Greenhouse Operations Throughout the Year

I worked for a great family owned nursery in Signal Mountain, TN. I worked as a greenhouse technician and assistant to the lead grower and nursery manager. What I loved about this place was that they had such a superior selection of plants, and incorporated native plant species to their stock. We grew over 50% of our stock and roughly half of that were native plants to Tennessee.

Scroll down to view my portfolio on the work I did here throughout the year, and how nursery work changes by season.

Winter

Tasks:

During the winter, we primarily focused on orders, securing shipment dates, and getting the greenhouses ready for spring planting.

For a Greenhouse Tech that worked on the team responsible for the growing of nursery plants, Winter was our second busiest time of year.

We spent our days:

organizing upcoming inventory
cleaning the greenhouses
figuring out spacing, rotation, and watering for the upcoming season
labeling and filling thousands of pots
Planting bulbs and cold-hardy plants
Planting early season plugs to be ready in time for Mother's Day

Spring

In the Spring, it was a mad house to get ready for the last frost and our busiest day of the year: Mother's Day

Tasks Included:

Planting the rest of our stock for the season, which included: annuals, perennials, bulbs, some shrubs, hanging baskets, cuttings, and seeds

Rotating Plants

Fertilizing on different schedules for different plant needs

Setting and fixing irrigation clocks for different greenhouses with varying watering needs

Sorting and spacing out plants as they grew

Trimming plants to have optimal growth by the time they were ready to be brought to the retail store.

Spraying or including pesticides on a rotational basis for certain greenhouses with susceptible plants

Weeding

Finishing plants and stocking them in the store to be sold

Watering, taking care of all plants

Summer

Summer was the time to take care of existing plants and make preparations for fall. In the summer we:

Watered all the time

Fertilized plants

Rotated and cleared greenhouses

Cleaned greenhouses needed for fall

Ordered fall plugs and pots

Planted fall annuals

Potted up plants into larger gallon sizes

Started Mums and Poinsettias

Fall

Fall was the season where we sold our last round of annuals and perennials before winter and started winding down for the winter season. In Fall, we:

Potted up the perennials we wanted to sell the following spring

Planted some winter/early spring bulbs and perennials

Cleaned out greenhouses

Made any necessary repairs to greenhouses, irrigation, or anything else

Covered open hoop houses with plastic before the first frost

Built new greenhouses or repaired outdated ones

Made spring orders

Took care of existing stock

Greenhouse Operations Throughout the Year

Winter

organizing upcoming inventory

cleaning the greenhouses

figuring out spacing, rotation, and watering for the upcoming season

labeling and filling thousands of pots

​Planting bulbs and cold-hardy plants

Planting early season plugs to be ready in time for Mother's Day

Spring

In the Spring, it was a mad house to get ready for the last frost and our busiest day of the year: Mother's Day

​

Tasks Included:

​

Planting the rest of our stock for the season, which included: annuals, perennials, bulbs, some shrubs, hanging baskets, cuttings, and seeds

​

Rotating Plants

​

Fertilizing on different schedules for different plant needs

​

Setting and fixing irrigation clocks for different greenhouses with varying watering needs

​

Sorting and spacing out plants as they grew

​

Trimming plants to have optimal growth by the time they were ready to be brought to the retail store.

​

Spraying or including pesticides on a rotational basis for certain greenhouses with susceptible plants

​

Weeding

​

Finishing plants and stocking them in the store to be sold

​

Watering, taking care of all plants

Summer

Fall

Planting bulbs and cold-hardy plants