Starting the garden
Messy, inefficient, and completely satisfying
Inefficient for sure. My system for starting the garden is a new adventure every year. There were the years when the guest bedroom was covered with pots and trays and lights, and some years chicks in big metal tubs with heat lamps, making the whole place overwhelmingly warm, damp, and smelling like a barn. When that became too much, I moved the operation to the kitchen, which spilled into the dining room and eventually to any/every available surface. When we moved into our current house, we built shelves in the basement with lights that could stay all year round, and I set up a table to start my seeds. It seemed like I had finally come up with a system that worked and allowed us to use the kitchen and dining room from the end of February through May. But no.
A couple of years ago, we put a little greenhouse in the garden, which doubles as an art studio. It’s pretty small, about 6’ x 8’, and unheated. So it’s not really useful for starting seeds in the winter, at least not here in Michigan. But by March, I really want to be in it, and there are sunny days when it is deliciously warm and bright inside, and with a little heater, I start to spend a lot more time out there working. And really, starting seeds in my little garden shelter is a whole lot more inspiring than sitting in the dark basement. So, in an effort to make things as time-consuming and disruptive to our daily life as possible, I once again have all of my seed starting supplies on the dining room table so I can either work there, with a view of the sleepy garden, or even more inefficiently, fill my trays with soil, take them to the greenhouse to fill with seeds, and then take them back down to the basement to put under the lights. That way, I can take three times as long and three times as much space. My husband says nothing except that he likes sitting on the floor and eating at the coffee table.
By the end of April or early May, depending on the weather, when it is time time to start hardening off the seedlings, well, that is when the greenhouse does improve my efficiency. Instead of moving seed trays ( usually about 20 72-cell trays) from the house (every available surface, including the floor) in and out every day, I can put them in the greenhouse and manage the temperature by opening and closing the door. Phew. The greenhouse also encourages me to be better about succession planting, keeping the garden fresh through fall.
So currently, it is the end of March, the time when days are unpredictable and nights are below freezing, and I am sitting in the greenhouse with my little heater running, watching the sun creep up over the house. By mid-morning, I’ll be able to turn the heater off and might even need to crack the door. I have brought the hyacinth bulbs in from the garage, where they were cooling all winter, and have them in forcing jars (and any jars I had lying around). I also picked up a few pots of Muscari and Daffodils from the grocery store (I’ll plant them out into the garden later this spring) – a little pre-gaming before the big spring bloom. Last fall, I added nearly 1000 bulbs to the garden, so if all went well over winter, the show should be pretty amazing.
I’m glad I’m not the only one winging it for garden starting! Some years I’ve let this discourage me from even starting so this makes me feel better. Your greenhouse is magical. Happy gardening!