April Greenhouse Tour

It’s time for another virtual tour of our greenhouse to show what’s growing in there in early April. It’s always a busy place this time of year, as I move seedlings from inside under the grow lights to grow on in the greenhouse. I also have lots of greens growing in spring, which keep us supplied for salads and such. I took advantage of warm-ish weather to work in the greenhouse Thursday morning, doing cleanup and potting up some additional greens.

greenhouse before cleanup

I generally plant most of these salad greens in containers, and they do quite well that way. I add a little fertilizer and compost at planting time, and they only need regular watering after that until they are ready to harvest. This year I have arugula, pac choi, mizuna, sorrel and lots of lettuce planted. I’ve got most of the containers sitting on the ground in one of the beds, which will get planted in cucumbers next month. I harvest most of these on an as-needed basis, cutting lower leaves and leaving to plants to grow on.

containers of greens

Central Red mizuna

I started early eggplant for containers back in February, which usually gives us fruit at least a month before the ones planted in the ground. I also started a few early  tomatoes, which I plan to grow in the greenhouse beds. For the eggplants I am growing Gretel, Fairy Tale and Icicle – all AAS Winners. For the tomatoes I started Red Racer, Pozzano and Sugarpeach. All have been potted on at least once now, and are ready for planting as soon as danger of frost is past. That will likely be another couple of weeks, since a freeze is forecast here for Saturday morning.

eggplant and tomatoes

I also started quite a few petunias in February, and they are all out in the greenhouse now. Some have even started blooming, and several more are budding up. We’ll grow these in containers outside, and I usually give away quite a few to friends every year. I believe I potted up over 50 this year, so we will have plenty to share!

flat of petunias

I pretty much always have a few parsley plants in the greenhouse, and this time of year the overwintered plants are big and lush. We use parsley quite often, and it is great to have it on hand and fresh most of the year.

parsley

I have lettuce planted both in containers as well as in ground plantings. The plants in the beds have gotten quite large, and we have been enjoying them in salads for a couple of months now. Bergam’s Green and Slobolt hold quite well, and I will set out a few more plants in hopes they size up before hot weather comes.

salad boxes of lettuce

Bergam’s Green lettuce

I’ll close with a photo of how the greenhouse looked after my cleanup efforts. It could still use a good sweeping out, but at least I can walk around better now! It was also a pleasant way to spend my morning.

greenhouse after cleanup

I hope you enjoyed this look at what’s growing in the greenhouse. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres – including Harvest Monday!