Gus and Mary Picardo have been eating their own homegrown lettuce since February. By mid-March, they had tomatoes growing on more than four dozen healthy plants. Their fig trees were bearing fruit while most figs were still buried to protect them from the cold. And their perennials and annuals grew stoutly from seed even when temperatures dropped below freezing.
The couple got a head start on their garden when they stayed home because of the pandemic. They generally spend three months each winter in Florida. This year they fired up the furnace in the 18-by-48-foot greenhouse in their backyard just after Christmas.
“I’m used to being in Florida and golfing and enjoying the outdoors,” Gus Picardo said. “I’m not one to sit around the house all winter and do nothing. I’d go nuts. This gave me something to do.” And the greenhouse has a feel of Florida, Mary Picardo said.
The furnace in the greenhouse is set to 60 degrees, but even in winter, the sun can boost the temperature much higher. “We have to open the door sometimes or else we’d have condensation dripping from the ceiling,” Gus Picardo said. The cost to heat the greenhouse is about $150 a month. “It’s cheaper than going to Florida,” he said.
The young vegetable plants and herbs growing in the greenhouse are Gus Picardo’s purview. There are leaf, endive, and escarole lettuce; red cherry, yellow cherry, and 47 large Florida tomatoes; cucumbers; celery; zucchini; basil; and parsley.
Mary Picardo prefers the flowers, including old-fashioned and double hollyhocks, white and apricot foxglove, lupine and other flowers planted from seed; dinnerplate and pompon dahlias, phlox and more flowers planted from bulbs; plus 200 geraniums, 200 petunias, and 50 coleus planted from plugs.
“I love flowers. Flowers don’t talk back to you. I used to tell my kids that,” Mary Picardo said.
Greenhouse plants will be moved outdoors to continue growing as Erie weather permits. And the couple’s vast garden this summer will include even more homegrown goodies, including 900 garlic plants in 12 varieties, 500 onions, peppers, eggplants, and lots of berries, including blackberries, raspberries, black raspberries, and strawberries.
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