I spent some time cleaning out the mess in the greenhouse last weekend. It's not perfect, but it's much better. Threw away a bunch of stuff, chased out a mouse and, um, "relocated" her babies, got rid of the stinky row cover she'd turned into a nest, etc. Once we shifted back from scorching hot almost-80F sunny days to the more cloudy, cooler days you'd expect for this time of year, I brought up some plants from the basement to start hardening off in the greenhouse. Here's the fig my coworker George got me last year, which overwintered in the basement. I was worried it was a goner, looking quite dead at the end of last season, but look how it's really taken off under the growlights in the basement!
And let's take a closer look - baby figs are forming! The real trick will be to have figs on a plant long enough that they ripen before the end of the 2015 growing season. I'm hoping the head start from the basement + greenhouse will be just what the plant needs. I'm thinking of actually planting a winter hardy fig in the ground of the greenhouse to see how that does.
Going back up to the top pic you'll see some other growies around the base of the fig. Those include geraniums and rosemary, all from cuttings from last year's plants. Looks like I finally kept some rosemary alive in the house over winter! Woo hoo!
2 comments:
I would kill to have a greenhouse. I used to have one YEARS ago. It cost, back then, like 250 dollars to heat for the winter. WORTH EVERY DIME>though I doubt we could afford to heat it all winter in this day and age. Nothing was better than going out in February and having geraniums and lilies and all sorts of goodies in full bloom, not to mention that glorious smell of wet earth. Now I've been reduced to a shelf full of lights in my "library"......totally NOT the same!
I don't heat this greenhouse - and I probably only spent about $250 for the greenhouse itself! ;-)
Why not get one that you know you won't heat over winter?
I HAVE wondered about prepping up compost for heat in the fall, to see if that might not warm it at least a little over winter. If it's just an earth floor you could do the whole thing, or if it's paved or has stone, maybe just a corner or in any beds you might have in there. Then pile up manure, leaves and grass clippings....get the reactions going to generate warmth. Would that last very long? Would it generate enough heat? Could a new greenhouse be planned to accommodate something like this on a regular basis - like compost beds underneath plant shelves?
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