A Greenhouse in Montana

I moved to Montana from the Midwestern United States. Things grew easily in the Midwest. We laughed about locking our car doors at church to keep neighborly folks from leaving extra zucchini in our back seat! Needless to say, the gardening aspect of Montana was a culture shock for me. The growing season was so short that some things barely set on, let alone ripened. The nights were cool and some crops were stunted while others grew nicely. Unfortunately, for me, I wanted those nice, large, juicy, sun-ripened tomatoes, and enough for salsa and tomato sauce. That was going to be hard to do here . . .

I admired those people who planted tomatoes outside, faithfully covered them at night, and then brought in green tomatoes to ripen under their beds. I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I don't really like green tomatoes and the thought of some tomato escaping and OVER-ripening under my bed is not a good one. I started looking at greenhouses and became convinced if I had a greenhouse in Montana, I could successfully grow tomatoes and peppers --the plants I really wanted to grow. My husband joined me (rather reluctantly) in the endeavor and spent several weekends building me a greenhouse. Since then I've had a blast "gardening" in Montana. Having a greenhouse comes with a learning curve and I am by no means a "Greenhouse Master" yet, but I've learned a lot of pretty neat things about greenhouses. My greenhouse is certainly my favorite place to be on a cool summer morning in Montana.

Visit my "Spring Events" page to follow my greenhouse endeavors.