“Much more grows in a garden, than that which is planted there”
– from a fortune cookie
For a number of years we operated Five Cedars Gardens, a greenhouse and sold bedding plants, perennials, annuals and vegetables by the side of the road.
Unfortunately it became a very expensive hobby.
The business started out with purchase of a greenhouse frame from the classifieds. Included were a number of pots and miscellaneous growing supplies. The steel frame was the most important part of the deal.
We set the frame up and purchased louvers, a ventilation fan and a temperature switch to coordinate the fans and louvers. We covered the frame with 2 layers of plastic and inflated them with a blower for insulation.
Along the way we added benches, and a proper floor of brick. No walking in the mud for us.
Now that we had a warm protected place to grow we could start seeds early in the year. We could also propagate perennials from cuttings. Keeping stock over from year to year allowed us to collect a number of interesting geraniums.
For the vegetables we tilled 3 foot wide strips that we could cover with ground cover. We started the plants through holes we made in the cover and we never had to weed.
We grew a wide variety of tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.
One of our specialties was a wide variety of herbs. Included were a number of sages, various basil, as well as thymes and other culinary and decorative herbs.
Sadly there was not a lot of business in the little town which we live. It seemed like people would rather drive 15 miles to Walmart to save a few cents on marigolds.
For now we will not be operating the greenhouse but in the future we may get things going again.
