Greenhouses are…interesting…

I am LOVING my Costco greenhouse!

That said, I’m learning that they are NOT magical chambers where one leaves their plants and then returns days later to an abundant harvest of perfectly formed organic delights. Yes, that seems to be common sense but I am running up against reality and it’s annoying. I’ve learned this weekend that watering much more regularly is going to be required. Now, this may surprise you, but it is necessary to water more often because, wait for it, it gets extremely warm in a greenhouse. Yes!! Who knew?? Apparently I lack the cognitive processes to arrive at that myself, because I was shocked to open the door Saturday to see dessicated tomato plants in the back corner that were beautiful and lush just days ago. I cut them back and watered them heavily, so I’m hoping that I can restart growth and if not, well, that’s a lesson learned.

This brings me to a new conundrum. I had already turned the outside tap off for the season and put up the garden hose. I turned it back on and hooked the hose back up, but at some point it’s going to be consistently freezing and I’d rather not have the outside spigot freeze and my hose crack. I’ll have to run up and down the basement stairs, turning the tap on and off, dragging the hose in and out of the garage, etc. Next spring the plan is to put gutters on and then capture rainwater in barrels and set up a watering system based on that, but for now it’s the hose.

I’ve been thinking over how to power my greenhouse. I am not paying to run electric to it, and I’d hoped to use battery banks with solar panels. I bought a small battery bank that has the option to run off solar panels, and tried it out on the grow lights that I hung Saturday. Turns out the grow lights draw enough wattage that the battery bank could only run them for about 45 minutes till the charge ran out. Battery banks rated higher cost considerably more and that is not an expense I wish to incur, so I returned the battery bank and bought a very good quality outdoor extension cord with three outlets on it. This is working beautifully, and I’ll keep the cord in the greenhouse and run it to the garage as needed.

Another thing I’ve been mulling is how to keep the greenhouse heated over the winter. I researched the heck out of it and made a pretty grand Amazon wish list. I was talking to a buddy this morning and he had a brilliant idea using a barrel of water and a fish tank heater. Given the relatively small square footage of my greenhouse, around 60 square feet, this option would work well by radiating heat from the warmed water. He brought me over a barrel and I have since filled it with water. An inexpensive fish tank heater is MUCH less costly than the heater I wanted to buy. It is also simpler, less prone to safety issues, and draws a hell of a lot less wattage than the heater I’d selected would draw.

Air circulation has also been on my mind. It’s cool that the two venting windows in the roof open when it gets to 70 degrees under each window, but keeping air moving is important. I went back to the Amazon wish list and had a fair amount of cash pre-spent on a nice ventilation system. Then I went to Reddit to see what other folks with small greenhouses are using, and they’re using a simple box fan mounted in an upper corner at the front or back of the greenhouse. I remembered a sweet 1940s fan I bought at an estate sale years ago. I haven’t been able to use it because it has no safety grate and not one cat I’ve ever had has been bright enough to not reach into it, Now my neat vintage fan sits on the top shelf with two vintage kitten planters.

I’m probably not going to get the stabilized gravel floor laid that we had originally planned until spring. The floor is currently dirt, as you may have noted above, and I plan to spend some time in there, so I wanted something to make it less messy. I bought a cheapo 6×9 outdoor rug and laid it out in there this evening. It is EVERYTHING!

I expect by end of day tomorrow the warmth in the greenhouse will straighten out the creases and then it will lay flat. I love the pattern, and I love that it’s dark and will also hold a bit of heat to radiate after the sun goes down. I promptly filled my barrel with water, and you’ll note that the top of the barrel is pretty flat, just a good spot for a pitcher of iced tea and a book or two or perhaps my Bluetooth speaker. There will be podcasts while I plant!

Here’s some arty photos of some of my plants.