Autumn is Finally in Sight, Time to Return to the Greenhouse

Idling all summer, soon the greenhouse will be filled with green things again

It’s been a sad sight walking by the greenhouse for the past couple of months.

Summer’s sun turns it into an oven, sometimes reaching 125° F — even with the louvers and doors wide open and the circulation fan on high. Not even spiders and ants can survive the temps, so I’m forced to clear it of plants (even the cacti) by late June. For the remainder of the season the greenhouse sits idle, the empty pots, tools, and benches gathering dust as the months pass.

I poke my head in now and then to drop off a pot I found in the yard, or to grab a hand tool. But mostly it just sits there as the hot months pass.

Then, in mid-to-late September, when the nights are catching up to the days, the weather takes a turn. The marine layer returns in the morning and the days start topping out in the 80s instead of the 90s or above.

Today was the day the weather turned.

Rather than the 90s and triple digit heat we’ve been suffering through for the past month or so, the day peaked at a very tolerable 82° with a nice sea breeze out of the west.

Looking at the long range weather forecast, it looks like the rest of the month will continue it’s gentle glide down from the 80s into the low 70s by the time autumn rolls around on the 22nd.

There may be another one or two hot days when October’s Santa Ana winds show up, but that also means cool nights, so it evens out.

More importantly, this is the signal to start cleaning the greenhouse up. Hose everything off, re-stack the pots, get the trays out and made ready for the return of the plants. The re-greening of the greenhouse as it were.

It might be my favorite time of year.