Pink Poppy and Purple Allium

Just a few flowers from my garden.

I was afraid that the poppy would bloom while I was on vacation, but it burst a few blooms out yesterday. Just for me of course ;)

The allium in the bed close to my house are still blooming. They are a shorter variety, but the flowers are massive.

I bought a new camera!

Loving the macro and zoom.

My favorite poppy. Every year my Mom tries to convince me to divide it, but this poppy doesn't like to be moved or disturbed, so she fails to convince me every year.

Actually, I love to move things around in my garden, but this is the one thing that's stayed in the same place. I'm too afraid to move it, because I love it so much.

Planting Tomatoes

Before the plant sale I took out the plants that I wanted to keep.

The week after the plant sale was beautiful - sunny, 75F - perfect spring/summer.

So, silly me I planted all my plants.

Two days after I planted everything, we had freezing temps. For. The. Whole. Next. Week.

I covered everything, but the peppers aren't looking so great.

These pictures will probably be the peppers memorial service. Remember those beautiful peppers? Oh, yes they were just starting to live, so sad....taken in the prime of life.

This is how I plant my indeterminate tomatoes.

Dig a nice deep trench and amend with kelp (fertilizer) and crushed crab shells (calcium).
Put the tomato to bed in the trench and pull the soil covers up to its leafy chin.


Water deeply.

This is how close I plant my tomatoes.

Remember I grow my tomatoes up not out - so it works.

These are the covered beds I made - I'll show you how in my next post.

In these beds I planted the peppers -poor frosted peppers :(

In this bed the cabbage and broccoli are nestled. On the far right of the covered bed I have Golden shallots.

The bed in front of that has peas and onions.

More tomatoes.

More tomatoes!

The dearly departed peppers.

Really I am sad about this!

Broccoli and cabbage.

The Plant Sale Results

We had a plant sale on May 1st.

It was a success!

We opened at 8 am and sold out of 90% of the started plants by 10:30am.

I even sold some of my garden art.

The 2 most popular garden art items were the wooden plant markers and the painted rocks (which of course, I forgot to take a picture of).

We didn't sell very many raspberry or strawberry starts, but we sold lots and lots of perennials.

Some of these pictures I snapped before we started the sale. Then we were very busy and I forgot to take pictures, but I took a few after the big rush.

Cement Mushrooms

Bird baths and painted garden totes

Lots and lots of glass flowers and a few tea cup luminaries.

The $10 glass flowers sold out first, but a few of the more expensive ones sold too.

I priced them according to how much I wanted to keep them. I priced the ones I liked best higher.

I painted this tea cup myself.

It had a really ugly picture on it, so I painted it with Kilz premium, painted on my design and then sealed it.

I sold that bird house on the left. Amazing what some spray sealer and a PVC end cap can do!

These were the description sheets.

They told a little bit about the started plants we were selling.

All the little yellow strips say "SOLD OUT".

I took these pics near the end of the sale, when we had sold out of almost everything.

Some of the plants.

We had 2 full tables in the garage, with started plants, at the beginning of the sale.

Perennials $2.50 and started plants $1.00

Perennial table

Black and red raspberries

I sold a few jars of my canning. We also had bread and fresh eggs.

The crystal cup luminaries on the right we very popular. I sold a bunch of those. They were 2 for $1.75.

Plant markers $.50 each. I sold a bunch of the wooden ones. They had carrots, basil, thyme, lettuce, ect. written on them.

It was a great sale.

The weather could have been better, it was VERY windy and cold.

We are already planning for next year.

The Green House Plant Sale

The
Green House
Plant Sale

May 1st
8am - 2pm

1108 5th St SW
Willmar, Mn

From started plants to
garden art
Something for everyone
Rainbow colored tomatoes
Peppers
Herbs
Raspberry starts
Strawberry starts
Perennials and annuals

~

We will be selling over 18 varieties of heirloom tomatoes including: Green Grape, Pantanto Romanesco,Riesentraube, Sungold Select II, Black Cherry, Violet Jasper or Tzi Bi U, Tigerella, Isis Candy Cherry and Snowberry.
More than 9 varieties of hot and sweet peppers including: Ancho, Pasilla Bajio and Chinese 5 Color.
9 different varieties of Minnesota hardy raspberries.

I will be selling my garden art - glass flowers, mushrooms, glass bird baths and more!

We will have fresh free range eggs from the happy Ladies.

Fresh baked bread. A selection of jams and jellies including: White tomato jelly, Carrot jam, Red Currant jelly, Garlic-onion jam and Blueberry-Mint jam.

Plus - White Chocolate Macaroons!

Arrive early for the best selection.

I hope you can come!

My Egg-celent Seed Planter

I planted some Lincoln shell peas. The seeds are from last year, so I put in some extra seeds. If they all sprout - Yay! If half sprout - Yay! Either way I will get some peas - Yay!

I covered the peas with some straw to hold in the moisture.
Moisture = good germination = more peas!
The straw was free! From the brush site. It's amazing what people will throw away.


This is my egg-celent seed planter. It's the egg holder that came with my refrigerator.
I put a few seeds in each opening, removed the seed spacer and lightly covered the seeds with soil. Hopefully, this way the seeds will be spaced and I won't have to thin the seedlings. I always promise to thin them, but then I forget about it until it's too late.

Showing Off Plants

Just a post to show off the beautiful plants!

Aren't they gorgeous?

My Mom and I are throwing around the idea of having a plant sale in mid-May.

We started way too many plants (again - how does that happen every year?).

Last year we gave away the extras, but this year I think it would be fun to have a plant sale.

We could sell plants and I could sell a few of my cement mushrooms and glass plate flowers.

So, if you live in central Minnesota and want some plants........