Outside At Last!

   I may be sorry and have to repeat my earlier actions but the greenhouse is, once again, empty.  The poor things were getting too hot even with the windows and doors open.  They needed air...fresh air...springtime air.  So...I lugged the towering plants back outside and have started with their "springtime maintenance".  If March is too early...so be it.  I am tired of seeing the plants fighting for space, sunlight and rainwater.

  It has finally become apparent that I do need to "thin the herd" a bit and part with about 90% of the tropical plants.  While they are lovely in the garden during spring, summer and fall, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to move them.  Some weigh in at about 60lbs and are about 6ft tall.  These are way too large for me to easily move even with the dolly.  Hopefully, Darling Daughter will take pity on me and cart off dozens of plants.  She can have a "rainforest" at her place and I will be blissful with less work.

  In the meantime, however, the Small Gardens will overcome their winter bleakness in a matter of days!  Son made the comment that I would be one of the few people who could totally live in a biodome without ever leaving.  Perhaps?  But I would miss my bayou critter friends so they would have to come live inside with me.  Biodome?   Hmmm?  Maybe?  No more lugging huge plants...thought provoking idea!

It has changed once again...

  While most of the year, my greenhouse is just that....a greenhouse.  It is a place that houses plants from tiny seedling to sprawling tropicals and anything in between.  But, come late September, the greenhouse suddenly transforms into a magical place.  This past month, the place was stripped of everything greenhouse related and filled with an odd assortment of things that one (using one's imagination) might find in a blacksmith's shop,  Anything iron or metal was hauled into the tiny building and proudly put on display.  Chains, pulleys, tools, buckets, anvils and old farm equipment were all lugged out of sheds, attics and from any place that I could find that had unusual chunks of metal.  Why would I go to all this trouble to turn my perfectly good greenhouse into a shabby, wannabe blacksmith shop?  All of this transformation was for the Fifth Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou, of course!

  With the theme being Medieval Times, a blacksmith just had to be included in the hunt.  Well, that and I needed a forge....or at least a place for our teams to melt candles.  So, I figured that we may as well go all out and pop for an entire blacksmith's shop as well as a forge. No problem...except if you ask my tropical plants.  The weather has taken a jaunt to the cooler side and the plants are shivering in their boots! I guess that forge is just not putting out enough heat!  Stoke that fire!  Fan those flames!  Brrr...it is chilly!  The plants will probably be real thankful come this weekend and the hunt is over for another year!