The Migration Has Begun!

Sunday afternoon, I finally had some free time to begin bringing plants inside for the winter.  I'm thinking that I'll have lots of time when it's gross outside to arrange things, maybe paint, hang some lighting, etc. For now, the important thing is to get everything inside that needs to be there.

It's interesting how much more space plants take up inside than they seem to outside!   It looked much better when it was light outside but I worked until after dark moving about 2/3 of the plants.  A nice shelf above these plants would increase the available space.

Things seem to have grown during the summer.  Hmmm. More tulip bulbs to be planted.  

The Trevesia on the right doubld in size this year!  Loree, I'm trying out the blue you suggested.  See the cabinet?   Love that color!

By tomorrow night, perhaps all the plants will have made it inside and I can look forward to playing with stuff a bit.

Hope you enjoyed this moving experience.

My Favorite Thing in My Garden This Week Isn't a Plant

I'm joining with Loree at Danger Garden in her Favorite Plant...This Week meme and breaking the rules a bit.

The spider webs continue to look gorgeous although with the heavy rain and wind we've been getting some a looking a little tattered.

While this is beautiful, it's not my favorite thing this week.  What could it be?

It's the door of my greenhouse which Tom and I installed last night after dark using a lamp attached to an extension cord from the house.   The background reminds me of a spider web. The electricians were here all day yesterday and will be here again today, and due to a slight delay, the gutter guy will be coming today as well.  So, we should have power by the end of today and be able to move plants on Sunday afternoon.  I'm later than usual in posting today because I was waiting for enough light to be able to take a photograph of the door.

 About 16 years ago, shortly after we started working on our house and I'd taken my first stained glass class, I found this new  door at the Habitat for humanity store and thought it would be great to use inside the house somewhere.  I took out the new double pane clear window and made this piece of stained glass to replace it.  We decided not to use the door in the spot I had in mind so the window sat upstairs for years.  It's full of beginner mistakes and does not represent my best work but it's just right for my funky garden and it's nice that it's seeing the light (albeit just at dawn on a gloomy day) of day again.

Probably would look better without a flash, right?

With the door in place, the greenhouse is now fully protected from the weather outside.  I look forward to next weekend when I'll have a whole Saturday free to play with plants out there!

Happy weekend everyone!

Greenhouse Progress Update

This weekend while I was playing at the plant exchange, David and his crew were working on the garage conversion.  There was a moment of panic when Tom arrived with the Uhaul on Friday evening, threw open the back of the truck and there were no aluminum H profile pieces.  Fortunately I had the direct number for Kathy Lewis at McConkey.  Although thy were closed, she was still there and, because we had to have the aluminum on Saturday, agreed to stash them behind the warehouse for us to pick up.  She even offered to meet us half way but found that the 12 foot lengths wouldn't fit in her small car.  Although the Uhaul had been returned, we're lucky enough to have a small pick up and were able to go and get the necessary bits.  Crisis averted.  Well, until the next morning when David arrived and we both thought that the other had purchased the specialty screws to put the whole thing together.  Fortunately, there was a website that gave specifications for the exact screws and, while the box stores didn't have them, a specialty place, Tacoma Screw, did!  Whew!

Polycarbonate going on the wall.  This was about all that got done on Saturday as David was alone.

Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. the three guys came and began applying the aluminum.

View from inside looking out at the alley with the garage door open. 

 By afternoon, one side was almost completed.  View from neighbor's yard. 

 Bless their hearts, they worked until 10:30 p.m. to get the whole thing done. 

Next crisis was that the rail of the door is too small for any standard door hardware.  An 8:30 trip to Lowe's yielded no specialty hardware for thin door rails.  Fortunately, I found something online.  We have a guy coming to install that, put molding around the door, and put a gutter and downspout on the side.  Once that's done, I can put the window in the door. These pictures were taken at dawn on Monday morning.

Because the guys were using the plywood ceiling to work on the roof, it was the last thing to come out way after dark on Sunday night.

Foggy Monday morning was my first chance to see what it looked like without the ceiling.

It may not seem like it but it was very bright inside, brighter than most of my garden. 

Fans in both gables for cooling. 

So, what would you do, leave the wood or paint it?  White perhaps? 

So, the electrician came and the whole electrical panel needs to be replaced including new wiring from the house to the garage.  Yikes.  Fortunately this will only take a couple of days and he suggested installing heaters on a thermostat while he was at it.  Well...o.k.   I'm thinking of covering the insulation with large mirrors to reflect light.

I've decided to use a ceiling fan for air circulation. 

 Here's where the paint question comes in again.  Should I paint the cinder block or just leave it?  It'll be covered with plants or tables anyway.  The intake shutters will be on the same thermostat as the exhaust fans so they'll open as the fans go on.  Pretty cool.

Garage door shut. We decided to leave this in case some future owner wants to use this as a place to park cars again.  So, there's a lot to do yet before plants can come in but the painting (if I paint instead of leaving the wood.)  can wait until next summer when I have lots of time. The space is roughly 550 square feet a fourth to a third of which will still need to be used for garden tools and stuff. I'm excited but am looking forward to moving plants inside.  It will be interesting to actually have space for them but it's a little daunting to figure out how to arrange the space  and how to use this once it's done. 

So, what's your vote, walls and wood painted or left as is (cleaned up a bit!)

And So It Begins

On Friday as I was just about ready to head out the door for work when
out on the street there arose such a clatter I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters (which we don't have but bear with me.) and threw up the sash.  The sun through the clouds Pacific Northwest didn't make anything look quite its best.  When what to my wondering eyes came in view but big trucks from solid waste and a small city crew.

O.k. enough of that.   The delivery of this fifteen yard metal box (Thanks to Rob Bair, a stellar member of the great team at Tacoma's solid waste utility!) was the first step in making a long-time dream a reality.  My birthday gift this year and probably for the rest of my life is the transformation of our garage (shed really as it's had cars in it once in the seventeen years we've lived in our house) into a greenhouse.  Not a true greenhouse as only the roof and one wall will be covered with polycarbonate; the other three walls will remain solid.

Actually the first steps were taken in July when I began the herculean task of clearing the garage of 17 years of things being thrown in willy nilly.  but I digress. 

I didn't want to mention this too soon for fear that something would go wrong and it wouldn't happen but on Saturday, just as planned, David VanDer Weele and his crew where here bight and early to begin.  Managing a project like this is much like preparing and performing a large work of choral music with an instrumental ensemble.  Finding materials, enlisting players, rehearsing the choir; finally at performance when the baton drops and beautiful music begins, it seems a bit unreal.

Tools are unloaded, the first ladder goes up and they're off!

Here's a view of the garage from the neighbor's yard in July just after she allowed me to cut the Hedera helix (dreaded and destructive English Ivy) that had taken over the roof.  (It's 16 feet from peak to eave so that's a lot of ivy!)

Here it is after the tear down. 

Here's  my side.  There is a path between the plants and the garage though it doesn't look like it here.

My side after half of the roof was off. 

We worked at picking up all of the debris and hauling it to the box which wouldn't fit in the alley so had to be placed about 50 feet away. We had fun filling that dumpster!

 

That's the progress so far.  Next weekend the polycarbonate will go on, fans, shutters, and thermostat will be installed and it will be complete except for the wiring of the various elements which should happen on October 10.  I'll keep you posted!