Greenhouse and Garden Work

We took advantage of this warm weekend to complete some greenhouse and garden work. Our greenhouse could be called a hobby greenhouse due to its small size – 16′ by 10′. And while that does sound small, you can grow a lot of plants in it. It’s an aluminum frame with fiberglass panels. They don’t really make them of this material any more due to much better products on the market, but it works fine for us.

One downside of rigid fiberglass panel greenhouses is the fiberglass loses its transparency over time (becomes opaque) and become brittle. As this one has some years on it it has a number of holes and developed a couple of cracks this last summer. So, handy me bought a fibeglass repair kit, cut a number of supporting patches out of an unused panel and went to work. Let me tell you, working with fiberglass cloth and resin is messy business. Fortunately, I followed directions and had all of my supports and cloth patches cut before I mixed the resin. It was a sticky, stinky mess but all of the patches worked like a charm. After a couple of hours the greenhouse is leaking a lot less air.

I also added a new bench for plants at the back of the greenhouse in an area we were using for storing tools. On Sunday I added a system to keep the hose out of the way suspended on shower curtain hooks and installed a peg board for Jen’s drip irrigation supplies.

Jen installed a new bed in the garden for onions. I love onions and this year we have two beds of them! We also have a great crop of garlic coming up. The bulbs are from my grandmother at the Naivar Farm in Granger, TX. She also put some protection around a very nice head of cauliflower to keep the sun from marring it. We’ll post pictures soon.

Here’s a fun time-lapse video of me building the greenhouse: