Amish Greenhouses

This weekend we had a blast visiting some local Amish greenhouses to buy annuals! We ended up going to four of them, although there were many more to choose from, and I was delighted to go shortly after they opened so that there was still a great variety of plants. I was a kid in a candy store, repeatedly walking up and down the aisles, picking the flowers that spoke to me. I think I found everything I was looking for, including a few tiny vinca seedlings in a back corner at one of the greenhouses. And even better, when we arrived home in the late afternoon, we still had time to plant the few perennials I bought (delphinium and phlox), plant a few annuals for out front, move the plant hook over the garage for my new hanging basket, and gather all the plants into groups so my containers are all designed now. It may not be a lot to get done for the average person, but for the person with two small children, it's a miracle! I mean, really, I think it was a miracle.  

 

I have 4 large pots on my back deck, so here are two of my containers, waiting to be planted:

 

 

In other news, Mike was recently gifted both a chainsaw and a pole saw, so today became the day to start some tree pruning chores he had had to put off due to lack of equipment. We have a maple that overhangs our neighbors' yard, with a few stray branches the gets in the neighbor's way, but also had a very large limb that crossed the body of the tree and needed to come down. It became quite an adventure when first Mike, then the neighbor, got their chainsaws stuck in the tree. Then, when the limb was finally cut free, it became lodged among the remaining foliage, so they looped a rope around it, and the neighbor and his wife, Mike and I, and another neighbor all tug-of-warred with the tree until it fell. Ultimately, it had be be pulled the rest of the way down with Mike's vehicle. Mike joked that he made the chore into a neighborhood event. I'm sure everyone will cringe the next time he fires up that chainsaw for another adventure! 

3 men discussing the felled limb

  

Mike in his fluorescent chainsaw chaps and helmet

As you can tell, we are greatly enjoying the warm Spring weather. AND, the forecast shows no definite frost in the future. It would be very early to have already experienced our last frost of the season, but I'm pretty optimistic; not planting-all-the-tomatoes-in-the-ground-now optimistic, but perhaps filling-containers-with-frost-sensitive-annuals-that-can-be-easily-covered kind of optimistic. I hope you are enjoying it as well! Happy gardening!