A Greenhouse of My Own

Almost every gardener longs for a greenhouse at some point in their journey.  When we get one we are thrilled and delighted and spend a lot of time planning how we'll use them and spending time being in them!  There's something about the smell of a greenhouse and the warm humid air.

Sometimes we have a greenhouse and then have to move, maybe some place we can't have one, or life gets in the way.  But we always remember the joy we had when we did have one.  So we long for them, always.

I've been at this location for fifteen years now, and have thought about having one but really wasn't sure where I'd put it in my limited landscape with level ground.  When I was gardening with raised beds in the beginning it wasn't really necessary to own one - and - there wasn't enough room.

In the last couple of years I have pretty much tamed the landscape to my liking, each year fine tuning it just a bit more.  This year I decided to cut back on maintenance even more by taking out several old, woody shrubs, ferns and weedy flowers which opened up the front yard. 

Interestingly enough a friend down the street asked if I'd like their greenhouse!  They were making room at their place and no longer needed it.  Oh boy!  I thought, but where will I put it??

I spent the next week thinking about it, sitting in the yard looking around and contemplating its placement.

I finally came to the conclusion that the front yard was the smartest location as it's level, gets full sun, and there was nothing there at the time.

It took a couple weeks but with tons of help from these kind people, friends, relatives and neighbors, we got it moved, set up and bolted in!

Is this a perfect fit or what?  I'd spent several days digging out the trench for the cinder blocks and leveling it so all I'd have to do was set in the blocks.  Good call as it all happened in one day!

In less than a week I had gathered up all the red bricks I have for a flower bed border around one side and the back of the greenhouse.  I'd seen several lovely photos on Pinterest for cottage garden style greenhouses and I wanted to create something similar but with a very tight budget.  I'm also not going in any large stores other than grocery shopping, so this could have been challenging.

Luckily I had enough bags of dirt from a trip to the local grocery and adjoining ACE hardware and even had the primroses which were another gift from the greenhouse folks.

I installed that old tried and true wooden arbor I built years ago for a little appeal and by next year the grass will be greened up in the lawn.

I'm taking my time with the inside too.  I laid in some big pieces of cardboard I'd been saving for flower beds, then a couple layers of landscape fabric and now am adding pea gravel as it becomes available.

It's a real dream come true for me here at Huckleberry Hollow, to finally have my own greenhouse!  

I've ordered heavy duty plastic shelves for the inside and I already have another portable metal shelf that fits inside.

I'll update again after I get the new flowerbeds in along the fence, and finish the rock garden that is going in where the big ferns came out.

Hope you're all doing well!