A Tale of Two Greenhouses

Do you remember that song that goes “When you try your best and you don’t succeed...” by Coldplay? It went viral on social media platforms for a while, and people would post their funny fails with the song layered over it. Honestly I would use it as the theme song for this blog if I didn’t think I already got it stuck in your head.

I’ll preface this story with a few crucial skills that you need to have as a flower farmer which were very necessary in dealing with the tragedy that follows:

• Humor

• Pivot Power

• And Curiosity

There are more of course, but these three definitely took the reins that dreaded weekend.

Okay, so. If you were here with us on this journey at the beginning of 2026, you’ll know I’d been working to get a greenhouse here to the farm in time for our influx of seed starting, which was basically the beginning of March. The seed shelf capacity had been breached, trays of seedlings were shoved into any spot in the house that had any amount of sunlight. Things were getting DIRE.

Luckily, I had been petitioning the back-end department-head at my 9-5 for a couple of months. Yea, this operation goes back to early December of ‘25. You see, one of the business units under his area had had this beautiful 6x12 polycarbonate greenhouse sitting in a shaded area, storing random items and the occasional raccoon, for YEARS. Poor gal had grown more mold than plants in the past decade.

It finally gets to the point where we can go start the dis-assemble portion of the operation, which Cameron’s parents were so kind to help us tackle. She finally made it back to the farm. Woohoo! Now we just had to put her back together. Without instructions. In the freezing cold. No biggie, we can do hard things.

I spent the rest of that day scrubbing down the roof/ceiling tiles that were caked in mold and grime. At the end of it all, I had no elbow grease left, but those pieces were looking nice and clean. We had one weekend day left, and the seedlings were getting leggy, which meant we were running out of time.

Cameron and our good friend Will started the rebuild within the safety of our garage while the outdoor temps dropped down below 20 Fahrenheit. They made it through with fresh cookies and “warm” drinks. Day one and the walls were up. They could only get so far due to the clearance of the garage doors, so the greenhouse remained in the garage because, well, Indiana weather.

After 3 days of waiting for the weather to calm down, our friend Matt was also recruited and the three of them moved the nearly-together greenhouse from the garage to the backyard. It took them well into the night to finish the ceiling and bolt her into the ground.

We sealed the gaps, attached the shelving, and covered the ground. The ten trays of seedlings made it in 3 days later. They were THRIVING in there, some of the best looking baby plants on the farm. The right environment really can have the biggest influence on the success of a plant.

Persephone was so beautiful and full of life and hope. And then the winds came.

I imagine it had looked something close to that scene in “The Wizard of Oz”, just with less witch involved. Cameron got home around 4, while I was still at work. He doesn’t typically call me while I’m at work unless it’s something serious. So, as soon as his name came up on my phone I knew what had happened. I’ll admit, I had been half joking about the possibility with my coworker throughout the day, just based on my string of bad luck that year.

The phone call was pretty brief and emotional. “The greenhouse is gone. The seedlings are gone. The tarps are pulled up.”

I took 10-20 seconds to cry at my desk after I hung up, then put my game-face on and drove home.

The greenhouse was indeed gone. I mean, you could see her, but she was halfway across the alfalfa field behind our house. The trays had been strewn across the field, seedlings were dislodged from their trays at some point during the event, and the wind fully dried out any that hadn’t already been crushed.

Our Persephone was gone, 700 seedlings that were meant to go into the ground the next day were decimated, and we were just entering the next wave of seed-starting. What does one do in this situation?

1: Stake down the greenhouse so it doesn’t keep tumbling around.

2: Place a rush order for Snapdragons

3: Fall to the ground and wail because your heart is as crumpled as the greenhouse out your back window.

After completing steps 1-3, that set of skills I mentioned earlier kicked in.

Pivot

Lost seedlings? Re-seed what you can. “The snapdragons will be quick to replant, I need to rush order seeds for that, like now.” “The stock is gone, what can I fit in their bed-space instead?”

Banged up Greenhouse and no more indoor space? Build a new one. We know the benefit of this tool, and it far outweighs the cost.

Curiosity

Aside from the crazy wind, what happened here? The surrounding buildings created a wind tunnel, which added more impact to the area Persephone was sitting. Her ground attachment points were rusted from prior use… "how can we improve the next greenhouse to prevent this?"

Humor

This one can take a moment to kick in sometimes. It took a good 36 hours before I could laugh about it. But I mean really, with the year that I’d had (yes, already), what did I expect to happen? We joked about how Persephone decided she was joining Hades early this year. My friend looked at her and said, “I mean, it’s kinda funny” and we just laughed as the boys drug her out of the field.

And actually, Cameron looked at me that day and asked in genuine disbelief, “How are you okay right now??”. The first thing I said was, “well, the sun’s out”.

Because all in all, yea it SUCKS, but what did we really lose? A lot of effort, sure, but at least she was free. A greenhouse, sure, but at least she went into the field and not the garage or house. A bunch of seedlings, but at least we can re-seed a portion of those. At least nobody was hurt (aside from my seedling friends). And, it was a Friday.

So yea. As a flower farmer, you have to be able to get through some sucky, heartbreak-y things. The weather doesn’t let up for anyone, and we just have to find the best way to work with her. Pick up another packet of seeds and move on to the next thing, the flowers only come if you trust yourself enough to keep planting them.