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What a dark month it has been. Its pouring rain today. It is a challenge to keep things healthy in this weather. Our experience in the past is that when you finally get sunshine you can see a big growth spurt in the plants. It's as if they are waiting to grow.

Staffing is in place for May and it looks like everything is under control as far as getting all the planting work done. May still terrifies me because there is so much to do in a short period of time once the selling season starts. It is exhilarating when it all clicks together. 

New this year a special type of annual Phlox called 21st century. I am looking forward to seeing whether it matches up to its hype. If it does it should be a plant to have in your sunny garden.

We all know that snow in April is a possibility, but after all that glorious weather! We went to a wedding in the snow. There was all that cold but all the plants that were in the outside beds came through with flying colours. For those who don't know we put our hardier plants outside starting the end of March on beds that have hot water underneath the plants and a blanket to cover them. Petunias and Pansies prefer this treatment rewarding us with tough reasonably sized plants ready to go straight into the garden. Because it has been a nippy April some of them looked pretty sad the first few hours after being taken from a hot humid greenhouse and exposed to the cold winds. They have gotten over the initial shock and look great.

We are basking in warm weather. Everyone is running around in t-shirts. The new staff have trouble adapting to the heat in the greenhouse because their bodies still think it is winter.

We planted up the pansies and most of the 1st year perennials. I like the way most of it looks. Today I finished off seeding a big batch of impatiens. It leaves me almost free to tend to other things for a while. Other things being moving plants, hanging hanging baskets and transplanting. Such a relaxed time of year!

Feb 22

My seedlings are the best ever which doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. They are good enough I think that I will take over doing the remaining 400 flats of seedlings I still buy. They were always insurance in case I blew it.

We are sending a driver off to pick up cuttings and seedlings tomorrow. I hope the trucker protests don't trap him on the road too much. I sympathise with the truckers in that it is a tough way to make a living but maybe these fuel costs will help the rest of us make the decision to buy more fuel economic vehicles. For us the kicker is furnace oil prices, they will take a big gouge out of this year's profits.

Smiles all around! Alex has been inventing again and it worked. In the past we grew about half our geraniums in eavestroughing that ran end to end in the greenhouse. We wanted to put the rest of them in troughs in the 2 new greenhouses. The arches were further apart so we needed to use aluminium. Well the machines that form the stuff for houses wasn't exactly what we wanted. So why not make our own eavestroughing machine? I can actually think of all sorts of reasons like I wouldn't know where to start. But success. It is made and it works and is busy churning out 100 foot lengths.

I discovered I am not as young as I used to be.  The kids and I have been planting hanging baskets. After 8 hours of that I find I am totally bagged. Too bad I don't need to seed anything right now, it is far less demanding.

Alex put together an insulated box for me to use as a germination chamber. The seed trays go in on racks. I have space to do 260 trays. They fitted me up with a fog nozzle to keep the humidity up. The heat from the floor is enough to give a nice even heat. I took out my dusty miller after 3 days and they were germinated really nicely. Having the chamber is going to make germinating touchy things a lot easier. I am very happy. I wish I had used it for the begonias.

I am new to germinating begonias, it is only m 2nd year. You have to get down on your hands and knees to see whether they are up, they are sooooo tiny. They are up and it looks like I don't have bad germination.

I have been seeding for a week. The seeder tortured us as usual, threatening not to work properly. It waits until you are ready to pull your hair out and then settles done to operating smoothly. The seed geraniums are already up. I wish everything was as easy to deal with as those guys. Last year was the first year we had done them in years; I remember them as difficult to germinate. Obviously my conditions must be a lot better.

My new greenhouse is almost ready and none too soon. Last year I didn't get started until the end of January which I didn't like at all. If I could start Jan 2 I would be thrilled. I enjoy the slack fall, fitting all my computer  work in between doing kid things but I thrive when I am busy. By February it is easy to be busy all the time.

On the radio they had people phone in about random acts of kindness that they had experienced. It reminded us of a time early on in the business when we had a fire in one of the  greenhouses. The fire department came and managed to put the fire out without doing much damage. They are remarkably careful. That started our deep appreciation of the fire department. But the story does not end there.

A couple who lived down the road who we didn't know very well heard of our plight and showed up the next morning to help us clean up. What a depressing job: scrubbing off the poly greenhouse covering, taking each individual plant removing the burnt pot,cutting back the plant or throwing it out. We were filthy and exhausted by the end of the day.

The next morning we were lying in bed feeling sorry for ourselves because we had another day of the same ahead of us when who do we see walking up the road but the same couple ready for another day. That got us out of bed in a hurry and made the day go quickly.

We have had a lot of hard times over the years starting a new business and often felt very alone. This was a very notably exception. Their help got us through a really hard job which had set us back and allowed us to focus on the job ahead instead.

Last week Brian and I went to the Ontario Greenhouse Conference in Guelph. The talks were good bringing growers up to speed on the new varieties out there. The choice now within many perennial categories are many cultivars which have had some testing but not all of it in this climate. It is difficult to sort out the exact best choice for our customers but I keep trying.

We are trying to fine tune what we want for soil for next spring and were able to talk to some useful salespeople. Last year we had 4 soil mixes. This year we want to add another seedling mix for those acid loving plants such as petunias. We did it for the final container soil and it made a world of difference.

Yesterday I got a gardening thrill. I harvested my potatoes and the yield was fabulous. Here is why it was thrilling. I usually don't do my own garden but mooch off the neighbours. When everybody else is putting in their gardens we are our busiest. As a result my garden is a bit unconventional. Alex plowed a few rows, dumped some compost on top of it and then spread some hay on top of that. I planted cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes and potatoes. During this dry summer we watered everything at most 3 times. The cucumbers were good, they got a good head start on the weeds. Did I tell you I didn't weed. The grass was poking through half way through the summer but didn't seem to affect yield. The tomatoes produced really well especially since this was all done mid-June.The problem with tomatoes with mulch gardening is that the slugs really get going and put holes in the fruit. The potatoes were an afterthought. I just stuck some leftovers under the mulch. I didn't have much confidence in success so they got no attention whatsoever. To harvest I simply pulled aside the mulch and picked them. There was quack in the garden but it grew under them, not through them. 

The potato method was an experiment this year. Next year I hope to do a lot and have my winter supply.

It is amazing how much time it takes up preparing orders for Jan. and on. The seed orders are done and I am now working on the perennial roots that I buy. I have decided ....there will be a new batch of interesting but more expensive perennials next year as well as more of the more comfortably priced ones. My  criteria in choosing perennials is hardiness first, affordability and whether I can get tags so that you know what they are going to look like.

The arches are up on the new greenhouses. They look tall and big to me.

Construction of the greenhouses are progressing nicely. Brian wanted to document the progress with pictures on the web site as we went along. It is 8 weeks and counting trying to sort get our digital camera fixed or replaced. I guess warranties aren't Agfa's long suit.

I learnt a few things from a perennial bed that I ignored throughout the summer. It is actually something we all know but need to be reminded of.... organic matter, organic matter, organic matter. I lost  plants to drought in the end that had the least, whereas in the other end, which is in good shape for organic matter there were no losses.

Please forgive me for taking so long to get back at this. Hopefully I will do better this year and right through the busy time. We were thrilled with how the season went; it was a good year for the industry in general. You can see it driving around; there are lots of gorgeous flower beds all over. Our big announcement is that we  have torn down 3 of the first greenhouses we ever built and are replacing them with 2 much larger  ones. They will give us the extra production space we need. They will also be much nicer to work in which makes a big difference to me as I get older. With any luck one of them will be completely ready to go when I start seeding. We are hoping these new designs will reduce the frustration of drip from the poly washing out tiny seedlings or keeping them too wet.

Our 89 cent petunia special starts tomorrow and they couldn't look better. Petunias that are grown outside are great looking plants. I hate the soft ones that are grown hot, get tall and flop over. Speaking of petunias our 12" wave baskets turned out great again this year. I had to load some for an order and had trouble fitting them on the rack.

Time to Blow our own horn. We sell to many retailers in a 80 mile radius from here. One sent us a plant to find out what was wrong with it. She does a better job than most, but.... her funky fertilising system had somehow let loose a large charge of fertiliser. What she was seeing was some odd spotting on the blossoms what we saw were dead roots.  Hopefully just a small proportion of her plants suffered.

Remind me of why I am in a line of work where you have to sell 90% of your product in a 3 week period and it all seems to get shipped just before the weekend. It has been a very hectic week but all in all it went well. Today (knock on wood) is a lull because it is Sunday and cloudy. There is still lots to do and organise but there is a wonderful letting go of pressure for the moment. I have kept myself away from sales because after tripping and falling headfirst into a steel pipe I look like a poster girl for Interval House. Fortunately I have good sales staff. There is tone of other things to do that keep me busy.

It will be a miracle to enter in this regularly in the next few weeks. With the weather turning nice like this wholesale loads are shipping out early and quickly. It doesn't mean it makes sense to plant the tender stuff this early, because we will have cold weather again before May is finished. There is something hopeful in the human spirit that allows one  to forget bad weather in the middle of the good.

People have the gardening itch and I can't blame them. The sunny weather though isn't quite warm enough for most things to do well. Thank goodness for Pansies, Primula, and perennials which allow an early start because they can take the cold.

I am as big a sucker for what is new as the next guy. I bought some seed for strawberry plants that are suitable for hanging baskets. These were being promoted by our seed company. I got them late and the seeds are really tiny. Wanting to hurry them along I kept them in the warmest greenhouse and transplanted them as soon as I could. They are now shooting runners over the sides of the basket. In a month they should be really full and beautiful.

I am shocked. This has never happened in 18 years of being in business. We are a week ahead! I went through all the things to do and most of them shouldn't be done for a week. It is partly because we have been  gradually getting better organised but I think the biggest factor is a great staff team.

Part of me wants the season to start today because I have some great looking hanging baskets while another part wants to wait because of course sensibly there are many things that aren't ready yet like tomatoes and impatiens. In the best of all possible worlds we would be able to ship out each crop as it becomes ready.

We have many staff back from other years which is something you can't count on in a seasonal business. What a difference it makes to how smoothly the spring goes. Oh if it could only be this good every year!!!

I was away at a dance competition for the weekend and found it more tiring than if I had stayed here and worked. A friend dropped by yesterday and said "what a lovely work environment". It really is most of the time. It can get too hot later on but now its wonderful. 

I get a kick out of the inventiveness of Alex and Brian. One of their ideas which has worked extremely well is to take eavestroughing joined together in long lines to put and water our geraniums. The water is poured in one end and moves by gravity to the other. It is then sent back by a sump pump to start all over. By doing this it makes it a lot easier to water the geraniums and they can go into unused space such as above walkways. #9 greenhouse has many roles other than growing. Troughs overhead shade the work below and take advantage of the space. We just give the job of putting the geraniums up there to people who don't mind heights!

Wind again! Bad for anybody who needs to walk outside with dry soil. The grit gets into your eyes really easily. Today the person who worked near the door of the greenhouse was vulnerable.   I was okay though I got tired just walking around.

A down side to this business is that it teaches you to dislike the wind. Last night the wind howled all night long. There are always days like this in April when you can't do much outside and the plastic is chattering and the greenhouse is shuddering. On the really strong nights you wonder if the whole thing is going to hold together.

I was pleased to hear a gardener recommend perennial geraniums and daylilies on CBC radio today. It is a pleasure for gardeners to try odd and unusual plants but there is also a lot to be said for the absolutely reliable ones too.

I am always surprised at this time of year how fast the average temperature goes up; I am also very pleased that it does. The plants are doubling in size before our eyes with all this sunshine. Lengthening daylight means lengthening work day; a mixed blessing to be sure.

This is out first year to grow Freefall Verbena. The hanging baskets of it have already started blooming like mad. Since it is a month early and we don't want the blossoms dropping on the plants below we cut them back. The bonus is that I now have a gorgeous bouquet on my kitchen table. I think they have the nicest blossom form of all the verbenas.

It always makes me smile. I was watering seedlings are there was a teeny tiny preying mantis. They hatch early in the heat of the greenhouse.

The weather is on our side! Warm nice days and not too cold at night. A crew worked all day emptying out half of a greenhouse so that we can start transplanting with a crew on Monday. We will do the same tomorrow because it will only be a day and a  half before we need space again. You can never seem to have enough heated space for everything you want to do once April hits.

Gridlock!!! The weather is still iffy and now is the time to move things out on outside heated beds. Once that happens we bring in 6-8 more staff and our busy but composed life ends and is replaced by a hyper one. In the seed house every square inch will be used up by tomorrow. I would love to get all those flats of Alyssum out on the beds, but it isn't a panic if I don't seed for a couple of days.

A very clever friend designed a computer programme for us to use to keep track of all the different stages of the growing season. The up side is it provides a wonderful record for us and helps us keep track of every little thing, such as  where are those yellow petunias that aren't blooming yet! This means that after a day of work when I am not necessarily feeling perky I get to go out and record what was accomplished that day and enter it in. This keeps me busy while I am waiting for children at their lessons.

Seems like all I do is seed these days. Yesterday Salvia, Vinca and Verbena; tomorrow peppers. It would feel restful to be able to do a little transplanting. From now on as the pace intensifies I will do a lot more getting things ready for other people to do and a lot less planting myself.

There has been a big change in the intensity of the sun in the last few weeks. Now with the same outside temperatures the peak vents in the greenhouse can't cool it down enough in the middle of the day. It is still a bit early to roll up the sides but I will the next sunny day I think.

Today was great....sunny, calm, almost warm. Warm enough that we moved a lot of seedlings out of the seedling house into a cooler, less humid spot so they can toughen up a bit before transplanting. What made me happy was all the space I now have to work in. It will be full faster than I like. I am seeding alyssum and portulaca directly into their final containers so that takes up a lot of germination space. They don't take long to germinate so they don't need to stay there for long. Its great to have the young folk to do the majority of the moving. I don't have the oomph for it that I used to.

We got the transplanting line going yesterday and today. The Pansies are done and 90% of the Dianthus. Tomorrow we will even be able to squeeze in a few of the snapdragons. I was very pleased to see the high quality of the roots. All of our fiddling around (techno-babble) with the water has paid off.

Sick kid, sick husband, sick dog....it wasn't the best of days.

In 3rd year at Queen's I confess to dropping Biochemistry because I couldn't get an intuitive grasp of pH. Well here it is years later (#?) and one of the most important things to get right with growing is pH. So far so good. If the pH doesn't suit the plant they can't absorb the required nutrients. We are jealous of growers who have Lake Ontario water because the pH is just right. However they may have other things that aren't quite so desirable in their water.

One of the advantages of working where you live is that in stormy weather it isn't hard to get to work. On of the disadvantages of living  where you work is you always get to go to work. I have had to recruit the guys to get me into the greenhouses because the doors were frozen in. You have to get in no matter what, especially to the seedlings to make sure nothing dries out. I spent the stormy days seeding which wasn't too bad except for the noise of the unit heaters running non stop.

I have heard it said that to succeed in business you need a good wife. I would love one. The house is a mess and the food is mediocre. Last night friends came and cooked supper for us. What a treat! Thanks to Rob on the right.

What I like best about this business is family time. We are always around and can spend some nice time together.  Now the kids help out and that is a real bonus.

How to have a social life! Have your friends come to visit you. Laura dropped by the other day so enjoyed the tropical temperatures together while I got a bit of a break.

Ah History! Someone dropped by a copy of a 1981 news story about us the year we opened. I was impressed with how skinny I was in the picture and the raw nerve it took to start this business from scratch. I chuckled because the article made a big fuss about my Biology degree making me seem like the brains behind the operation. To my way of thinking this business exists because of Brian's vision and attention to the details of growing.

Feb 22 1999

Last night was our coldest night (-33 with wind-chill) with so much plant material growing. I never sleep well when it is like that. I went out at 5:30 am to check on everything which was fine. Cold alarm wasn't working on the house end which we will fix today.

Feb 20 1999

I am very encouraged. Starting seeds in plug trays makes transplanting much easier but it provides many challenges for the grower. Since you are dealing with such a small soil volume everything has to be just right. We water the seedlings with runoff water to reduce the minerals in the water and I think I finally have a fertiliser plan in place that works well. The seedlings have never looked better.

Feb 17 1999

I started sowing petunia seeds today, 10 days earlier than last year. They go outside later so we don't have to worry about them getting overgrown. There are so many to do that it is good to be able to get at them and get them out of the way. Of course that will just enable me to get going on impatiens another time consumer.

Feb. 14 1999

There is never a dull moment when you are in business for yourself.  One week ago last Friday our supplier of containers notified us that the most important type wouldn't be ready until the end of March. Well you know how these things go, who is to know that they will truly be ready then (we had been promised them the middle of last December!). Brian became very determined and had another source lined up in no time. I did well. I only lost one night's sleep over it.