Local Greenhouse Ready For Business

Mike's Greenhouse on the corner of Burg and 2nd Street has just about any plant the weekend gardener might need or want. For the past five years, Mike Schepker along with helper Karen Munoz (his mom) has been open for locals to get their tomato, pepper, cucumbers and other bedding plants.

Starting out in a little shed, Mike sold plants out of that for two years but realized he needed and wanted something bigger. Mike checked out the internet, searched how to make a greenhouse and started building the 48 x 15 foot structure. The total cost of the greenhouse was about $1000. The greenhouse sits on a lot which had an oil well on it in the 1950s. The well has since been plugged so "geothermal heat" according to Mike is out of the question.

Everything is from seed. Flowers, such as petunias, zinnias, bachelor buttons, and snap dragons are abundant in the greenhouse as well as herbs. With over 1371 tomato plants and 781 pepper plants, it should meet the needs of Kimball. Mike and his Mom worked three weeks straight, 10 hours a day transplanting the small plants to larger containers.

According to Mike, this season has been somewhat of a struggle with the unique weather conditions. For the past three weeks, Mike has had to keep two large propane heaters going to keep everything from freezing. He doesn't like it to get below 45 degrees during the night and likes to keep it between 75 and 85 degrees in the daytime.

Mike's Greenhouse is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for about a month. Mike recycles all the potting containers, so don't throw them away just return them to Mike or Karen.