Wistful Wednesday: Greenhouse

Years ago we had a small greenhouse business.  It was hard work with long hours.  I hated watering and felt like I was attached to a hose 12 + hours a day. We opened the business in 1999 and closed it in 2007 when potting soil, plastic and heating costs went through the roof…that was also the winter that Far Guy was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia.

We began with just one greenhouse and expanded to two and then added a small Perennial house.  Far Guy had his own Greenhouse where he grew vegetable plants in four packs… and many tomato plants in small pots. He grew special order veggies.  I grew only flowers…and kept my special orders over in his greenhouse. 

This was Far Guy’s Greenhouse.  Now a days he uses it for a work/woodshop. I use part of it for a glass studio to make glass flowers.  We have a warm dry place to work on rainy days.  I have many projects stacked up out there to work on.  Out of sight out of mind.  I should really take a photo in there but I will spare you.

May 16 2004 My Greenhouse

As you can see my OCD or CDO made an appearance.  Tags just so and banks of color.  Aren’t those Marigolds pretty!  Here in Minnesota people don’t plant much of anything until mid May to June 1st. We will sometimes get freezing temperatures into June.  This greenhouse is no longer here it was sold after we closed the business.

I have been thinking about what I want to plant this year out in my little flower garden under the bird feeders…Salvia of some sort for the hummingbirds…and maybe Impatiens. Some pansies for sure. Years ago I had a Day Lily garden out there then they froze out.

I have my Solar Lights…last weekend Far Guy told our Grandson Adam that it looked like Las Vegas at night in our yard.

Do I miss the business…sometimes…I miss the people that came back year after year.

19 year old project

A long time ago back in 1998 on an incredible hot summer day in August Far Guy dismantled an old Windmill near Buxton North Dakota.  It was scheduled to be toppled over and demolished. We knew the little old lady that owned the property and she asked us if we knew anyone who would like to take down a windmill. 

Part of that windmill was assembled and is near the Wild Gardens.

No it is not as tall as a windmill should be.  One sumer day back about the year 1999 Andy helped assemble it and get the legs set in concrete. I declared it tall enough. Years ago wild flowers called Rockets were planted underneath…you could see them for a few years and then the woods took over.

The vanes lanquished in the grain bin until this week.

Far Guy collected them. My other baby brother was by and said “You can get rid of that scrap metal if you want, just put it in my pile.” 

What?  It is not scrap…just a very old project. I helped to form the two hoops.

Far Guy has been working on it throughout the week.  It is not quite done…but it was far enough along to be placed in the yard.

I wasn’t expecting that it would go in the air.  Leaning up against a tree is just fine with me.  Just beyond the Japanese Tree Lilac that never blooms are three oak trees that the riding mower cannot fit in between…it is a perfect spot for some yard art!

Chance posing for the photo. It is not quite done…it still needs another hub bracket…but it was far enough along to be placed in the yard. That old hub has been moved from here to there used most recently as a door stop. Far Guy reports that he has one half of a vane left over.

Original Wildflower Gardens

I planted flowers in this area 18 years ago.  It used to be more formal gardens, we tended gardens in between customers all summer long.  After we retired from the greenhouse business we were both burned out and just let the gardens go “wild.”  We don’t water or fertilize or do anything special, what survives …survives!

Flowers by the sauna, Gaillardia out front and Ratibida out back with various other flowers. The Gaillardia is going to seed and is on my list for collection!

Ratibida pinnata

The small windmill.  You can see the sauna and my garage in the background.  The Liatris, Rudbeckia and Physostegia (Obedient Plant) are in bloom on this end of the gardens….along with some really tall Thistle.

Liatris out in front with a sprinkling of Rudbeckia and Marge Grass in the background.

This is a new arrival this year, it showed up on the edge of the Marge Grass. It is a Helianthus  or Woodland Sunflower.  A bird must have dispersed the seed into the area.  It is a native to Minnesota plant.  Not to mention one of my favorite flower colors!

Chance usually walks out to the gardens with me. When he was younger he would run the perimeter of the gardens and lay in wait for the ball.  Nowadays he doesn’t run, he will play ball on a good day but lays down with the ball after it is thrown once or twice.

I took these photos on Tuesday toward evening, yesterday (Wednesday) it rained all day.

Wistful Wednesday: The Grain Bin

Back in 1998  the grain bin was put together piece by piece.  It was just like a big jigsaw puzzle.  It was a team effort one of us would be on the outside shoving the bolts inside where they got a nut, then they got tightened up whilst the person on the inside held the nut in place with a box end wrench.

During the winter 1998/1999 while wintering in Florida we ran onto a fishing net on a private beach.  We dug part of the net out one day, got too tired and hot and returned the next day to finish digging it out. We let it dry out and shook most of the sand from it, but it was still really heavy.  It was draped around the grain bin in the spring of 1999.

Like I said before we use the grain bin for storage.  Lord only knows what is really in there.

This photo was taken in 2000.  We edged the bin garden with little logs of Oak.

This was the year we planted Morning Glory ‘Heavenly Blue’ around the whole thing.  Too bad I didn’t get a photo when they were in bloom.

 

This was the other side of the grain bin the year I ordered too many Non Stop Begonias.  Someplace I have some photographs of the Honeysuckle Trumpet Vine that grew wonderfully a few years..then it got a bug and died.  I tried to grow fancy varieties of Clematis to climb up that homemade ladder several years with no luck.  My two old lumberjack saws have been retired to the garage.

2013

The old fishing net is still there.  The vine Clematis paniculata or Sweet Virgin’s Bower is growing well and is beginning to spread northward.

It is in full bloom now, it smells wonderful.   Originally I got this “start” of a plant from my good friend Faye.  The vine dies back to the ground every year, it sends up new shoots every spring which we try to help by tucking it into the old fishing net:)

Wistful Wednesday: Windmill Gardens

In the fall of 1998 we cleared the spot for the first greenhouse and built what is now my garage, but back then it was retail space.  It was nip and tuck getting the bows for the greenhouse up on Thanksgiving weekend.  We retreated to Florida for the worst of the winter in our camper.  We  planned to build a house..that would come in due time.

My Dad gave us an old Butler Grain Bin so we would have someplace dry to store the chain saw and our tools.  The grain bin also covered up our well.  A greenhouse needs water so we had a hydrant put right inside the greenhouse.

Looking back..we must have been nuts.  But we made it work.  It was work.  Hard work.

July 2000

This entire area was woods.  The trees were cut and stacked. Brush was removed along with poison ivy. (You have to have light for a greenhouse.)  The stumps were grubbed out and burned.  My Dad built us a road and a parking lot.  The greenhouse in the photo was attached to the retail area (the green steel building..now my garage.)   Perennials for sale were on pallets and benches.  We began some perennial gardens and a vegetable garden.  We were either weeding, watering or trimming something all day long. For a number of years we also sold trees and shrubs. We were open for business from May 1 to October 1st.

We grew “stuff” real good.

We made the decision to close the business in the spring of 2008.   I have not regretted that decision.  Sometimes you just know when it is time to move on in a different direction.

I took this photo a few nights ago.  The gardens are “wild” now. Unorganized and weedy.  Perennials still poke through the weeds here and there especially in rainy years.  My greenhouse was sold.  Far Guy still has his greenhouse (the white building behind the sauna) he uses it for a wood shop.  The grain bin remains..I hardly ever go in there…I believe it is a wood storage area for wood to be used in wood carving…and other really important “stuff.” The Pine tree that we saved back in 1998 died last summer..the drought stressed it out.

At one time we had three greenhouses back in here.  One was mine for annuals, one for perennials and Far Guys for native plants and vegetable sets.  We still have old customers who say they miss our flowers and that no other greenhouse in the area carries the plants that we grew.

I don’t have any plants in pots to water anymore, I do not buy plants and rarely go into a greenhouse. (If I do visit a greenhouse I have a hard time with plants that have bugs and plants that need water.)  Far Guy has a couple of tomato plants in pots. The wild gardens get along with what ever moisture comes their way.  It all seems simpler that way:)

July 2001

Windmill Gardens 1999-2007

2006 Photo

I hate to go to town this time of year. I can't make it through the grocery store without someone stopping me to voice their opinion. "I sure miss your greenhouse, are you opening this year?" NO, I am sorry." You aren't open this year either..when will you reopen?" DUH? Never... comes to mind. "I can't believe you closed, he looks fine, when is he done with Chemo?" Yes, my husband looks just fine, there is no Chemo involved with Trigeminal Neuralgia ( just unrelenting pain and medications). He shaves his face and head..he was tired of just being partially bald. "No one grows plants like you, and they don't have the plants you used to grow either." Sorry. One old lady just burst into tears. GEEEs LOUISE.

During greenhouse season..I might have to don a disguise.. a dress..sunglasses and a scarf should work.

Last year was the end of nine years in the greenhouse business for us. In 1998 Far Guy was retired from the Military for a little itty bitty stress related heart attack that he had back in 1995. We didn't know what we would do next. Obviously I could no longer languish around getting my degree in Horticulture anymore..I still miss NDSU, the students and the instructors. I got a job as a grower out in Idaho, chains in, chains out, near a little town called Bonner's Ferry. On our way back to North Dakota to put things in order, Far Guy said " I am not sure if I can live that far away from home..couldn't you grow some stuff in Minnesota?" After much prayer and thought, and input from our children "The grand kids will only know you as the airport grandma." We broke ground here among the Oaks on a piece of property that my parents had given me as an inheritance. Far Guy and I made a deal..Minnesota in the summer..Florida in the winter. We would build a SMALL house in Minnesota. Yes!! I would get to sit on the beach part of the year!

2005 Photo

The first year we cleared trees, built my "garage" and set up one greenhouse and lived in a Camper..not much fun in Minnesota in the winter..so we escaped to Florida during the worst of the winter. ( Far Guy was fairly miserable, but I had a really good time! ) We came back the end of February and I began to "grow" .. and Far Guy began to learn. I would not recommend to many women that they take their flower challenged military style husband and try to convert him into a vegetable grower..but I did..once he had the basics..he was a natural. So we were a team. A good team. We grew and grew, eventually to three greenhouses, that totally consumed our time every year from March through July. Most days were 14 to 16 hours long, with little time for sleep. We built up the business from scratch and developed a very loyal customer base. We built a house, a bigger house than I had envisioned... sadly we have not been back to Florida.

In December of 2007 Far Guy was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, in early 2008, I made the decision to close the business. It was not an easy decision, Far Guys health was just a part of it. Greenhouse supplies had skyrocketed, fuel prices were outrageous, I did a cost analysis and a projection of how much I would have to raise the prices to survive and make a small profit. It was plain..it was time to throw in the hose, shut the doors and get on with life. Windmill Gardens 1999-2007 RIP :)