The summer season is slowly creeping up and that means wonderful fresh produce, sunshine, and beautiful flowers. I feel lucky to have a greenhouse where I can start plants months earlier and enjoy watching them grow. There are ups and downs to starting early even in a heated greenhouse. When I say, “ups and downs” I am referring to the drastic temperature changes that we experience in Alabama. Just this last week we experienced temperature fluctuations form 75 Deg. F to 24 Deg F. When growing the amount of plants that we grow dealing with the temperature changes can be difficult. We want our plants to experience living outside the greenhouse so we put all our flats outside when the plants are old enough. This is great for the growth of the plants but it also means that when we see a cold snap about to occur we have to bring all the plants back into the greenhouse. This is not fun but necessary. Another problem that occurs when the weather changes so drastically is being able to keep a constant temp in the greenhouse. Plant germination is dependent on the soil temperature they are planted in. The old saying, a watched pot never boils is true. I wake every morning hoping to see little sprouts coming out of the soil. A lot of days I am disappointed because my trays are still bare. Every variety of plant germinates at a different rate. Tomatoes come up a lot quicker than pepper plants. Luckily, through all the difficulties we experience, we are now seeing the fruits of our labor. We have many beautiful plants that I love to just stare at and enjoy. I look forward to another week or so when I put my garden in and be able to see a plant that I started from a seed, mature and grow the produce that will fill my freezers and feed my family all year.
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