April Greenhouse Tour

I promised a greenhouse tour, and it’s a good time for one because there’s lots going on out there this time of year. Currently it’s full of cool season greens and trays of seedlings. It’s also giving us some of our first harvests of the year.

On the benches, I’ve got salad boxes planted with arugula and lettuce. It’s Apollo and Adagio in the mini salad box below, and I have Speedy growing in a window box planter.

Two more mini salad boxes are planted with lettuce. I’m testing a few new varieties this spring, including Spritzer and Cavendish plus Salanova Green and Red Butter lettuces. The salad boxes are really a great way to grow greens, and you can read about how I made both sizes of them on my Gardening Tutorials page.

The big salad box is planted with more lettuce, including Tango, Pele and Salanova Green Sweet Crisp. The Salanova varieties were bred for baby salad mixes, and seem to do very well in the greenhouse. They don’t form large heads, just lots of smallish leaves of about the same size. I haven’t tried growing them outdoors yet, and I doubt I will since I really got them to try out in the greenhouse.

In the greenhouse beds I have a lot of overwintered kale growing. It’s all pretty much ready for cutting, and I have been doing just that on an as-needed basis. I planted about a dozen plants last fall, including White Russian, True Siberian and Western Front. Some have started to for flower buds, and we will eat those along with the leaves until I pull the plants. I plan on growing cucumbers there this summer, which I will likely plant around the first of May.

Also in the beds I have a spot with pak choi and parsley planted. There’s Bopac, Mei Qing, Red Pac and Asian Delight pak choi, plus Vivid Choi and Dragon Tongue mustard. I’ll harvest the greens before it’s time to set out the cucumbers, while the parsley will stay there throughout the year.

On the shelves I have flats of seedlings waiting to be planted. I started some extra early tomatoes back in mid February and they are getting quite big. There’s also a few plants of Patio Baby eggplant which I will grow in containers.

I also potted up the brassicas into individual 3.5″ pots. With planting delayed due to the wet and cold weather, I didn’t want them to get root bound in their plug flats and this way they will continue to grow while they are in the protected environment of the greenhouse. I hope to get started planting some of them next week. It’s mostly cabbage plants in the below photo. I also potted up broccoli, kohlrabi and kale.

I’ve also got quite a few greens planted in window box planters. It’s Koji hybrid tatsoi in the below photo, and I’ve already got several cuttings of leaves from it so far. Growing in the window box planters gives me room to grow more things in the greenhouse, and I can move them around as needs be. I often bring them outside during the day, and put them back in the greenhouse before nightfall to protect them from the hungry critters that are always roaming around here at night.

I hope you have enjoyed this greenhouse tour! It’s a real happening place in April for sure. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres.