Green House Red

alOha friends ; ) 

   

   Welcome back to our GeenHouse. You might remember it from such posts as: Container Garden & Garden on the  Run ; ) The plants are all snuggled up, warm and happy! We've been fertilizing with a Kelp Seaweed extract, and put all our green gals on our diet of harvested Spring water (fun project).

   And Juwels even found it in her to pull on her old painter's pants and offer a new shade for this new beginning. By the way: we recently found out that the guy who owns the ranch was going to take one of his giant tractors and level this little disregarded building to the ground before we asked about it. After it's greenness wore off, it was a laundry room, and then, little by little, a storage of clutter and things just a coin's flip way from the trash .. It depressed him too much to see it like that, but then we came along.

We patched up all the holes in the walls and gave everything a good scrub ; ) 

 

   The ceiling around all those beams was a jamdandy .. the project ran into the night, and with just one overhead bulb in the house, I lit up everything in shadow with a flashlight. I don't have a steady hand when it comes to painting and would have gotten paint all over those beams. My job, besides the spotlight, was to keep the music fresh, light some candles and cheer Juwels along ; )

Yes, I'm laying down (on a yoga mat) just me and the spiders .. 

   After hearing that most plants can grow a little sluggish on tap water and then shoot up as soon as the rains come along and they stop drinking chlorine and fluoride, we decided to buy some more 5 gallon jugs and bottle water for the plants when we take our journey to the fresh water Spring. Now we're collecting around 70 gallons per haul. (Go trucka Go!) We needed a big container for our little greenhouse water tower, but didn't want to spring for the $60 rain barrels at the nursery, or have our water baking in plastic. Scavenging around the ranch, we found a couple great rusty old steal barrels - both had been used for food storage in the past ; )

   After hearing our Micky Mouse plan on how we were going to rig a water spigot onto the barrel, rancher Bill told us to bring the barrels we wanted to his shop, and that he'd do a little welding job for us ; ) He's seriously the nicest guy.

   His plan was to cut off the smaller threaded piece that you see on the back of the lid, and then weld it onto the blue barrel that we were going to be using. All we'd have to do is screw the tap on from there - easy peasy ; )

   We tried not to stare at the sparks and flames (I've heard it will make you go blind .. but then again, they say a lot of things will cause blindness ...) but we had to sneak a peak here and there. And you know Juwels was clicking away with the point and shoot.

He had the whole job done in about 20 min. 

   I fixed that missing panel on the right side of the roof. Stays extra warm in the eves now, and we get less wasps and winged critters stuck inside ; ) 

   We scored this bird feeder (think it's actually for baby chicks) at an antique show. You know we love the old Mason reuse !!

Here's the water tower. 55 gallons of clean mineral rich water for our thirsty plants. 

   We had to do a little seal job around the welded joints .. and that golden plaster is ... you guessed it, Beeswax ; ) The water smells so sweet, and what better sealer than organic beeswax ?? !!

   The inside of the barrel was pretty rusty, and although we had read mixed reviews of whether or not rust (iron oxide) was okay for the plants, we decided to heat up a big pan of wax and swab and seal the entire inside with the golden brew just to keep it simple. It's a beautiful crosshatched texture now with a look like venetian plaster. Couldn't bee happier with it !!

   And here's the crew - growing every day. It's crazy to look at the old pictures of them and see how much they've grown. They must really like the attention they're getting from us. Just sitting in this space with the plants brings this blanket of peace and comfort over us. I think we need them as much as they need us ... 

   These flowers open every morning. It's a great meditation just to sit and watch them time lapse right in front of your eyes. Some people dip these squash flowers in egg and then fry them ..  

   Here's our little space ship squash .. pretty sure that's not the name.  Actually, Juwels just informed me that it came from a Native American heirloom seed which pre-dates Columbus. She bought the plant as a wee sprouting baby from our local farmers market. 

   This golden zucchini grew from what you see above to the one below in literally 2 or 3 days. I just baked it with some coconut oil, salt, and nutritional yeast last night. Seriously the best squash I've ever have the pleasure to nibble ; )

   We had to prop it up with a rock, so it could keep growing out of the container. After we thanked the plant for this one, and nipped it off, I placed the rock under another squash which was butting against the wall, too.

   These tomatos where just half way to that bottom ring when we planted them (in fact, this is the cherry tomato which was even more of a runt) and look at them now - reaching for the sun ; )

   The little cherry tomatoes are already coming in - Juwels squealed when she saw them. She squeals a lot in the greenhouse because something is always happening. Love their little Peter Pan-esque green velvet hats ; )

Bell Pepper blossom - if you look close, you can see the little green pepper starting ; ) 

   When we left town, the hanging plants that we have all over the studio came to live in the greenhouse, and we had a friend water for us .. we're watching her horse, Lily, in trade ; )

Here's a baby pickling cucumber, still wearing its bright floral head dress ; ) 

And a stocky white cucumber - never had one of these before. 

Grow baby grow !! 

Cayenne Pepper - Juwels likes the one that's growing in a 'J' of course ; ) 

Delectable Chocolate Mint .. we nibble a little leaf every time we stop by. Juwels actually just blended a punch with this and fresh watermelon and coconut butter this morning. Super refreshing !! 

The watermelon, doing it's octopus thing. 

   Since we don't get many bees inside, we're hoping these tiny ants who spend all day harvesting the pollen and nectar from our mellon blossoms are doing a little pollination job on the side ; )

First melon of the season ; ) 

   We're constantly evicting grasshoppers from this basil plant .. they've got good taste, those little buggers, but they've got to go. I make Juwels grab them .. can't stand that little kicking thing they do in your hand on the way to the door. 

Chicken doodle .. plants love it ; ) 

And a little sea inspiration .. 100% natural seaweed superfood. 

(Finding a totally organic fertilizer can be quite tricky these days. The first one they sold us at our local nursery said "organic" but when we got home and looked it up, we read that it was actually a chemical fertilizer. Eek! so glad we didn't mix it with our soil!)

FYI: definitely important to ask the farmers at your local farmers market if their crops are grown without chemical fertilizers. Since becoming a certified organic grower takes a lot of money and a long time, we've noticed that a lot of farmers will mark their produce as "pesticide free" but if you ask them about the fertilizer they use, sometimes it's not the answer you want to hear ; (

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   The greenhouse is doing great ! We love it, and we'll keep you updated on the growth of all our offspring as the summer wears on. Happy growing to all, love,

 -p&j