GREENHOUSE INTERUPTED

And there I was; enjoying the space and sunshine out in my lovely new greenhouse with all my precious green babies when Mother Nature did a U turn and headed us back into winter.

It’s not like she doesn’t do such things on a semi-regular basis so I’ve been keeping a careful watch on what my weather app on my phone tells me.  Ever since I moved the tiny seedlings out to their own accommodations I’ve been mindful of how cold the nights are.  Their first night out I only had a small heater going – even though the thermometer said it was still a few degrees above zero in the morning I can tell you the watermelons and morning glories were NOT pleased with the situation.  From that point on they were tucked in with a much larger heater and a heat bulb for good measure to get them through the nights.  All was going well.

Until, of course, Mother Nature’s manic episode last weekend.

As I said, I keep an eye on such things so I knew it was coming.  There was lots of time to plan so I think it was Wednesday night’s insomnia stretch (my typical 2:30 to 4:15 stint) that I spent devising how to keep those babies warm.  After all, if you’re not going to sleep anyway, you may as well put the time to good use.  A person can only solve all the world’s problems so many times before the satisfaction gets stale.

I decided that I would move them all to the floor of the greenhouse, drape a plastic curtain over the area and stick the heater in the tent with them.  Same size heater, much smaller space: had to work.  I did the work and the temps dropped to -3 that first night.  Nothing died but they neither did they look happy.  Did you know that pumpkins can pout?  They do when they’re cold.

My weather app told me that things were going to get worse before they got better; obviously this was going to call for a Plan ‘B’.

There were options – like more heaters, which meant more extension cords from other outlets because of the fear of them tripping a breaker.  And even then, at minus 8 or 10, was that going to be enough?  The snow was starting to fall as I made the executive decision to haul everything back inside and wait out the bad weather with my living room looking like a jungle once more.

The plants seem to be doing fine with this turn of events, but whereas a week ago I was all gung-ho on all the gardening things I had to do, this week my momentum is all messed up.  I have transplanting that needs done but I would really like to keep that mess out in the greenhouse so I put it off.  There are some outside jobs to get done but I would really rather work in the greenhouse, out of the wind.  I have this urge to haul all my planters over and fill them with dirt but it’s too early for that.  I’ve wandered my garden umpteen times; Mother Nature froze off my three little asparagus tips that had emerged – she really isn’t in my good books at the moment.

If everything had gone according to plan - My Plan! - I would be happily transplanting nemophilia and lobelia this morning, and maybe starting my gladioli, basking in the warmth that a greenhouse offers.  Instead I’m doing laundry and vacuuming.  Any other month of the year I would consider this productive work.  My weather app tells me to ‘chill out’, Mother Nature is giving us the cold shoulder until the middle of next week.  I might take up pouting with my pumpkins.