Ticky Tacky Town Additions

Greenhouses made from green scraps. And I see a bird house and a sunflower house too. 

Greenhouses

One of the first things we did when we moved to the country over 30 years ago was build a greenhouse. It was a big one. I don't remember the dimensions right now but it was big enough to have two heaters in it, one on each end, and an industrial fan for air circulation and we had another water pump installed right outside so we could water easily.  We started all of our seeds in pots we made from newspaper. As a secondary source of income we sold quite a variety of different lettuces early in the spring at Farmer's Market. There was a small restaurant that bought a lot of lettuce from us every week.  As the season progressed we followed lettuce up with herbs - I can't believe the amount of basil we sold but we also sold a lot of oregano, sage, and rosemary too as well as some of our own herb blends for meat rubs and salad dressings.  Our biggest seller was everlasting flowers - mostly Statice and Gomphrena and Sweet Annie and Helichrysum but a lot of others too that I can't remember just now.   And we sold lots of varieties of hot peppers and heirloom tomatoes. In the winter we went to a couple of local craft fairs and sold dried flower wreaths and lavender wands and a few other things.  

And then my husband was sick for over a year. It was oropharyngeal cancer finally diagnosed at stage IV after numerous doctor visits. He received both radiation and chemo and had a G-tube for over a year (that fell out twice). We are thankful he is here now to tell the tale. I think a couple of granddaughters born five weeks apart at that time were the angels that gave him the will to live. 

But I digress. Anyway during that time we received a couple of big snows and I didn't go out to the greenhouse (you can't see if from the house because it's behind the barn) to turn on the heaters to melt the snow on the roof. I didn't even think about it between working and taking care of  and worrying about my husband and other things going on in our family at the time. In the spring when I went outside I was devastated to see the greenhouse roof caved in. I guess it was meant to be. The insurance on the greenhouse helped me with medical expenses. 

Sunflower Houses

When the kids were little I grew them some Sunflower Houses for them to play in.  Basically I just put down a big piece of plastic as big as the floor space I wanted.  Then the kids planted sunflower seeds all around the outside of the plastic leaving a space for where they wanted the door. In between the Sunflowers we planted Morning Glories to climb the Sunflowers and make a roof. I think I liked the Sunflower Houses more than they did because they had their own secret forts they made down in the woods to play in. 

I make my houses a little differently than the free pattern instructions at the Quilting Company but mine do finish at 3 inches. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday