For Janice: from my greenhouse to yours

I noticed a few days ago that Janice, my neighbor, has a greenhouse.

She and Mark have been adding a lot of stuff to their garden collection lately---lots of beautifully constructed raised bed boxes, for example.

And, to their lawn decor. Some nice chairs and some great antique lawn art seem to have appeared lately behind their house.

You see, I keep track, and I know Janice does the same with the Lovestead.

When I moved to Selle, instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses (it wasn't difficult cuz we didn't have any Joneses in our neighborhood), I discovered the Johnsons.

There are a bunch of Johnsons out here in Selle (once a new Swedish homeland), so I guess it doesn't matter which ones you pick.

We have a few Johnsons on this road and I know there are a bunch of them live over in the east part of the "Selle Valley."

Janice and Mark have been living out here for three decades, and they have a beautiful place.

I figure that if I can keep my yard half as nice as Janice and Mark keep theirs, I'll be doing okay.

But it's mighty hard to keep up with them, I'll tell you.

This morning, however, I'm feeling confident in making the official announcement that "my greenhouse is better than yours, dear Janice."

I know that won't last long because they have a "handsome greenhouse," even bigger than our little model which sat out on the lot at All Seasons Nursery during the winter of 2007-08. Nancy, the owner of All Seasons, kindly parted with it for a good price.

That was in March of 2008. Then, I had to wait until May for it to be delivered, and even then, I had to shovel out a hole from three feet of snow for Harvey and the guys to put it in its present spot.

If I had the patience to put a bunch of tape around all the frames on my greenhouse, I could dress it up really well. So far, that patience hasn't appeared, so it's hardly what you'd call an "esthetic" structure, but it's functional.

And, it's better than Janice's cuz it's growing stuff.

As you can see, it has done its work this early spring. Tonight I'll probably pick some lettuce and have a fresh salad for dinner.

My petunias are doing very well, and I would expect some blossoms to start appearing soon. The cucumber plants are a deep green, the cabbages need to be transplanted into bigger pots, and the tomatoes are hanging in there a lot better than last year's. I've also planted lavender and echinacea, lots of pansies and zinnias.

I also have a couple of bags of blueberries, purchased from my classmate Mary Lambert Kimball's Moose Valley Farms up at Naples.

Some of those will be going into the ground today----for the second time. I put some in this past Saturday and then looked at the ever-changing weather forecast. Down into the 20s at night, it said, and that would be for three days.

So, I yanked those plants and put them back in the greenhouse.

I think we're okay now, though, cuz we're supposed to stay in the high 30s at night for the rest of the week. And, my blueberries will have plenty of warm barn dirt with shavings to keep their roots comfy and protected.

I don't know if my friend Janice has any blueberries, so maybe I can keep ahead of her in that department too.

I suspect, however, that by this time next year her new greenhouse will be thriving with produce and flowers.

Then, I'll have to find a new way to keep ahead of her and her phenomenal annual yard and garden show.

It's a lot of work keeping up with Janice, but I'm up for the challenge.

Plus, we have a lot of fun bantering back and forth about our neighborhood ongoing competition.

Let the growing, gardening and grass mowing begin!!!