Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Big Dreams . . . Small Space

We live in a small house.

We have always lived in small houses.

I've dreamt of larger spaces most of our married life. Specifically old larger houses. If they are in the Old Glenora neighborhood all the better.




Now a small space isn't a bad thing, after all, it's so much less work to clean!  It just gets tricky when you are trying to fit five grown people, a biggish dog and Rosa's big dreams into such a small space.

Not only do I want to garden, cook, bake, diy, redecorate, take pictures and read as many books as I can get my hot little hands on, I also want to have my own business.

Most my what I love comes with stuff. . . and stuff needs a place to live, which is why the hallways in the basement are somewhat hazardous, my downstairs plant shelves are loaded with books and party supplies and the cold room has more craft supplies than it does canned food that needs to stay cold. . .

So, what's a girl to do when the time comes to start a few (cough, cough) plants for her upcoming plant sale? The downstairs shelves are not nearly enough. More space must be found for the larger shelves. . .

Where to put them, where to put them???

We have had them in our bedroom but that means the bed has to go against one wall and Henry has to crawl over me to get to bed at night. As I like to go to by by midnight and he seldom goes before two, it's not the ideal  solution.

And then there are the fungus gnats. . .

Henry vetoed that before I even finished asking . . .

If they went in the living room, the love seat would have to go, leaving room for only three people to sit.

 And where exactly would we store the love seat? The middle of the back yard would not be ideal as it is presently storing wood for the fire pit, out door chairs, empty plant pots and a host of other garden doodads.

Henry came up with the final solution.

 Because there is always a way!

Move some stuff around in the office/dining room, (everything does double duty in a small house) and get your very handy husband to work his magic. . .









Put the seed mats and first batch of seed in the living rooms . . .


Move the bulbs into the kitchen . . .





  Add the yellow sticky strips . . fungus gnats in the kitchen strain even my easygoing family's nerves . . .



turn on the little plant light and fill that counter with seedlings . .


Plant up the rooted cuttings you 'borrowed' while on a greenhouse tour at Tamara and the Big Guy's . .

I keep telling her that it's not "stealing" if I told her to pick some plugs. Why does she still look so guilty?! — with Rosa Veldkamp.






A new gardening season has begun.



Dreams really can come true!

5 comments:

Sigrun said...

Before greenhouse, I had a table downstairs with 2 sheets of plywood and 4-light fluorescents on chains so they could be raised and lowered. Those were the days. Now DH is asking if it's time to fire up the second greenhouse as he thinks we're getting crowded in the first one (not till next week when the 500 strawberry plants come).
I see a flooring truck outside your window--renovating amid flowers? The reason I ask is we're thinking of some new flooring.
BTW when transplanting my geranium plugs, I break off the flower stalks and all but 2 good leaves (don't break off the stem, but on the flower/leaf stalk--this helps them get really bushy.

Sigrun said...

I meant to say "don't break off at the plant's stem" I can't imagine breaking off the stems, but that's what I implied might happen.

Rosa said...

Hi Sigrun,

No renovating thankfully, that's my husband's work truck. Done RiteFloors is a great company though. Of course I am biased as his dad started it many years ago. Family companies are awesome!

I hang my head in master gardener shame. I know very well I need to take the flowers off. They just looked so pretty I couldn't bring myself to do it ;)

I hadn't realized you would pinch the leaves back further though.

Thanks for the tip!

Sigrun said...

After leaving this comment, I explored further and discovered that your sister has acres and acres of greenhouses--actually had visited her blog before through another blog link--so I hang my head with embarrassment for giving you advice. We have about 6000 sq. ft.

The hardest thing I tell my customers to do is to cut off that first flower stalk on snapdragons. I have to leave them on in the greenhouse, but when I plant them in the garden I take them off, and the subsequent flowering--#of flowering stalks--is so superior.

Is Done Rite the company I see when I ride the LRT to Belvedere, right beside where a feed elevator used to be?

Rosa said...

No need for head hanging... they grow a little differently in greenhouses as large as theirs. There would not be enough manpower to remove all the flowers just for starters!

And yes that is the same Done rite floors!

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