Sun/no Sun, Wind/no Wind, "Wall/no Wall"

[digitS']

38 or 40 at night?!

Was this a demo greenhouse? Something that a homeowner might want in their yard?

There's no reason why our plants need to look in any direction other than UP.

Tomorrow morning, I will post what the temperature is in the new hoop house with attached shed. The shed is uninsulated and there are even gaps under the plastic hoop house because the soil is so uneven :/. Where it is lowest, I have another outside bed to cultivate. Ken may discover that some of that ground just kind of gets shoved under the edge of the hoop house.

It isn't finished but it's covered with plastic film as of this afternoon!

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, that's in winter time, when it might be 30 below outside. Or maybe a nice 15 above.
Things like her cacti collection were near the heater, her amaryllis and other tender amaryllids in the sun on the higher south shelf. Most cutbacks on the lowest shelves. Flats of seedling and cutting starts on the heat pads. semi dormant things on the middle shelves, hardwood cuttings moved around...

In daytime in winter it's a nice 50 degrees above.

Spring temps are definitely warmer, and warming as the season progresses.

Demo greenhouse for a house? hmmm


shoot, why not make the greenhouse completely surround a house, at least a 20 foot wide perimeter? Subbasement steps rising into it?

Making a proper greenhouse in barely zone 4 is a bit different than one for say zone 8, and using it is different too. To try to keep it at 60 degrees, 800 square feet, quonset shaped 14 or more feet up in the middle, from October to June, failure to keep above 32 not optional, that'd cost... 10 minutes later still thinking...too much!

 

[digitS']

Well, I meant a low-cost pleasant spot out in the yard where one might enjoy a walk-thru to look at the koi pond, bonsai and spring-blooming bulbs. You know, there are "alpine greenhouses." I think they are especially popular in the UK, probably because there isn't a whole lot of days when sunshine could change them into anything-but-alpine conditions!

One thing this little comparison between a sunshed and plastic hoophouse shows me, Mashall, is how much solar energy is captured in a sunshed. Sunlight coming into a 200ft sunshed could easily heat a 1,000ft home on a 40 day. People with sunrooms probably know all this. People with south windows somewhere with more winter sun probably know all this! Despite all the sunlight during the summers here, this is a difficult country for people with Seasonal Affective Disorders!! (Steve biting his digitS' so as to keep from tearing-up . . .)

Oh, the shed-attached hoop house this morning. It was the same temperature as the outdoors: 28.8 . . . I don't know if I've proved a dang thing! Better get the air blocked from coming under the plastic and, at least, think about insulating that shed. Also, give it a little more than an hour before sunset to be covered with plastic film .

Steve

 

[barefootgardener]

Steve, I clicked on your page and took a peek at your pic's! First I just want to comment on how lovely the Dahlia garden is at your dad's. Wow! Reminds me of my grandparents garden years ago, when they planted hundreds of dahlia tubers each spring, and when they bloomed it was a spectacular sight.. So how many different varieties, and tubers, do you think you have? It is a lot of work to plant and dig up every fall, but they sure are beautiful when they bloom. You have beautiful gardens.

So what all do you have planted in your plastic tunnel? Is that herbs, in boxes, in the middle of the pic?

Ginny

 

[digitS']

Thanks, Ginny!

I still have things to do with My Page! Dad was 95 last month and no longer lives in that home. My dahlia garden is now the neighbor to my Little Veggie garden. They are where the snapdragons were in that picture. Snaps and things have been assigned to the "flower corner" of the Big Veggie garden.

There are over 30 varieties and well over 200 plants. I am not a "dahlia collector" and relied on the suppliers to keep track of what I bought over the years. Unfortunately, that didn't work! The catalogs change a little each year and my memory doesn't amount to much more than I can count on my digitS'!

Honestly, I don't find that it amounts to a whole lot of work to dig and store them. Most of us dig our gardens each year. I dig that garden in the fall. Most of us add soil amendments each year. I add most of the peat moss that the roots were stored in. The roots take some clean-up but that gives me some pretty good compost material. Carrying them up and down the basement stairs is a little work. And, of course, any 1,500ft garden is going to take some work . . . but, dahlias are highly weed-competitive .

In the temporary plastic tunnel there are Asian greens. It is a good place to get lots of them started and many can be moved to the outside garden after it warms up. Later, there will be a few warm-season things and the plastic film will come off.

I will "consider" up-potting some Pantano Romanesco tomatoes this morning. However, I think they will get another few days in their nursery box .

Steve