Rearranging the Greenhouse

This is from 2015, a post that never saw the light of day. Now that the greenhouse is smashed by Hurricane Michael, it's comforting to find these photos and what I had to say three years ago.

Children, do not try this at home. If you have a greenhouse layout that works, arranged over time by trial and error do not decide it can be improved.

I got the notion that turning the shelving on the left at right angles into the center of the room the way I had it in 2013 was a great idea.

2013

I can't remember why I decided to move the shelves against the wall after I moved the potting bench to the back part of the greenhouse.

Today I moved every plant in the northwest corner outside. I put many of them into the bed of the Mule and the rest around on the ground, some in shade.

Here are views of the bromeliad tree after other plants were out. 

There's a tiny volunteer over in the corner that looks like a shrimp plant.

I kept cutting off the top, like cutting off people's heads in photos.

All are Neoregelias except for the Spanish Moss. Some are solid green because they were in shade. The old plant between the two little green broms on the right finally all died and I picked off that last dried leaf today.

The foliage at upper right belongs to an Epiphyllum.

The brom tree takes up 4 square feet of floor space even when it is crowded, a lot of real estate in a 120 sq ft room.

This evening after I got everything leveled, I came in and told He-who-Mows that it was a mistake to let those plants out in the sunshine for an afternoon. "They multiplied and had babies and now there isn't room for everything," I wailed. He laughed. I am still not satisfied with the present arrangement. 

It isn't that there are any more plants, but I was not able to rearrange so there is more room. Yet. One of the inconveniences of old age is the amount of time things take.

There will be more plants. Every time I breathed on the Burro Tails moving them back and forth, little beans fell off. I finally stopped picking them up but several got flung into pots with other little beans forming plants.

2013. Those little orange bits are Violas from seed. 

How I love to look at previous years' seedlings and cuttings.

I have pineapple sage cuttings again this year.

2018 note: I rescued some bromeliad pups when I was last there and put them in pots of soil in a safe place. I hope they take root. Otherwise I'll start over one day next year or the next when there is a place and time to do so.

Cycas revoluta

Seedling

Rooted Pups starting to send up fronds.

The first little sprout is so exciting!

A Look at Tulips from years back

These are tulips and things that I made a draft years back and forgot. They need saving. I probably will never plant tulips again. I do like to look back and see what the results of careful chilling and planting can do in a warm climate.

Tulip 'Shirley' with Muscari and Alyssum.

 

Shirley

Tulips and Muscari that I won from Longfield Gardens.

It's a one-time shot. I think the next year there were maybe 2 that rebloomed.

Tiny poppy seedlings will be blooming by the time the Tulips and Muscari are done. There are some Daffodils at the back, barely peeking out of the ground. Mama always planted poppies among her Tulips to hide aging foliage.

Elsewhere in the garden Blue Delft Hyacinths were in full bloom. These are second year plants, forced in pots the previous year and then planted out. 

An old draft worth saving:

The Patient Gardener started a Meme of Sorts regarding our Year in the Greenhouse. I routinely search for peeks into the greenhouses of other bloggers.

Greenhouse growing seems a more serious endeavor among British bloggers. I visit regularly among some few U.S. bloggers who write about what they grow.

I look at what's pinned on Pinterest. Some are obviously not within reach of the average gardener. Others are too far gone with dry rot for practical purposes. The most popular seem to be fashioned of old windows.

I gave my pile of old wood-framed windows to the Scrap Man and we put up an aluminum framed greenhouse with polycarbonate panels. Now I have another pile of windows, storm windows with aluminum frames, and a file of Pins featuring similar photos to what I envision.

Not everybody wants to grow the same plants. Most want things to eat, either vegetables out of season and early seedling starts for summer vegetables. Some want citrus trees and other exotic delights. There's a man on Garden Web who grows nothing but orchids and a lady who grows mostly tropical Cacti.

I want it all. I want epiphytes and forced bulbs and tender cuttings and tropical seeds and things to eat.

Here are some of the most frequent questions that I see.

1. Aren't greenhouses too costly for the average person?
2. Isn't it too costly to heat a greenhouse?
3. I don't have room, or enough sun, how could I site a greenhouse?
4. We get a lot of wind, wouldn't it blow away?
5. Glass is so expensive, but doesn't polycarbonate have to be replaced?
6. In my climate, heat is the bigger problem than freezes. What to do?

1. A greenhouse costs less than a cruise to the Caribbean. A hoop house costs less than a family vacation to Disney world. If you're handy and resourceful, you can grow plants in something you've rigged out of almost nothing. 

2. Heating a greenhouse during a long winter in Nebraska is different from where I heat. There are whole websites and university pages on greenhouse growing and heating using various methods. 

A frequent question is how to use passive solar to 'heat' a greenhouse. It doesn't work. However, you can moderate the cold and heat with various methods that lessen the chance of freezing especially in a moderate climate. 

Anything that absorbs heat will give it up slowly as temperatures fall. The most heat is taken up by water, metal, concrete, stone and ceramic material. That's why I have Water barrels totalling 200 gallons of water stored under one of my benches.

The shelves atop this structure hold plants well above the cold air that settles in winter and they get the benefit of a ventilating fan to the rear.Hardier plants sit on any ground area. Tender tropicals are higher up.

The floor has concrete stepping stones, broken concrete, brick and pebbles for covering the area, a flat walking surface and to hold heat. I use bricks for decoration along edges and, for plinths and pedestals. More plants fit in a space if some are elevated above others. I put plastic pots in ceramic cache pots, not just for decor but the ceramic pot holds a bit of heat that might be lost from thin plastic.
Clay pots not in use are stacked under the potting bench.

Maybe it's my imagination, but since I fill gallon jugs with water to use for hand watering, I set 10 of them in front of my 2 electric heaters to take up heat and more slowly release it as the fans cycle on and off. I think it helps. I have no documentation but it makes me happy.

3. It's hard to place a greenhouse in a small plot without giving up something else. Before I had a greenhouse, I forced bulbs in the laundry room sink and trundled seedling trays in and out of a dark tool shed on a kitchen trolley to reach the sun. 

4. A lightweight greenhouse with polycarb panels will blow away or the panels blow out unless secured. We put our greenhouse together in the tractor shed, picked up and set it on a trailer to bring it around to the site. Wind picked it up as we made the turn and the rest is too awful to describe. We repaired the bent parts, picked up the panels and clips and put it back together. It's secured now against any wind that won't take the roof off our house.




5. How long polycarbonate panels last depends on the manufacturer and the climate and sun where they're used. Ours are cheap, so we replaced them after five years. They would have lasted longer if they'd been covered against the summer sun AND if it hadn't hailed on the brittle aged panels.

6. Heat build-up is rapid in sun. I won't undertake to explain but there are sites that do. I just deal with it.

A mist system helps moderate high temperatures. It's a simple system on the opposite end to the vent fan.