the greenhouse

I was going to start this post with the tried and true "better late than never", but I seriously think it really might be too late. I've had all summer long to do a post about the greenhouse and it just hasn't happened.


It seems a bit silly to show pictures from greenhouse glory days gone by, when in reality, I am cutting back many of the beautiful flowers you are seeing in these photos and stashing them back inside the very building where they were born many months ago.


Fall is here with a vengeance in all its rainy, cold fallishness, so I'm getting a bit of a jump on tucking some of my flowered friends in for the winter.

Like these petunias. They no longer look like this.


I was a bad petunia mama and totally gave up fertilizing them about mid July. Petunias love their fertilizer and they are now so straggly and sad looking that I am giving them a major trim and hiding them inside where I don't have to look at them anymore.

Out of sight, out of bad petunia mama mind.

The zinnias, however, are an entirely different story. They are still going strong, blooming their little hearts out, and still hold the number one flower place in my heart.


I grew at least ten different varieties, and while I loved the mix, my old tried and trues, Magellan and State Fair, are still my favorites. I will definitely be growing a new favorite, Cactus, again as well.


(Cactus zinnias on the left and Magellan in the box on the right.)


This weekend will find us organizing and making space, so when that first frost heads our way, we can rush the plants we will over-winter to safety.


The tomatoes will have to squish together and make space for their winter roommates, then the perennials will be put to bed, and before we know it, we'll be saying a final garden goodbye.

Until next year, of course.