Mini-Greenhouse Fun

We've had our little "mini" greenhouse for about a year and a half.  Here is a picture of it right after we got it.


http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-greenhouse.html

Our main purpose for getting it is to have a place to house the tomato and pepper plants we grow  for sale at our farmers' market in the spring.  We start them from seed in our basement.  At first they don't take up much room and grow under lights on shelves, like this:

But as we start transplanting them from the little boxes into 4 inch pots, then the space they consume goes up exponentially.  We have several other sets of shelves like this on the other wall of the basement.  After transplanting, we put them on these other shelves for a couple of weeks to give them time to settle.  Then they get moved out to the "mini" greenhouse.


We don't heat this greenhouse until we put the tomato and pepper plants out there in the spring.  Tom moved the first plants out there last week.  So, the fun is just beginning.  Before long we are going to be "busting at the seams"!


So, what do we do with this little greenhouse in the winter?  Well, we don't heat it.  However, there are things that will grow during the winter even without heat.  One of those is lettuce.  During  a bathroom remodel a couple of years ago, Tom saved a bunch of the drawers from an old vanity that was torn out.  He drilled holes in their bottoms and made them into planter boxes, like this.

These pictures were taken in December.   I enjoyed standing inside this little greenhouse on cold winter days and picking a few leaves for a salad for dinner.  But, this phase is now at an end and these planter boxes are being replaced with flats of pepper plants.  Tomato plants will soon follow.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find room for all of them!