if you look closely you can see the leaves beginning to grow.  And yes, that is a strawberry plant beside it - left over from last year.




Another week or so goes by and here it is April 14th.  Lots more pots full, lots more tables built and work on the greenhouse is at least started.  But the plants come first!









You can see from this photo that the sills for the greenhouse are being placed.  And that there are now tables on both sides of the back yard.  Though I'm going to start calling it the back garden - it's much more than simply a "yard"!
 

A little better look at the sills and just how loooooong the row of tables is!









The supply pile is going down.  And, yes, that is an aluminum screen door for the greenhouse.  Traded for plants.









And we must have a picture of the gardener himself - though it's still pretty chilly, it's good to be working in the dirt again!

Another ten days goes by and more progress is made.  A generous friend needs her gardens (yes, multiple gardens) thinned out and Steve gets to keep a whole lot of those plants - lilies, evening primrose, columbine, creeping phlox and a lot more.  We actually have to make several trips to get all of it.  Then, of course, all the plants have to be potted up.

So now there are three rows of tables - and more to come.






Another week goes by and it's May 1st - May Day.  It doesn't feel very May like - still chilly and wet-ish.  But the work goes on.  Another row of tables and lots more plants.  It's lawn mowing time and our Plant Man has more plants from other clients to pot up.  Some we're not sure what they are, but he pots them up and we wait in anticipation for blooms so we can identify them.  Some of the plants we only have one or two of will go into the ground to provide for next year.

There are now 4 rows of tables and one started for inside the greenhouse.  That's a lotta plants!








Not all the plants are in the back garden.  The rose and strawberry (along with the sage, thyme, basil and rhubarb that you can't see) are in the little garden by the little barn.  Steve painted the dragon that guards them.  And those are weeds too.  Sigh.  My job.




It's May 2nd - Sunday.  And we made our first sale from the back garden!!! And then another one the next day!!!  Apparently word is getting around - we've been told that the town is buzzing about the new plant place where you can buy perennials - Whoo Hoo!!

These are the most recent pictures taken - on May 5th.  I'll take more soon, but you can see that we're still working away getting stock ready.  Soon the time will be past for potting for sale this year, and anything we put in pots after that will be for fall plants or for next season, or plants that we'll put in the ground to cultivate for next year. 




The table that was in the greenhouse area has been moved and a pallet has been put in its place, while the table is now filling up with pots.

The supplies are going down.  The last bale of soil has been opened, as has the last bale of peat moss.  There is one more bag of sheep manure and quite a few pots left.  We plan on accepting used plant pots to re-use, but until we get enough for a season, we've had to purchase new pots.  Listen to me!  "We", "Our" - LOLOLOL  You'd think I was the gardener!

 One of the gardens at the front of the house - tulips, crocus, hyacinth are up.  The little shrub is a spirea that we moved to this location last year when Steve put these gardens in for me.  The lights look really nice at night.

Here is the garden at the other side of the front stairs.  The pink hyacinth is in full bloom - pretty isn't it?

And another look at the About Face Rose and the little herb garden - complete with protective dragon.  Yes there are weeds, and yes the grass needs mowing, but that has to wait until the potting crunch has passed.  We thought we'd be able to take care of some of the lawn today, but it rained off and on all day.  Oh well.  It will get done eventually.



As always, if you click on a photo, it will open a much larger version.  Don't forget to click the back button to get back to the rest of the post!

Thanks for looking!