Full Circle

The two cucumbers baskets are gone from the greenhouse, so the geranium baskets that were on the ground now have hooks. I moved the baskets around and the six Supertunia baskets went back to their springtime locations hanging in the center. Here are the three on the west side. I don't think they have grown much since they came back inside, but they look pretty good now that they aren't getting tossed around by the wind.

Everything inside the greenhouse is on irrigation now, except the Sempervivums. This is one of the Coleus I raised from seed, currently residing on the bench with all of the other Coleus and some other stuff. I'm using down-facing overhead irrigation on the bench because I thought it would provide the best coverage AND not spray upward to get the Sempervivums wet. I'll leave this in place for about three weeks, then start the transition of the Coleus back to the house, and the downsizing of the tunias for overwintering. Maybe it would be simpler to have a year-round greenhouse with permanent plumbing, but that is not the current reality.

Cucs

Growing cucumbers in hanging baskets was a modest success, but one of the two baskets was looking spent and had no active fruits on it, so I removed it so I could get one of the geranium baskets off the ground. The second basket has one active fruit which will be picked probably in two days, then it too will go into the recycling pile on the hillside. Nothing lasts long in the pile; I saw the deer eating the first vine minutes after I put it out there. We didn't keep track, but we probably got about 10 cucumbers from the two plants.

There is a third cuc plant in a grow bag on the floor of the greenhouse. It is about four feet tall on its trellis, looks pretty good, and has produced nothing. Now that finally has flowers, it probably can't get pollinated because I have the windows closed most of the time this time of year. I'll leave it for a little while longer unless I need the floor space.

Most of the succulents except the Sempervivums have been moved back to the house, and most everything that needs frequent water has been moved to the greenhouse at least for a few weeks. This table shows eight Coleus (two Colorblaze 'Wicked Witch'). Only five of the eight plants will overwinter; the others are just standard burgundy with green borders and will be allowed to freeze to death. I want to get Colorblaze 'Golden Dreams' next spring, and I have two variety seed packets. All of these Coleus taught me some things, but the ordinary ones are being cast aside.

I took these images with my Canon S95 Powershot, a 10 Mp 15-year-old camera. Sounds obsolete, right? Besides my Samsung phone, it is my only true pocket camera. And despite the phone having 5x the resolution, I don't think the images are any better than those from a real camera, even if it is 15 years old.

Allium

I lifted allium bulbs a few months ago from the southwest bed, and decided to plant them today in the southeast bed, the bed designated for herbs next year. They should provide some early-season blooms before it is warm enough to finish planting the more tender herbs. I removed the alyssum that had filled in the edge and planted the bulbs. I didn't count how many, at least 10 of good size and some smaller ones that may or may not grow. The two "pebble trays" shown in the image are splash guards to slow down the water streaming from the strawberry baskets hanging above. Five minutes of irrigation is about right for some of the 14 hanging baskets, but the two strawberry baskets in question get waterlogged and have to drain. Alliums do not require a lot of water.

This image also shows the Teddy Bear sunflowers that took a while to get going but are now churning out blooms. In the right corner are a couple of Bachelor Button plants with their blue blooms. The flowers shown, along with Coleus and marigolds, are destined next season for the west bed, currently planted with tomatoes and peppers.

This is the bed before the alyssum was removed. I tried to transplant some of it outside in the barrel and a window box. It has not grown in these locations because the deer keeping nipping it, but now the barrel is caged. I don't know if alyssum transplants well, so this is sort of an experiment. It certainly has grown well inside.

I spent all summer wondering whether we were going to get any peppers. The answer is yes. We are going to get at least a half dozen small bell peppers, and a dozen or so mild Jalapenos (Tam). It's not a big harvest but it is something. I am going to try to overwinter one of the Tam plants that is in a grow bag and be that much further ahead next spring. Way back when, maybe 30 years ago, I overwintered a pepper plant. It works.

As the first full season of the greenhouse grinds on, I keep coming back to the short growing season we have in the Beartooth foothills. Just as the peppers FINALLY get going, today is the end of the growing season, according to historical averages. (We haven't had a freeze yet but it is definitely cooler.) There are some plants in the greenhouse that need it above 40 degrees to keep growing (Petunias, Coleus, tomatoes, peppers), so the heater has been set on 50. My AC Infinity app shows it has kicked in on several nights. Based on last year, there still may be two more months in the extended growing season. Obviously not everything thriving in the greenhouse now will be there in November, but the controlled environment gives me the opportunity to have an orderly shutdown (tomatoes) or get things potted for transport to the heated garage (petunias). I'm curious to see how long the Teddy Bears will keep blooming.

A week ago I moved the Supertunias in out of the wind, gave them a good pruning, and put them on greenhouse irrigation. I think they look good, but I really don't know if any of them are going to leave here alive, at least not in this form. Eventually I will cut them down some more and try to jam them into 6-inch pots for overwintering in the garage. I overwintered petunias last year so I know it can be done, but this year I have 10 varieties instead of one. Finding space for petunias and 4-5 varieties of Coleus may be a challenge.

Almost Moved

The exchange of plants between the house and the greenhouse in preparation for autumn is closer to the end than the beginning. The two south-facing racks in the heated garage are getting full, and I counted 60 succulent pots today. The number does not include multiple Aloe Vera, 'Velveteen,' Coleus, and a couple other things. Here is the east rack with three shelves under grow lights and the Aloe Vera up top. (Photo updated Sept. 10.)

This is the west rack with two three sets of grow lights, with Coleus and other things up top. The grow lights over the four big bowls are only two-footers, so I'm a little concerned about that. For grow light strips, I have three pairs of 3-footers and three pairs of 2-footers. The shelves are three feet wide in the garage and two feet wide in the greenhouse mini, so that combination of lights is perfect in the summer. But in winter I need all of them in the garage. The final set of two-footers was liberated from the greenhouse today and will go above the bottom shelf in this image. (Photo updated Sept. 10 after installation of the grow lights above the bottom shelf.)

I was hoping to keep the closet in the garage free for propagation and didn't want to move anything in there now. But this is propagation, 39 succulents and one Coleus. There is no natural light and there are two types of grow lights.

In my office in an east-facing window are 22 succulents, with the Haworthias, Crassulas and cacti comprising the majority. Not pictured in my other window is a somewhat lackluster succulent leaf bowl, and eight Coleus cuttings in water which are starting to develop roots.

We have west-facing windows in the kitchen and bedroom. Each (not pictured) has a Coleus.

The rest of the succulents are at the greenhouse, mostly Sempervivums and other hardy plants. 'Lola,' 'Topsy Turvy' and a couple other tender succulents have yet to make the move, but that will happen soon. (Next day: Mission accomplished.) They could survive in the greenhouse with it heated to 50, but I need the room on the bench for plants that are still sitting outside. Most of them are hardy herbs like oregano and thyme so there is some leeway there, but eventually they will have to come inside.

As I was fiddling with the irrigation today I needed to get up on the ladder to reach the cucumber baskets, so I took this image of the bench and the two shelves from on high. Sempervivums up top, 'Velveteen' and other stuff down below. I still have way too much 'Velveteen' and will have to sacrifice perhaps eight pots to the cold. I was surprised to learn I have seven Rosemary plants. I thought I culled it down to five in the spring, and may only keep three over winter. I'll keep some in the greenhouse and see how long they survive. Rosemary is rated for Zone 8, 15 degrees. I'm only planning to heat the greenhouse to 10, but I'll bury the pots in the bed, they will be out of the wind, and I will cover them with straw.

Not pictured, taking up room on the ground in the greenhouse are six geranium and petunia pots, one strawberry grow bag, two pepper grow bags, a big grow bag that had Teddy Bear sunflowers but now is in onions, the deer resistant salvia/Vermillionaire combo bag that the deer chopped down every chance they got, a cucumber in a grow bag, and the two large hardy succulent containers. That's the type of stuff that I'm working around as I bring things in from the house and outside. I need to chop down the six large petunia/geranium pots into perhaps six much smaller pots, but for various reasons that won't be for another month. I have two tomato grow bags at the house that I was excited to see are at death's door, which means I won't have to find space for them. I would be happy just to harvest from them for the next two weeks, then chop them down. There are still the four tomato plants in the greenhouse beds that are healthier.

I was fiddling with irrigation because there are now 16 baskets in the greenhouse; six large Supertunia, two small Supertunia, two cucumber, four strawberry, and two sedum. All except the sedum benefit from irrigation. In about a month, the Supertunias will be potted down, the cucs will die, the strawbs (hopefully) will go dormant, and I'm not sure what to do with the sedum. The mist rained down on the 'Berry Blues' Sempervivum, which not an optimal situation but makes an interesting photo.

My tomato whisperer brother only got three tomatoes this year due to a home construction project, so this is the one and only year will I beat him. This is German Lunchbox, a plum-sized tomato that did the best for me this year.

And finally, after I had knee surgery in December I spent much of the next several months (ok, all 10 months since then) watching gardening videos on YouTube and getting ready for the first full season of the greenhouse. The 800-lb. gorillas of YouTube gardening videos are #3 Garden Answer with Laura LeBoutillier, #2 Self Sufficient Me, an Aussie guy who I have watched but have not subscribed, and #1 the Epic Gardening empire of Kevin Espiritu. Epic's most popular video (growing ginger in containers) has been watched by 12 million, more than any of the major TV networks have viewership for their nightly news shows. I just clicked on Laura's new September Garden Tour and it already has 174,000 views on the first day.

Laura has been around for about 12 years. I don't watch all of her videos (I don't care about her antiquing with her Mom), but I watch a lot of them because they are informative. Some pathetic people on Reddit (I have heard) are jealous that she has the time, motivation, resources, and yes, connections to churn out gardening videos almost every day, and that she gets support from plant companies like Proven Winners. She doesn't hold back if a plant is not performing, even if it was sent to her for free. Those people must be success-hating dolts who think that food and flowers magically appear in stores due to the magnanimity of The State and not as a result of human initiative and ingenuity. I hope Laura makes tens of millions of dollars and keeps making those videos. (Kevin Espiritu already has made tens of millions.)

Pruning

The Supertunia baskets were getting both windblown and overgrown at the house, so I took them all to the greenhouse yesterday and pruned them for one last time this season. I cut them back to the edge of the basket, which is more than they were pruned in July, but I thought it was best for now. I also pruned the two small tunia baskets, all of the larger Coleus, the tomato plants, and took a few whacks at the geraniums. Here are four of the big baskets, back in the greenhouse where they began almost five months ago.

When I was in the greenhouse today, I heard a crash outside and went out to find one of the hanging geranium baskets on the ground. And a guilty-looking deer standing nearby. I'm not 100% sure the deer knocked the basket down because I had been fiddling it earlier to get the window closed. And it was rather windy today. Out of an abundance of caution, I took the both geranium baskets inside. There are no available hooks so they are sitting on the ground. Those two baskets aren't officially mine and eventually will get a severe pruning and moved out to my brother's tunnel greenhouse for the winter.

Late in the day I took a geranium/tunia combo pot, two pepper plants in grow bags, and one of the three strawberry grow bag to the greenhouse. The strawberry bags have underperformed and I might just let them die, concentrating on hanging baskets and the planting bed next year. I am going to have to find room for two more large petunia pots, the other two strawberry bags (maybe) and perhaps two tomato plants that are currently outside at the house. (The strawberry bags are low priority. One of the tomatoes might be close to the end.) Everything will fit, but if I put everything in there, some will not get good light. If I had any sense, I would cut down my potted petunias and geraniums and wedge them into smaller pots. Really, all I need to do is preserve my geranium, the 2025 purple hybrid petunias, and (if one survived the latest deer attack) the 'Red Lodge Red Vein'™ volunteer.

As mentioned previously, I removed the middle shelf from above the bench so the lower shelf would get more light. I did move the lower shelf up a notch to give a little bit more room for tall plants at the back of the bench. All of the Sempervivums are in the greenhouse now, and most of them will overwinter. On the top shelf are all the Semps in 4- and 6-inch pots. The two in 8-inch pots are on the lower shelf, and there are three in larger containers down to the right (mostly) out of view. Most of the tender succulents have been moved to the garage or my office, but the big bowls and a few individual pots remain on the right side of the bench. The left side of the bench is occupied by various stuff that has been outside until now. Projected low tonight is 43, and I do have the heater set for 50, which is mostly for the benefit of the Coleus. Considering that the greenhouse usually stays six degrees warmer than the outside, the heater should not be too busy. The long-range forecast still doesn't show any lows in the 30s, but 40s are becoming more common.

Planting cucumbers in hanging baskets worked very well. I haven't kept track but we've gotten at least six cucs like this one from the two baskets, which is good but not overwhelming. I also have one plant in a grow bag, and it has not produced anything yet but it seems on the verge.

Gratuitous Teddy Bear Sunflower shot. The plants in the big grow bag got taken down by some sort of blight weeks ago and the one behind the shed hasn't done much, but the row of plants in the greenhouse planting bed is in full swing right now. We cut one every few days for three little bud vases in the kitchen.

And here is the Thanksgiving Cactus just after taking the ride back to the house. It was at the back of the greenhouse bench where it was out of direct light, but still some of the leaves are light-stressed red. I've had it a year and it has grown, but I don't think it looks that healthy. I really wonder if it will flower this year. Or make it to next year alive.

Packed

The Supertunia baskets are back in the greenhouse for one last revitalization before the inevitable end. I don't mean death, I mean severe pruning and transplanting to small pots for overwintering. I HOPE that isn't necessary before late October.

The baskets, particularly the four in the back yard, were getting lopsided from the wind and from reaching for the light. I fertilized them today and plan to prune them tomorrow. I don't know if all six will go back to the house at the same time, but I can envision rotating two at a time at our front door, weather permitting.

With 16 baskets hanging from the rafters (six big tunias, two small tunias, four strawberries, two cucumbers, two sedum), it is getting dark in there. If the two geranium baskets currently hanging outside on the west wall have to come inside, they will have to sit on the floor because there are no more hooks. Lows in the 40s are becoming more frequent, but we are projected to avoid the 30s for the next two weeks or so. When the 30s threaten, I will have to find room for the three 2025 petunia pots, two tomato grow bags and two pepper grow bags. And the geraniums. (I don't care about the three underperforming strawberry grow bags.) I have moved a lot of the tender succulents back to the house already to free up space on the bench on the north wall.

This spring I installed three shelves above the bench, but the shelves were too close together for the plants on the two lower shelves to get much light. I bit the bullet today and removed the middle shelf, and the sunlight now reaches all of the lower shelf. That is, if there aren't tunia baskets blocking the sun. I might raise the bottom shelf a notch to give a little bit more light to the aloe and Thanksgiving Cactus that usually sit at the back of the bench.

Sunflowers

The Teddy Bear sunflowers are going great guns inside the greenhouse, producing multiple blooms per plant, but for old times sake I planted one conventional sunflower in a grow bag behind our shed. It has one big flower, and is probably at its peak now. I stuck my phone inside the cage, because everything in our yard is caged against the deer, and got this snapshot. This morning I saw a couple of black-capped chickadees checking out the flower. I'm sure they will be back when the seeds are more developed.

Compare and contrast with a Teddy Bear from a few days ago.

Our average "First Frost Date" is usually given as around Sept. 12, so even though there are no freezing temperatures forecast in the next 10 days, I am getting ready for winter. The tender succulents are going from the greenhouse to the garage or my office window. The cold-hardy succulents such as the Sempervivums are going the opposite direction, from our back patio to the greenhouse. I have taken cuttings of Coleus and will start taking cuttings of petunias, and will try to propagate them in water. I have transported my geranium pot to the greenhouse. The Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic'™ and peppermint that were outside the west wall of the greenhouse have been moved inside. I have moved two of the three grow light strips from the greenhouse to the garage, so now I have five grow light strips in the garage. One remains in the greenhouse and will move when I transport the 4-inch pots of petunia propagations and other stuff.

Next on the list is transporting the main stash of petunias, six baskets and three pots, from the house back to the greenhouse. We were supposed to have high winds today so I took down down the six baskets and stashed them in the shed, which doesn't have enough light for them, so I need to move them soon. At some point I will give the petunias a severe trim and try to pot them in 6-inch plastic pots for overwintering. I have four fairly large Coleus plants at the greenhouse, and only one of them ('Wicked Witch') is going to survive intact. As mentioned, I have already taken some cuttings and will do another round before they are allowed to succumb to the cold.

With two 4-shelf units in south-facing windows in the garage (with six grow lights), two east-facing windows in my office, and a couple of west-facing windows, I MIGHT have enough room to put everything. I'm going to try to preserve the closet in the garage for seed sprouting come spring. The priority is to make sure all of the succulents make it through the winter. The more petunias and Coleus that make it through the winter, the less I will have to spend next year, but ultimately those are the expendable, replaceable plants. And when I watch Corey on YouTube, he shows me an Under the Sea 'Barracuda' Coleus that makes me want to throw all of my plants away and just buy that.

The plants in the beds at the greenhouse have varying fates. I plan to heat the greenhouse to 50 degrees until mid-November, then dial it down to 10 until April. The strawberries in the east bed will overwinter, and I hope the four hanging baskets also will survive the winter. (I have decided the strawberries in the three grow bags will not.) In the southeast bed, the alyssum, sunflowers, Coleus and Bachelor's Buttons will be allowed to succumb to the cold. That bed will be planted with herbs next year, with hardy herbs such as oregano and thyme overwintering. In the southwest bed, I have cut all the blossoms off the big tomato plant so it will not set any more fruit, and have set a deadline of October 9 for the pepper plant and the remaining onions to finish up. I will remove half the soil, mix in pumice and coco coir, and overwinter Sempervivums in that bed. The west bed has the majority of the pepper and tomato plants as well as a patch of cilantro. I'll keep that going as long as possible, perhaps to mid-November. Next year I probably will not plant tomatoes and peppers inside the greenhouse. The west bed probably will get the sunflowers and other flowers next year. I plan on raising most of the same stuff next year, but a lot of it will end up in pots and grow bags instead of taking up valuable bed space.

It may be too early for an assessment of the year, but I feel like I overwatered a lot of things. I need to be more careful about that, particularly in the greenhouse beds. Even when the top of the soil looks dry, the moisture meter usually says the soil is moist a couple of inches down, and very moist when I stick the probe in all the way. Anything that is established does not need water every day, and in fact probably could thrive getting water only every three or four days. Especially now that it is getting cooler, I am trying to scale back. However, the hanging baskets and the outside pots/bags generally need all the water they can get. At most I can skip a day.

Another Rotten Day in Paradise

On the last day of August we are already in that season where I have to keep an eye on the forecast lows. It was supposed to get into the 40s last night, so I had the greenhouse heater connected and set at 50. It came on at 2:00 AM and cycled until the sun came up just after 6:30. My outside thermometer bottomed out at 43 degrees. The forecast is for lows in the mid-50s the next few days so it will be a while before the heater is needed again. Afternoon temperatures were in the 70s today and it was just perfect at the greenhouse.

The Bachelor Buttons aka Cornflower finally bloomed yesterday. I have never grown these before and was a bit surprised that the plants are almost two feet tall, so I'll keep that in mind for next year.

Looking through the greenhouse windows at Coleus, Teddy Bear Sunflowers, cucumbers and strawberry baskets.

I haven't kept track of the hummingbirds for a few months, but I would venture to say this is a young Caliope. It is feeding on an agastache which currently resides in a grow bag. I probably will transplant it on the south side of the house yet this fall near another agastache.

The fawns sure are cute when they aren't destroying my Vermillionaire.

This Coleus is in a greenhouse planting bed and I want to keep it for next year. Rather than dig it up, I have taken two cuttings and hope to propagate from those.

As soon as the green spot in the middle fills in with yellow, I'll cut this Teddy Bear for a vase in our kitchen.

Tunia Rankings

I did Supertunia rankings July 13 and six weeks later it is time to revisit. Here are the latest rankings:

1. Vista Jazzberry - Vibrant magenta purple. Still #1. I will build several baskets around this next year.
2. Vista Bubblegum - Pink. Moving up from #3. It is so vigorous.
3. Hoopla Vivid Orchid - Purple with white edge. The biggest mover, up from #5. Took over its basket when Priscilla faltered.
4. Royal Velvet - Deep purple, unlike anything else I have. Down from #2 just because the success of Bubblegum and Orchid are hard to ignore.
5. Blue Vein - White with blue vein. Down one spot from #4. Very vigorous, great pairing with Royal Velvet, but can get ragged.
6. Really Red - Holding steady at #6. Good combo with Latte.
7. Latte - Ivory white with dark veins that almost appear brown. Still at #7. Solid, not spectacular.
8. Honey - Blossoms shift from yellow to salmon and some other colors, but I continue rating it at #8 because the flowers often look a bit wilted.
9. Priscilla - Purple and white double. Still at the bottom. Got overwhelmed by Orchid in their basket, double flowers do not self-clean very well. I have a separate little pot that looks OK, but is nowhere as vigorous as other varieties and I have to deadhead it.

The only one I would not use in a basket again is Priscilla. Honey could be rated near the top when it is at its best, but it seems to need ideal conditions.

I neglected to rate the 2025 purple petunias that I overwintered. They are in large pots, two by themselves and one with geraniums. They make a tremendous mound and looked great until the deer figured out how to get through the cages. If I slid them into the above rankings, I would put them on par with Blue Vein, but I don't know if they would work in a basket. Last year they were in baskets and didn't do much until I got the greenhouse and put them in pots. Here is one of the pots on Aug. 2 before the deer got to it.

August 30: Honey is #8 because it is inconsistent and often looks wilted. If it always looked like it does in this image, it would be in the top half. This is the back patio, with Honey and a taste of Jazzberry closest to the camera, Royal Velvet with Blue Vein hanging down, Blue Vein with a dash of Royal Velvet, and Bubblegum/Jazzberry off in the distance. The other two baskets flank the front door.

Cuttings

Even though it is still August, here in the high country I have to get started on overwintering the Coleus that I want to keep for next year. The forecast low on Sunday is 44, and our average first frost date is September 12. Watch any YouTube video about Coleus propagation and usually it will recommend rooting cuttings in water. So I started yesterday with three Coleus I have in the planting beds at the greenhouse.

Today I tackled the one that is at the house in our bedroom. Actually it is two. I started most of the Coleus (except ColorBlaze 'Wicked Witch') from seed, and two seeds sprouted close to each other. I didn't notice that there were two different types of leaves until perhaps a month ago. I want to keep them both, so I did cuttings today. I ordered a dozen glass bud bases from Amazon, and they are bigger than typical bud vases. They will be able to handle anything I throw at them. Here are the before and after images.

I also did two tunia cuttings, another Coleus, and even a Sedum 'Wildfire,' so I have nine cuttings going right now. I don't know if the Sedum (or anything else) will work, but this is all part of the grand experiment. I figure I need 24 tunias next spring, so will try to save the existing plants in smaller pots and fill in the blanks with cuttings. (I might order 12 more bud vases.) If there is anything I learned this year from the tunia baskets it is that one or two plants per basket probably will produce a lopsided basket. (The Vista Jazzberry/Vista Bubblegum basket was the only exception.) Three plants per basket * eight containers (six baskets and two pots) * $7 per plant = $168. (Supertunias were $7 each at Nana's this year.) The downside is I will have to spend nine months taking care of the salvaged plants and cuttings to display them for three months.

Right now I have six Coleus cuttings and eight pots. Not all of the pots will be overwintered. Among those I started from seed, the healthiest, bushiest plant is in our kitchen, but the coloration is absolutely boring. The leaves have a muddy brown interior blending into drab green edges. As plants got moved between the greenhouse and house several months ago, it ended up inside the house and happened to thrive. It is not an interesting plant. I will probably keep five pots (three 'Wicked Witch') and the six cuttings, and will take 2-3 more cuttings. Complicating matters, I need to keep the pots and cuttings in the house instead of the garage as Coleus do not tolerate temperatures below 50.

I also have two variety seed packets, a Burpee that I used this year and a Botanical Interest that I just got. Around next March/April, I will start two 6-cells of seeds from the two seed packets. I have determined I cannot plant Coleus in the ground unprotected, but I will cage a few, keep some in the house, and have a bunch in the greenhouse. I also might buy more ColorBlaze, with 'Golden Dreams' at the top of the list. If I get one of the three 'Drop' trailing varieties (Strawberry, Chocolate, Cherry), I could put Coleus in hanging baskets to compete with the tunias. I don't have a number in mind for 2027 Coleus plants, but it is certainly more than a dozen.

Right now I am teetering on which direction I want to go with the greenhouse. Do I want to grow things to eat (strawberries, tomatoes, peppers), or do I just say to hell with it and have one bed of Coleus, one of hardy succulents, one of herbs, and one of sunflowers/other flowers? I still would put some tomatoes and peppers in grow bags, and strawbs in baskets, but I am souring on the idea of maintaining a greenhouse to grow fruits and vegetables that are readily available at the grocery store or farmers market. Right now I have four very large tomato plants that have grown to the ceiling in the greenhouse, but they have yet to produce a single ripe tomato. The only tomatoes I have harvested came from a grow bag at the house. The strawbs have been underwhelming in the planting bed and grow bags, with the hanging baskets producing the best results.

When people visit the greenhouse, they don't say, "Look at those tomatoes." They say, "Look at those succulents!"

Writing these posts helps me make decisions. I would rather have a bed of Coleus interplanted with impatiens, or a bed of Sempervivums doing their bizarre stuff, than tomatoes and peppers that take forever to produce fruit. That stuff can go in grow bags on the south side of the house.