La Serre

When we moved in here, my very first goals were to establish a veggie garden and build a greenhouse (la serre) for my tomatoes and other delicate greens. Luckily Mon Cheri didn't seem to have any goals of his own, so I roped him into building the greenhouse. Nice one, non?

To his credit he attacked the job con entusiasmo! Most of the structure was built from recycled materials, right down to the screws. No kidding. In our little forest we found an old kennel, left by a former tenant who had about fifteen dogs, and Mon Cheri got a lot of wood (and screws) out of that structure for his building project. Some of them a bit worse for wear and rusty but still usable.

And off he was! Little by little, weather permitting, amid floods of putainmerdes, he advanced steadily and delivered. And the new greenhouse is beautiful! I wouldn't swap it for a ready-bought glassy version even if I got it for free.

Here is the starting position. The pieces supporting the structure were obviously there just because of the wind, nothing final. Our neighbour Christian had kindly moved the lawn just a day before, so we didn't have to work in the jungle of nettles and other plants.

The two trunks of wood got attached to the stone wall with reaaaally long screws and oh boy, that made the structure really stable. On the contrary, the stone wall looks like its going to fall off any minute now...I hope it's not going to blow a gale. Otherwise, instead of tomatoes we might get a tonne of boulders on the head. But according the proprietor the wall has stood there for donkeys years and wa have nothing to worry about. Ok, we'll see...

And here Mon Cheri is checking if the hole for the screw is long enough (oh la la! Is it hot in here...) or maybe he's just seen a lizard.

The man and his d'oeuvre d'art shaping up nicely.

Mon Cheri, my little McGyver, invented a temporary greenhouse for the seedlings (while we wait for the real version) to get them used to the change of climate. And it worked well; the plants were rewlly happy there, day and night.

Aah, nearly there!

And here it is, the thing of beauty! To me, that beats any shop bought one and in this era of high consumption I like knowing especially that ours is a (mostly) recycled version.

I got to finally plant my tomato seedlings that I brought in here from our last home. Some of them are still ever so small but hopefully all this sun and heat will do them good. I hope you'll be happy in your new home and give us loads of tomatoes!

The bigger ones at the back row, next to the dubious stone wall. Careful now! Don't you go and fall on my precious tomato plants, ok?

The ingenious closing-system of the frames that can be lifted off for ventilation.

And before we part, a wee sweet adjective for y'all:

 
I'm getting there.