First Harvest at Greenhouse

Went to the greenhouse two days ago with friend Janet Macunovich, who by the way has a great garden site called  www.gardenatoz.com , check it out, it is a great site for information and has a nice forum in which you can get your garden questions answered. Anyway - Beth, the greenhouse manager, asked me to thin my bed since they are spraying on Sunday and want to get full coverage of the plants. We fertilized with fish emulsion and kelp and watered. Went back last night to spray Bacillus thurengiensis, a bacterium that paralyzes the gut of leaf-eating caterpillars for the cabbage loopers and picked my first harvest of greens. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that I am getting a harvest on the beds. They were sown and planted with seedlings almost a month ago - my time flies when you are having fun in the garden.

The first harvest was of greens - even though the Kale was infested with aphids! Will wash them well but who minds a little extra protein anyway? I got three big gallon ziplocks full of Kale, Pak Choi, arugula and lettuces. I may even have enough to start selling the bags of mixed greens at the market for about $2.00 a bag. A great price for organically produced greens compared to the 3.99 or 4.99 you pay at the supermarket. I will take them home and wash them well and have greens for the next week and a half!

Vicki and I are meeting at the greenhouse tonight to water and sow herbs in flats for the future markets. I've found that you really need to think ahead and schedule things fairly carefully. I sowed catnip in flats about two to three weeks ago and it still has barely sprouted and I would like to offer herb starts if I get into the winter market in Farmington, so I need to get started now as that is only six weeks away. I'll take another ziplock for Vicki tonight so she can share in the harvest, but I think she is a little grossed out by the aphids - oh well, we'll avoid the kale and offer her some arugula and lettuce.

Starting the Oakland County Flea Market this Sunday at the Farmers Market Facility on Pontiac Lake Rd. in Waterford, just west of Telegraph Rd. Will be offering a fresh selection of bulbs, houseplants, and I have a smattering of CDs, books, maybe yarn and fabric and the dried flower creations I have been working on. Trying to get costs down on my dried flower stuff - we'll see how it goes over at the market.

So, that's the recent update on how the greenhouse venture goes. In the nursery Pam and I spent the day potting up 4" pots into one gallons and took about 100 of them over to Vicki's for overwintwering. The pile of pots over at Vicki's keeps growing!