garden: stage 2

Our free-cycled/dumpster diving garden is really coming along!  I got a flat each of Matthiola and Fuschia at work today, along with some overgrown Thyme and Marjoram and some scraggly sad peppers.  I have faith in my green thumb but I also may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew!  There are plants everywhere!!!

The flowers came straight out of a hot humid compartment at the greenhouse yesterday and its still fairly cool at night so overnight I kept them in a make shift greenhouse tent and "flood floor"  in my bathtub to ease the shock.  Its also easier to water a bunch of small pots all at once from below like this.  This morning I transplanted all the flowers and moved them out onto the front stairs.

Camden took charge of the peppers, we have a whole field of them now although we'll have to thin out the ones that don't survive to give the rest room to grow.

And I happily started to fill in around the cedar with the herbs.  The nice thing about getting huge numbers of tiny plants is its easy to establish a dense groundcover :)  We free-cycled another roadside shelf and turned it on its side to make another planter so I'm really hoping to find some veggies to go in it...

... to be continued

jeffery's greenhouse

Working in a bedding plant greenhouse (factory) during spring shipping season is hectic especially over May long weekend!!  We grow tons of annual flowers, herbs and vegetables - mostly for the Home Depot I believe although I'm not sure of the details... I had no idea greenhouses of such scale existed and ours isn't even nearly the largest.  I've been amazed by the patterns of colour created by the sheer number of identical flowers, and the geometric shapes of the parallel benches and hooped compartments.  Today was quiet because there wasn't too many production crew or mexican workers in the greenhouse, just growers.... watering.... watering.... watering.... so I got a chance to take a bunch of pictures.  A few of my favourites are below, and you can see a whole bunch more of them in my photobucket.

 watering fields of marigolds = incredibly wonderful smell

rainbows of bedding flowers waiting to be shipped

not usually a fan of begonias - but these ones are triiiiippy!

sooo many peppers!
green bells, sweet peppers, banana, habernero, hot portugal...

there's a certain beauty to the symmetry, repetition and vast scale

in the morning the floor is covered in flower petals

garden: stage 1

Getting migraines from the extreme heat in the greenhouse, stayed home today to see the doctor...

Cam has been doing a wonderful job prepping the garden for planting with the tons of free-cycled plants I get at work.  They were throwing out overgrown plug flats today, and although they're not really in great condition - full of botrytis and all tangled together - with some TLC I'm sure they'll improve!  

More free-cycling: a few days ago we found a shelf on the side of the road which makes a great planter box flipped on its side (we drilled holes for drainage too)  For now I'll fill it with the annual plugs but I'm hoping to get some vegetables going.  


We've also been ripping out the weeds around the cedar tree we planted for earth day to make room for an herb garden.  So far we've only got the chocolate mint from last year and some forlorn indoor ferns (whose' survival I have doubts about...) but we prepped the herb garden soil and a large patch next to the planter box and we'll just have to see what comes next!

quick update

So in the last 3 weeks I: wrote 7 final exams, turned 23, started a new co-op job at a large scale greenhouse and worked 115 hours of the most physical labour I've ever had to do (its not really that hard, but all my recent jobs have been retail).  I'm exhausted, but I'm getting back into shape and used to waking up at 5am.  I've met some really great new friends at this job and I can truly say I learn new useful information almost all day every day which is exactly what I wanted to get out of co-op.  It's also nice to work for an employer I respect for once and for an organization that operates relatively efficiently.  That being said some parts of the job are infuriating and I have a new-found respect for greenhouses, plants, and most of all WATER since pretty much all I do for 6+hrs a day is "moisture manage" (watering) plants... 

I had a relatively uneventful birthday a few weeks ago - 23 feels no different from 22... but Tori, Vince and Dana came from Guelph with a killer soundsystem and Camden was super sweet and got Toni and Amira (Tonamis) to cater my birthday party!!  The night consisted mostly of falafel, sangria and turkish delight.  Soooooo delicious!  The next day we made sandcastles in Port Dalhousie :)

Oh and I cut all my hair off... the last haircut didn't quite do it.  The long curly mane was way too hot in the greenhouse so it had to go!