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Monday, March 21, 2011

The Greenhouse, It's still happening.

If you've read our story about our creative upcycled Greenhouse, then you might have been wondering on how that project is going. Well, you know, life happens and our project was derailed when we began a remodel rehab project in our home town. It was good, exhausting but a lot of fun.

Unfortunately my dream of soaking in a tub of lovely herb infused spring water while relaxing in a hideaway of greenery was temporarily postponed for the time being. But good news! Keep your fingers crossed, we are slowly revisiting that long lost project.


To recap, we began building our greenhouse/bath house the summer before last by recycling old barn boards from an old barn here on our property. I can't tell you how many smaller projects we have made using these terrific rough sawed beauties.

We saved old double hung windows from our 100yr old cottage and recycled them too, scrubbing, priming and painting them "Mark Twain Grey Brick".

I also painted two old but distinctly different old doors for the greenhouse and painted them the same grey, but alas they never made it up last summer and for now we have old tarps covering the entrances for the sake of protecting the plants overwintering in there.

We lined the interior with cedar and boy do I love the smell when the warm winter sun happens to visit. It is so pleasant and I'm glad we decided to put aside our frugal sensibilities this once and invested in that wonderful amenity.





Let me tell you my frugal heart excitedly skipped a beat when we tore down an old ugly shed at the remodel house and came across these heavy duty old brackets. Yep, up they went in the greenhouse. Score!




We topped them with some cedar boards and ta-da, more shelving for plants. Frugal gal boogie goin' on here folks. I love a good savings don't you?

I hope you're enjoying the first true moments of Spring. I hope the soil is crumbly within your hands, that blooms abound for you to drink in, and your package of seeds are on their way.

And I want to leave you with another frugal gardening tip, a sister to the perfect paper pots.





While the weather is still a bit cool I'll stoke up a nice fire in my workshop. It's the perfect time to enjoy it's warmth while settling down to make my plant tags. I simply buy a large box of 500 wooden craft sticks (super cheap) and with some nippers I nip one rounded end to a point. Couldn't be easier and a savings to boot. I'm frugal like that you know. Oh, you know. Of course you know.



Another tip: a freshly sharpened crayola makes for a perfect water resistant marker.

P.S. Are your fingers crossed? Thanks, we really need to finish the Greenhouse.

2 comments:

C-ingspots said...

Looking good! I absolutely love, love, love those brackets and shelving...great choice using cedar. hmmmm

Julie Wallbridge (feminist farmer's wife) said...

I love the idea of reusing things. Addicted to it actually! Thanks so much for the tip about the crayon. My husband also cuts up old blinds and writes with permanent marker on them. As someone with dutch blood in her, I always like to say that we aren't cheap we just don't handle waste very well. It's a different kind of frugal.
happy seeding!