Re: Grenhouse

> From: Donna <justme@prairieinet.net>
> Anyways, for those with just a cold frame type greenhouse... is it
worth it? Less loss of smaller plants? How much earlier do you see
results in flowers or veggies starts?
> who will never have a greenhouse on her property.. boo hoo..
----------

Well, Donna, for many years I operated with only a cold frame.  Still
have it and use it to overwinter stuff but it's mainly full of things
I forgot to plant who escaped their pots:-)  Mine is sunken about 2'
into the ground - concrete block wall; filled with sand.  Lid (now
totally trashed) was a wood frame with that corrugated fiberglass
screwed to the wood frame.  

When it was all I had, I used it to overwinter smaller pots and
semi-hardy things.  Dug the pots into the sand bed.  Once winter
really arrived, I shut the frame and covered it with black plastic
and layers of old rugs.  When spring arrived, I opened it up again -
everything was always just fine.  You wouldn't think it would be,
with no light, but it was.  Guess the covering acted as a heavy snow
cover would have done.  The sand and masonry insulated it - oh,
forgot, I'd put Styrofoam insulation on the outside of the block
walls before I backfilled around it when it was built - and the sand
stayed moist so nothing dried out.

I found it invaluable, but outgrew it.  Never used it for growing
veggies or starting seeds as it was some distance from the house and
not easy to tend in Feb., which is when we usually get our worst
snows and when you need to be starting veggie seeds.

Graduated to trying to winter plants in holding beds full of sand or
mulch.  That worked until the year of the great ice storm.  Lost a
lot of things that year.  Pots froze into the sand and mulch and ice
filled the pots.  Ice melted but had no where to go, so rotted the
crowns as I couldn't get the pots out of the medium to dump out the
water.  Was not a happy camper that year!

After that, I rigged this A frame of plastic, using some wood and the
garden fence over a couple of the holding beds.  That worked, too,
after a fashion, but was really too hard to get into to water during
sunny warm periods or tend the pots. 

Next step was putting up a slanted wood frame covered in regular
clear plastic over one of our garage door openings.  That worked
better as I could get into it more easily, but soon became so full of
plants I couldn't really tend them as it was only about 5' deep and
the slant was such that I couldn't stand up in it or put anything
very tall on the outer side - had shelves rigged on the garage side
with only a narrow space between them and a low shelf on the outer
side; a real trial to get in to water individual pots without
knocking something down.  Plus, the plastic would rot out every other
year - a mess - and have to be replaced and all the shattered bits
cleaned up.

Then I got my greenhouse and life became MUCH easier:-)  Mine is UV
treated plastic over a wood and PVC pipe frame - sort of a hoop house
but not a round top.  Got the "kit" (basically the plastic, PVC pipe,
templates and instructions) from Hobby Gardens.  

http://www.hobbygardens.com/

Nice folks; very helpful and I'm quite satisfied with my g.h. (only
wish it were twice as big) - do no know what I'd do without it now.
Plastic still in good shape after 5 years.  Mine extends from that
same garage door (my side of the garage; my car has never been in
it:-), so I can plug into one of the garage outlets for light and fan
and use the hosebib on the other side of the garage...I rig a hose
over the other garage door and coil it on one of the wood supports. 
Gravel floor (driveway gravel).  Plus, the garage is heated, so some
of that helps keep the g.h. around 40F no matter how cold it is
outside.  I put more tender stuff closer to the garage.  I do have a
section of electric baseboard heater at the far end, but have only
used it once.  I want it to stay cool in there as I'm overwintering a
lot of dormant plants I want to stay dormant as long as they will. 
They all wake up in Feb. anyway...

Now, why won't you ever have one on your property?

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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