Excellent point, Ken! I leave one of our ceiling fans running all winter to keep air moving around the house since we're not running the central heat system. This moves the heat around some, instead of it just hanging around the top half of the rooms, and I figure the plants can best 'clean' the air if it's moving, and hopefully the slight wind will keep them from getting too weak while inside. All plants must stand up on their own or be cut off (except vines on trellises.)

Cheryl, your garage is awesome! I wish I had one... facing SW, so I could open the door on warm days for the sun to shine on plants without having to move them back outside... It looks like I'll need to take some succulents outside most days, there's just not enough windows to leave everything in one spot all winter.

Frost definitely came here last night. Everything that was still doing great, like Cannas and Brugs, are toast. Whine! Only turned on 1 heater so far, it's 58 degrees in here, brrrr! Degrees, please come back...

Been cold here also!! I'm a cold weather baby also! I hate cold weather. The only good as far as I'm concerned is that it kills some of the bugs. FINALLY, my new GH is finished..except the electricity and heater hooked up. I have moved some of my babies in. They were still working yesterday and I was moving the plants in. I am so excited! Room.......I will hopefully now be able to take cuttings and plant seeds. I will post pictures later...waiting for it to warm up some so my camera won't fog up.

Here it is...16x42

Wow Buds! I could only dream of having a greenhouse that large. How perfect! Good job!

BudsNBlooms said:Here it is...16x42

Who else is jealous?

B&B, compared to my two puny 10x12' greenhouses, your greenhouse is huge! When I built my first lean-to GH I was limited to 12' because is had to fit between the corner of the house and two AC units. I could have built the free-standing one about any size I wished but thought it would be more aesthetic if it was the same length as the lean-to. They are parallel GH's.

Unfortunately I had to leave out dozens of aloe vera, jade, rubber trees, and schefflera and a huge peace lily plus two 6' Madagascar dragon trees. We got down to 26 F this morning and I have probably lost half of what was outside. I will check when it warms up a bit this weekend and see what damage was done.

Tiffany.
My garage door faces Southwest-ish but only the most sun-needy get to be upfront to get the sun as it only reaches halfway into the garage. Still, it is better that the light gets in at all than keeping them in the dark. My plants that require mostly shade go to the back of the garage The greenhouse is lucky to have a south and west exposure. But forget about getting a car inside in the winter! The plants get priority.

Ken.
Good idea about two heaters and the breakers. I do worry about leaving heaters unattended but I also insist that they are safe. I wont be heating the garage unless it gets to a hard freeze, usually in January or February. There is a large 18" fan up in the corner of the garage not seen in the last pic. It is a wall mounted oscillating fan but I don't see why you can't buy a regular oscillating fan and mount one? It adjusts very nicely. Here it is along with two of my 8 ferns that have grown so large this year. They need new pots. But the bigger the pot, the bigger they get! Might have to divide them. But then I will end up with 16 ferns! Time for a plant sale, maybe?


The greenhouse is open today. I have openings on both ends for better air circulation. A bit of sun gets in during the early afternoon when the "door" is open. There are windows on the west side so light can get in during late afternoon. I put on the heater. Again I am trying to slowly adjust the plants to our sudden drop in temps. It will warm up for them this weekend. But until then I want them to be comfy and cozy.


In a month or two the plants in the greenhouse will go into the garage and the garage plants will go into the greenhouse. It's a lot of work but I think there is better frost protection in the garage where the most tender plants should go. Right now the tenders are in the greenhouse full time to keep them nice and warm along with some sun. The ones in the garage only went into there to protect them from our sudden drop.

As my GF says, what I do, hauling my plants back and forth must be a labor of love. It's labor all right!! And I DO love my plants and hate that they even drop a single leaf in our mostly mild winter. I think I am great Florida material.

My pudica are very happy to be in the greenhouse with more buds, giving me more reasons to smile., assuring me I am doing somethings right.

Congrats on your greenhouse. I too am envious. I'm still wondering if DH will break down and buy/build one. He's afraid I'll get more plants & pack it full. Which I will, eventually.

Oh man! I should have one next winter, and I am very anxious/excited! Trying to do it with the hard work of scavenging instead of spending. DH builds sheds for a living, so no problem on that front. We've been gathering used windows, a door with glass windows in the top, and other materials as we find them. When they tore down the burned house next door, I grabbed half a dozen windows leaning against the back of the house & in the shed. We had no idea what day they were coming, and didn't know if the owner still planned to retrieve anything, so didn't raid stuff until the bulldozer showed up. We could have repurposed the whole shed roof and most of the sides, the rest of the windows still intact in the house, be ready to build by now. I will even restrain myself and paint it yellow like the house instead of purple.

Deborah, afraid you'll get more plants and pack it full? Well, chyuh! Filling the house with plants has shown DH the benefits of a greenhouse. Have you tried hanging pots over the bed? That's very persuasive. Not my fault our bed happens to be right by a great east window.

I don't know if greenhouse commerce is similar to how sheds work but sheds can get repossessed. When they do, they are sold again, much cheaper. Might be something to investigate about greenhouses if you're looking to buy. DH's Mom got one for about half of a brand new one of the same type/size.

Cheryl, awesome!! My Mom and I left ferns outside last winter, in pots and in the ground, and they were fine. I know there are a few that look identical, to the casual observer, they're not all Boston ferns, but these seem to be pretty hardy. The roots make balls, if that helps distinguish them. Maybe all ferns do, IDK. Do you have yours in the pots because a normal winter would kill them, or just because you want hanging ferns? Last winter wasn't much of a 'ruler.' Think we'll get so lucky again? Those in the ground have made patches of babies. Do Boston ferns do that, and/or survive outside at 26-27 degrees?

Have not hung pots over the bed yet, but I did give my Vandas the orchid spa treatment the last couple of cool nights. They 'hung out' in my DH's shower, which has south-facing french doors for some strange reason. This time of year they let in great light! And I can use the shower head to douse the orchids, with warm water, too. I really haven't felt the need for a permanent greenhouse here, but I do spread around a lot of frost cloth when the nights get into the 40's. I have a large frost cloth 'tent' that rolls up, to cover my big plant stand where my Earth Boxes are, and a lot of my tender tropicals go under there on cold nights, too. Our coldest night so far was 54deg.

That's an awesome, huge greenhouse Paula. You can really feed your plant addiction now!

Elaine, you are so lucky to live in a sub-tropical area. Thursday morning's low, measured at our airport, was 21 F! Without a greenhouse - well you know.

@Tiffany, oh gosh no. He'd throw my plants outside or help me get rid of them before he puts up with something like that. Seeing watermarks on the LR windowsill is bad enough. Now, not being about to get around in the garage w/out moving plants aside, that's annoying & convincing enough for him. I know he's trying to work something out. He can't decide whether to build one or to buy. Last year he built a patio with plant benches and a bench for me to sit & enjoy my plants. It's located next to the shed where I store all of my gardening items and is under a shade tree. I absolutely love it. I just can't have everything I want at one time. So, I wait patiently. Sigh!