Take a walk through my greenhouse with me

13 years ago

Most of these are planted in the ground. I put up the greenhouse as a "temporary" structure when I started seeing 30s in the forecast lows and take it down in April when the 10 day forecast doesn't include anything below 40.

The "glow worm"

Persian lime. Just showing its first flowers.

Avocado, grown from seed (actually 1/2 a seed - it split in two, I planted both, and got 2 plants).

Red naval orange. Squirrels LOVE these...

Thompson Pink Seedless Grapefruit

Guava. Grown from seed.

Eureka lemon. By far the biggest, fastest-growing and most productive citrus I have. About 12 feet tall and hundreds of fruit in various development stages on it.

Eureka lemon flowers. MANY on the plant right now.

Another guava. Actually 2 plants in the same container.

Starfruit. Grown from seed.

Cavendish banana. Flowered in late September. All other bananas you see in pics are babies from this one. 65 bananas on it.

Key lime tree. "Limey" is my oldest citrus tree and was killed back to a 6 inch stump in 2008, but is back with a vengeance. I gave away key lime pies at Christmas.

Key lime flowers. That's an almost-ripe fruit in the center of the pic behind some leaves.

Papayas. Or rather, those papayas which have not developed root rot over the winter. Last winter, someone pulled all the leaves off thinking they were pot. I hope they got SO SICK smoking my papayas.

Loquat. Presents a dilemma for me, since it is growing fast and will likely not fit in the greenhouse next year. However it is firmly rooted in the ground and happy. Not sure if I want to let it out in the cold here.....

Loquat fruit developing. My first.

Cabbage palm seedlings (although there are also 2 pindo palm and 4 small guava in there too) grown from a local tree's seeds.

Son of Limey - Key lime tree grown from a seed from the bigger one. 4 years old and about 4 feet tall. Hopefully it will fruit soon....

Bigger look down the greenhouse. It's 50 feet long, 12 feet high, and 12 feet wide.

My "coconut" palm. I don't really wanna talk about it.....

Comments (4)

kayjones
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Those are fabulous!!! If your Loquat dies, don't worry about it - I have lots of them and can send you one for postage.
tropicalzone7
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Really great pics! I think the banana impressed me the most. I love the fruit on it! I you can manage to get the loquat out of the greenhouse, I think it will do fine in the ground in your zone 8a. Ive even considered planting them in my zone 7. Plant them near your house for some added protection, but it should do fine. Maybe you can take some cuttings from it just incase it doesnt make it.
Sorry to hear about you coconut palm. Mine isnt too happy inside either, but its hanging in and waiting for summer just like all my other plants.
Thanks for sharing!
-Alex
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Loveplants2 8b Virginia Beach, Virginia
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey Brad!!!

Thanks for the great journey through the "worm" you should make these and patent them too!!! Great way to protect your tropicals and citrus...everything looks so heatlhy...

Great job Brad...

Thanks for the pics....

Laura in VB
va_canuck
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Since the loquat is on the end, having it "outside" would simply involve building the greenhouse next year shifted about 10 feet the other way. I'm not so much concerned about the plant being killed as I am about the ability for it to carry fruit through the winter. I'd rather not uproot it - it's been in the ground for 2 years and it would be quite a job now to do that.

The way the greenhouse is designed allows me to expand it upwards by around 2 feet, so I might be able to get away with one more year inside. After that, the lemon is going to need to be aggressively pruned - it's alright crammed against the top and grows very fast.

As for patenting it - I don't think it's terribly novel. It cost about $1,000 and two sides are anchored to the fence. Building/taking it down takes a full day. A neighbor has expressed interest in having me build one for them too, but I don't know if the neighborhood can withstand another eyesore like that. I know WE might not consider it an eyesore, but I think many do.

Thanks for the nice words.... here's hoping the predictions of milder winters the next few years come true!!