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Greenhouse Filled Up!

Yup, that’s right, we have already filled up the new greenhouse… The rain has been looming over us this past week, so we finally bit the grit and moved all the succulents under cover. With that, we are forced to think about what it means once we acquire more plant inventory… Luckily there is still room in our original greenhouse and we have space to grow in the garage. We will definitely have to utilize the garage to grow our more sensitive succulents– which will open more space outdoors… it will all work out. 🙂

inside view
View into the greenhouse!

So far we are noticing the greenhouse is staying relatively warm! There is a lot of condensation that develops on the roof. That is the only issue I see causing problems in the next couple months– issue because when the condensation falls from the roof it waters the succulents with COLD water– that don’t want or need to be watered and probably would prefer to not be given practically freezing water!

Honestly, since moving up here, I have had to let go of anything I thought I knew about raising succulents– I used to just be able to leave my succies outside and water them… that was it… Here, with the less hardy succulents, they require a lot more of my attention so they don’t freeze or rot. We are learning to appreciate Sedums and Sempervivums as they are cold hardy succulents that will do well in the PNW— we are still in testing phase to see if they can handle a freeze and/or snow and lots o’ water.

plants in quarantine
Our 4 plants in quarantine!

Since we used to keep succulents scattered around the backyard to bask in the sun we became used to looking out of our office window to a beautiful view. Since moving the plants under the greenhouse, the backyard looks so empty! Brett’s mind is running with great ideas to better utilize the yard now. Stay tuned for that…

Rain is in the forecast for the next week- since the succulents are under cover, I am less concerned about the water- now to make sure the plants are not freezing and root rotting. With its white cover, light is plenty inside of the house- so this is not a concern, yet. Even with the shortening of days, Brett has reminded me that the natural sunlight will increase a bit in the winter over the house because currently, we have cherry tree leaves causing a few areas of light blocking to the greenhouse– once those finish falling (about 1/3 done) we will get to see a whole new perspective of light on that corner of the yard. It is always a challenge to get the most out of available sunlight on your property and we are not immune to that considering we don’t own a property that we can build anywhere we like.

We have been kept busy preparing for our first market on Friday. We have another market next week too! We have our display pieces figured out, our pricing models decided and pieces ALMOST to final products.  Please enjoy the behind the scenes pictures of our booth for Night Market.

We will catch up with y’all next week! Check out the Patreon page for updates on business progress and follow us on Instagram & Facebook- we will be posting various information across all of these platforms.

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Fall has arrived! Garden updates…

Since our last post, we have repotted EVERY container plant we have in the backyard– and most of the houseplants too. We are seeing an improvement in the health of our little succulents as they have a better draining soil to stretch out their roots in- we found that our old soil had compacted to dirt mush and most of the 2” succulents were becoming root bound and sitting in some water- due to the rain we have been getting and less sunny days to dry up all that water.

small transplanted arrangement

In an attempt to fight the rain gods from killing all of the plants, we have moved our favorites and the most sensitive varieties into the greenhouse to best protect them… Brett always laughs at how much I try to fit into our greenhouse (because all of them are my favorite)– but stuffing is never good- it leads to less air circulation & less light being able to reach all plants. It is time for us to increase our growable space.

We are finding that we are going to need to change our attack plan for keeping the succulents protected this winter– Initially we figured our small greenhouse would house MOST everything and whatever didn’t fit would be kept in a sunny, rocked area in the yard —  we realize, it’s not going to house them all… SO, we are going to build a greenhouse structure in our side yard that can fit all of our temperature sensitive plants– the spot is already cleaned out and set-up as a dog run from previous renters, so the prep is easy, now to gather supplies and do the build.

What happens if the greenhouse doesn’t keep your succulents warm this winter you ask?? Firstly, we learned that we own many varieties of succulents that CAN survive the colder winter temperatures and have separated them from the rest of the flock as the “outdoor troopers”. These include our sempervivums, sedums, and stonecrop varieties. The most tender succulents will be brought indoors to be grown under our LED light system in the garage– that way we will reduce casualties overall should that fate come and winter is a beast… My fingers are crossed this will not be the case!

For the greenhouse build, we plan to use PVC pipes and a transparent 4-6 mil. thick polyethylene. Sounds good, eh?? Well, it always looks good on paper— Stay tuned to see what worked and our final result.

Our leatherpetals are getting massive!

What are you doing to prepare your plants for winter? Let us know below.