The Month of March

It appears that I've neglected my blog for nearly a month! Don't worry, I have plenty of excuses for my lapse in posting; plus pictures for proof!

March is my busiest greenhouse preparation month. And, as you can see by the photo below, the Schmit Home Solutions greenhouse is nearly full. Regardless of how much space I have (the greenhouse doesn't get bigger from year to year) I always feel that it's necessary to get MORE varieties of flowers and vegetables each year, thus resulting in MORE plants. I panic around this time every spring, because I don't know where I'm going to put everything! Yet, somehow I manage to find some magical left-over space for my plants that previously didn't exist, and then I think, "Whew! That was a close one. I'm never ordering this many plants again!" (Yeah, right...)

The seedlings have really been enjoying the spring sunlight. And, as a result of that sunlight, they have grown and grown! Here's an updated look at the baby gerber daisy's I was showing off a few posts ago. I can't wait for them to start shooting up blossoms!

I also made the decision to grow ALL of our vegetables from seeds this year. Typically, we order tiny seedlings of most plants, and then transplant them into larger pots. This saves a lot of time, but I don't get to select as many different tomato and pepper varietals. So, because I've started them from seed, I get to offer sweet red and yellow peppers along with the typical green variety; Rutgers, cherry, and Roma tomatoes along with the usual tomato line-up; and an assortment of chili peppers like cayennes, pablanos, and anaheims. The itsy-bitsy sprouts below are Roma tomatoes (it's hard to tell who's who at this point in the tomato life-cycle, they all look alike as sprouts.)

And, for my final greenhouse photo, I'd like to leave you with a little spring beauty to get you through this cold and blustery day. The first bloom of the season opened up this morning, and it belongs to a gorgeous white tuberous begonia!

Flowers Again

Just another quick post full of shameless bragging about my flowers - the alyssum in this pot is really workin' it right now! I love its firecracker-like appearance.

I used the "thriller, filler, spiller" rule for this container - and it turned out pretty darn good! Twisted arrow juncus, tuberous begonias and white alyssum. 

Blooms

My zinnias and sunflowers have begun to bloom - exciting times for my flower garden!

The End of Spring Greenhouse Season

The greenhouse is empty (with the exception of a few dried up pots I haven't cleaned out yet). It was a lot of work this spring, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little lonely without my flowers. Sure, I have a few to comfort me planted out front of my house, but it's not the same as looking into the greenhouse every morning and seeing thousands of smiling flower faces looking back at you. I took a TON of pictures while they were growing. Here are some highlights from this season:

Coleus - Kong Red

Fuchsia Dark Eyes - Seriously, the brightest flower known to man-kind

The ever popular gerber daisy in my favorite shade of orange

A pretty in pink tuberous begonia

And another tuberous begonia (because they're my favorite) this one in a sunny shade of yellow

Wave petunias in a hanging basket, basking in the sunlight

Now, I can't wait for next spring :)

Flower Garden Update

When I planted my flower garden this year (not all that long ago, by the way) I notice that an ornamental squash was growing in one of my front flower beds, most likely accidentally planted by my Halloween decorations from last year. Being the plant lover (or hoarder?) that I am, I couldn't bring myself to dig it up. Now, even though my impatiens refuse to grow, my squash is definitely doing well. However, it definitely does not belong in my flower bed. See for yourself:

Yuck, right? All you can see is the silly squash! But, I still can't pull it. I feel too invested in its growth now. Ok, now, take a few moments to get over the fact that it's obvious that I haven't pulled any weeds in a while, then check out a couple of my gardening *wins*.

For example, this lovely basket filled with impatiens that are cooporating with me:

And this small pot of gorgeous pink begonias:

 

See? I'm not a complete gardening klutz. Now, if I could only get over my weed hoarding tendencies, perhaps my large flower beds would look just as nice as my potted plants!

The Zinnias Strike Back!

Hooray! My zinnias are sprouting in spite of that nasty bird that tried to eat all my seeds before I could get them covered. In case you missed the explanation of the evil bird incident, click HERE for a recap. These little sprouts have so much potential. I can't wait until they're big, beautiful and blooming.



I had yet another close encounter with nature yesterday. I was out front turning on the garden hose, so that I could water my flowers. Our garden hose is black with a yellow stripe. When I leaned over to turn it on I became confused, because I saw three black hoses with yellow stripes. By the time I realized I wasn't seeing triple, I hardly had time to jump backwards  in terror - the extra two hoses were snakes! Of course, being the small, nonvenomous Nebraskan snakes that they were, they were much more frightened of me than I was of them. They slithered all over each other, fighting to be the first one back into their hidey-hole. To my great distress, their home seems to be behind my front steps. Hopefully we can all go about minding our own business without bumping into each other again!

Mailbox Beauty and Dale the Swordfish

One of my lovely neighbors planted some mixed dianthus in front of our mailboxes last year. Now their second year pink blooms look so gorgeous in contrast with our white mailboxes that I practically gasp every time I walk by. I finally took a picture to share with the rest of the world. Thanks mystery flower planting neighbor for this colorful display!

 

And now to share another of my quirky Aquatic Avenue characters: Dale the swordfish. Dale is a little loony. Believing he is a medieval knight, he often challenges his neighbors to a duel by shouting "En garde!" and menacingly pointing his sword-like nose at them.

AR Vacation Day 5 of 8

I'm halfway through my Arkansas vacation. We're doing our best to see all we can see, but we're still taking time to stop and smell the rhododendrons. You don't see many of these beautiful shrubs in Nebraska!

2013 Spring Open House - Art Studio and Greenhouse Pictures

Yesterday was our Spring Open House (or as my sister, Katie, prefers to call it "The Second Annual Schmit Home Solutions Grand Opening Event") We had an excellent afternoon visiting with customers and friends, and I snapped a significant amount of photos, because the entire shop was clean!

Here are a couple of my art studio which, in my opinion, is the most important room in the shop.

This, of course, is where I sit/stand/dance about while working on my projects.

A view of my gallery/display space

A closeup of one of my displays - Jason helps me make most of the components of my displays, like my spinning jewelry rack and the reclaimed window frame that holds my "The Pirate's Cove" painting in this shot. Tim has helped me collect all kinds of interesting old things (like the window frame) from estate sales he's been to.

And now for some photos of the greenhouse - the second most important portion of the shop!

You can see most of the plants and some of Jason and Tim's clever watering system in this picture.

Some of our hanging basket selection - It was my first year planting them all by myself and I think they turned out quite nice for a novice hanging basket planter!

I think the dianthus was looking particularly stunning yesterday - so they got their own photo.