2022--The $99 Greenhouse That Could

As I mentioned, in January of 2022, Mike and I moved back to Laurel, Mississippi in an effort to reconnect with the simple joys of small-town America. It was the place that I grew up and where we married, a place of quiet familiarity and yet a rejuvenating town that was alive with young entrepreneurs. With family to anchor our success, and new friends to encourage, we found ourselves thriving.

Having grown large garden plots in both Northern

California and Southern Florida, it was inevitable that we continue to sow vegetable seeds here in Mississippi. We started our seeds indoors that year in early March. As with many of our gardens, we sowed seeds for the plants that remain the most important to our culinary tastes--a variety of heirlooms to include tomatoes, peppers, okra, onions, garlic, herbs, and flowers. On the warmer, end of winter days, we would move all 300 plants outside by day, only to bring them in again at night. We schlepped those plants in and out more times than I could count before it was warm enough to keep them outdoors in the $99 greenhouse we purchased. (That little greenhouse still exists today, BTW, though it found a new location in my parent's yard.)

Though we both were familiar with greenhouse growing, having such a deep connection to the nursery business, this was our first personal greenhouse. and it was a game-changer!! We pushed the limits of what that little greenhouse would hold. We learned that a good greenhouse would be worth its weight in gold and knew that when we found the house of our dreams, that a large greenhouse would be one of our first purchases...