Getting past the Schlock
“I think if you write from your own gut, you’ll come up with something interesting, whereas if you sit around guessing what people want, you end up with the kind of same schlock that everybody else has got.” John Prine
Schlock, I had to look that word up, it means cheap, inferior goods, junk or artistic works of low quality. This is a little bit of an update on the new greenhouse project and while I started to write this I ended up going through some old photo’s of the greenhouses that I’ve built over the years and the schlock I waded through to get to this point in life.
I owe huge thank you to the Chemeketa Community College class of Greenhouse Production who came out to learn a bit about greenhouse construction and help raise the bows on the new greenhouse. I’ve built a lot of greenhouses over the years but this new greenhouse is the first full kit I’ve ever got to put together and it’s no joke, full size 2-3/8”, Semi gable end bows are gigantic, heavy duty and it took a village to get it up.
The Chemeketa Community College greenhouse production students after raising the new greenhouse bows.
The first walk in greenhouse I built some 20 years ago was a little hand bent, 1/2” emt conduit framed structure scraped together from recycled and salvaged wood tucked into a tiny East Portland backyard. When I got the property that illahe is on now, I built a 4 bow PVC framed cheapo that wouldn’t stand the the big bad wolf, but it was temporary until I finally found a deal on some real bows at a farm outside of Silverton and cobbled together what is now the bulb house at illahe. Those early days were duct tape, bailing twine and staples holding things together, but I sure did produce some great plants out of those humble little greenhouses. Take a little tour of the greenhouses that have morphed into what illahe has become today, I’m so grateful for the customers that bought bulbs in those early days and kept me going through the ups and downs. I’ve been building this latest greenhouse without any of the schlock that my previous ones were all built out of and it’s coming along nicely. Click on the gallery for a little tour of my greenhouses and how illahe came to be what it is today:
It’s starting to look like the right proper nursery I always pictured here. Started with humble roots, homegrown and homebuilt, illahe was the ultimate DIY manifesto for this old punk rocker who would rather build it then buy it whenever possible. Now don’t get me wrong, the older I get the more I want to hit the easy button but old habits die hard and If I can recycle it or fab it myself that’s always going to be the way to go here. I’ll be back with more plants and some exciting spring announcements in the next week or two, right now I have a bunch of construction to do still! It took me years to get here, help from some great people along the way, and the passing of knowledge and tools down to make this possible. Reminds me of an old John Prine song that always kinda hits me with some emotion every time I think about those souvenirs along the way
Cheers,
Mark