Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 07:41:24 -0600 From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3714$foo@default> Subject: Re: greenhouses
A greenhouse is definitely the way to satisfy a significant other! It's a
great place to keep the less-than-lovely plants, so that you can just
keep the best looking ones in the house. I bought a grow house from
Gardener's Supply five years ago. I bought an extra layer of poly and
an inflater fan to insulate it, and it's worked great both in Philadelphia
and in Missouri (I've moved it twice). You can check it out on their
webpage: look under the greenhouses section and get to the "grow
houses" (not their fancy fiberglass greenhouse... too pricey for my
budget). The house itself costs in the $400 range, but I have to admit
that I spent almost $2000 in all. That included all the lumber needed
for framing, a $400 propane stove, fan, thermometer and alarm,
lumber for the benches, paint, a heavy duty electrical extension cord
and GFCI construction-grade outlet (I don't have any permanent
electricity in the house, and the heater requires no electricity), etc...
Luckily, I bought it before I went to work for a botanical garden!
(Not the most lucrative profession to say the least).
Congrats, Rich, on your wife's suggestion to get a greenhouse! I know
you'll have fun with that! Good luck to John in convincing his wife of
the same!
This year I added a simple cold frame to my array, since my collection
of Sarracenia, etc. was outgrowing the space in my cool greenhouse. I
am overwintering a few flats of young VFT's, Sarracenia, and some
spinach and lettuce in there. It's been COLD here for the last two
weeks (the first real winter since I moved here four years ago), and
we have frequently had temperatures at or below zero. I added a
moving blanket to the cold frame for insulation, and then it snowed on
top of that. After almost two weeks of frigid temperatures, I finally
unearthed it (since most of the snow had fallen off), and found the min-
max thermometer reads 26 F as the lowest temp so far. I hope all my
plants will be okay! I recovered the frame and shoveled snow back
on top after checking on it.
It's a good test year for my new bog, too... luckily, it's had about 8" of
snow insulation on it during most of our cold.
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:17 PST