I covet this Greenhouse!

I have an aunt who is a master grower and gardener.  Of course, she is family!  I am from a whole family of growers and gardeners back as many generations as we can account for - at least 7.  Its really amazing to see how the knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. I remember working in my grandparents gardens - both sets of grandparents.  My dads family had 11 children, and my moms had 3.  Both families grew enough to store and grew some to share as well.  We all learned how to test and try, and how to work hard to get things to grow and work.  Gardening and growing isn't for folks who dont know how to work hard - that's for sure!

My Aunt Cinny (one of the Aunties from previous blogs) has some of the best growing systems I have ever seen.  She has a giant garden - I mean giant - and then she also has this wonderful greenhouse!   It is about 24' x 30'.   I covet this greenhouse - for real!

These pictures were taken April 29th of this year.  Look how huge her plants are in the greenhouse.  you can see through the windows that the grass in her yard beyond the greenhouse hasnt even greened up yet!  We had a very cold spring remember.

She has natural gas heat so she does have a little heat in the greenhouse.  She also has a big water tank that becomes a heat sink for the room.  She has a partition system so she is only heating the potting part until the seedlings get big enough and need to be repotted into big pots or resale pots.  What you are seeing here are mostly tomatoes with the cucumbers growing up in the back of the room.  She also has pepper plants up in the rafters that are beautiful, but I couldnt get a good pic of them.  She puts them up there because they love the heat that rises up there and it makes it harder for the aphids (which love peppers) to find them.

Tomatoes are blooming already - in April!  Her greenhouse is built of wood framing and has the plastic "P-tex" type covering on the roof and also has some glass windows.  She has french doors like my greenhouse for bringing in loads of dirt and taking out loads of plants.

She has a cucumber ready to pick already!  In fact she and Uncle shared the first picked cuke with me that day.  It is tradition for them to pick it together and share it together.  Such romantic cuties!

So how in the world does she keep track of what she has?  She makes it look easy!

Here are her lists of what she planted and describes each variety based on what they are for; canning, cherry, regular, etc.  Yes it is typed and easy to read!  She also has each plant clearly marked for variety and the date that she planted it as well.  She had two different planting dates this year - both in March - one early and one later in the month.

Of course she grows some to share as well!  Below is the list of what I brought home for myself and my friend who just got her greenhouse going again after a long no grow spell.  Some of the varieties she started to see how well they would do here and if we would like to grow that variety again.

Yes - I brought home at least 37 tomato plants!  My van was full to the brim!

Stay tuned for a future post shortly that will detail which plants were our favorites, which ones we will grow again and which ones didn't quite measure up.  You have all winter to dream about what you will grow and where it might grow!  Dream big!