Neither of us had any idea I would use this for plants when he was building the house. If we had, he would have added more courses of block to the foundation to make the ceiling higher down there.
And when I say walk-in crawl space, it would be walk-in for you and me - Hank has to bend over and really gets claustrophobic down there.
The door to the crawl space is on the south side of the house so it stays about 55 to 60 down there all winter because even though it gets cold here, the sun really warms that side of the house up which is nice for the plants but probably not fruits and veggies.
The further north you walk down there, the shorter you need to be because it is built into a hill. By the time you get to the north end of the house, you're on your hands and knees
All that said, I'm pretty sure I could keep fruits and veggies further back in the crawl space without bending over too far
In our house in OH that Hank built, he did in fact build a "fruit cellar" closet for me. It was in the garage, very deep shelves against a north wall, and held all the goodies I canned from the garden. And when I said deep, I could crawl in there and sit on one of the shelves. Then, in the floor of this closet, I could lift up a panel and go into the crawl space which was maybe only 3 feet high but still, I could keep stuff in there as well if I wanted. It was good place during tornadoes too
We would love to come dig you a crawl space - it would be FUN!
