a hot house
todd and i spent the afternoon taking apart a hothouse in frenchtown.
what the hell does that mean, you ask?
our landlord, rita, emailed me this morning with the news that someone was giving away a free hothouse. it's like a greenhouse, without fans or heaters or anything. the missoulian (our newspaper) has a "to give away" section in the classifieds, where people will list things they have in their driveway for pickup (old tvs, couches, junked cars, lamps... you name it) or a phone number you can call to come see the free thing -- kittens, stoves, pots and pans -- anything. on the phone call ones, you have to walk the delicate line between calling too early and waking up the person with the listing and waiting too long and not being the first to call. with free things, you know, it is always first come, first serve. rita's very good at finding these deals and being the first on the list, and she secured the hothouse for us -- her resident gardening freaks -- if we wanted it.
so we drove over to the house where the unwanted hothouse sat, unused, in the yard. after an hour of unscrewing, extracting nails and cramming things into the jeep, we managed to dismember the hothouse and get it packed up. it's about 8' by 16', 4' tall with a hinged door and plastic cover all around. perfect for tomatoes and peppers in montana's cold nights. even more exciting -- we can start seedlings in february, hopefully thwarting the too-short growing season with a little space heater and some good insulation. we may have to bring in some soil because there's no room in our two gardens for this behemoth. the lower garden has eight raised beds and some herbs and potatoes and no room left for more planting:
the upper garden has raspberries, strawberries, cherry and peach trees, four raised beds, more potatoes and more herbs, lettuces and greens, and a cold frame (like a hot house, but smaller) with squash and cucumbers and melons vining inside. so, no room in the upper garden, either. we have to determine a new space for the hothouse, a sunny space with good energy. i'll have to ask the land tomorrow where she would like the hothouse to be. it's a tattoo on her already-marred skin, and she should certainly tell us how she feels.
we haven't yet unloaded the structure, let alone reassemble it into a building. right now it's a stack of wood and plastic sleeping in the jeep, adjusting to its new home.
what the hell does that mean, you ask?
our landlord, rita, emailed me this morning with the news that someone was giving away a free hothouse. it's like a greenhouse, without fans or heaters or anything. the missoulian (our newspaper) has a "to give away" section in the classifieds, where people will list things they have in their driveway for pickup (old tvs, couches, junked cars, lamps... you name it) or a phone number you can call to come see the free thing -- kittens, stoves, pots and pans -- anything. on the phone call ones, you have to walk the delicate line between calling too early and waking up the person with the listing and waiting too long and not being the first to call. with free things, you know, it is always first come, first serve. rita's very good at finding these deals and being the first on the list, and she secured the hothouse for us -- her resident gardening freaks -- if we wanted it.
so we drove over to the house where the unwanted hothouse sat, unused, in the yard. after an hour of unscrewing, extracting nails and cramming things into the jeep, we managed to dismember the hothouse and get it packed up. it's about 8' by 16', 4' tall with a hinged door and plastic cover all around. perfect for tomatoes and peppers in montana's cold nights. even more exciting -- we can start seedlings in february, hopefully thwarting the too-short growing season with a little space heater and some good insulation. we may have to bring in some soil because there's no room in our two gardens for this behemoth. the lower garden has eight raised beds and some herbs and potatoes and no room left for more planting:
the upper garden has raspberries, strawberries, cherry and peach trees, four raised beds, more potatoes and more herbs, lettuces and greens, and a cold frame (like a hot house, but smaller) with squash and cucumbers and melons vining inside. so, no room in the upper garden, either. we have to determine a new space for the hothouse, a sunny space with good energy. i'll have to ask the land tomorrow where she would like the hothouse to be. it's a tattoo on her already-marred skin, and she should certainly tell us how she feels.we haven't yet unloaded the structure, let alone reassemble it into a building. right now it's a stack of wood and plastic sleeping in the jeep, adjusting to its new home.
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