I designed my
greenhouse to be more of an indoor garden space than the normal rows of
benches. I was inspired by a local arboretum here in western Michigan to create an environment for
year around plants as well as gardening. It's not easy doing this in a
northern climate. The arboretum we visit maintains 75 to 80 degrees inside
and in our cold winters we only manage to hold a minimum air temperature of around
40 to 45 degrees F. It varies a great deal with sunlight of course. On sunny
days in February the temperature can easily be in the high sixties to mid
seventies. On sunny days when it warms up, we open the
doors to the house to take advantage of the supplemental
heat.
There are
two methods of heating the greenhouse. I installed a hot water radiant
heating system under gravel and a small wood stove to supplement the
radiant heat. My theory, which turned out to work well, was that if the
plants had warm “feet” in pots on the radiant heat source, their
foliage would withstand cooler temperatures than normal. I decided against
a gas fired blower system that is a common way
to heat a greenhouse because I didn’t want to constantly cycle the
environment from cool to hot by blowing dry air on the plants. The
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second
heating source is a small Canadian made wood stove. The ceiling fans
aren't used in conjunction with the radiant heating but do move
the heat around when the wood stove is used or when the sun is out.
The one
disadvantage with the gravel is that, even infiltrated with clean sand, it
is not dense enough to provide as efficient radiant heating as concrete.
Therefore I am gradually removing the pea gravel and am installing poured
concrete a small section at a time. I’ve already seen an improvement in
the efficiency. Since I've become interested in plant crosses in recent
years the arboretum look will give way to a more conventional greenhouse
look. I need space for maturing the multitude of plants in various stages
of growth.
We have a porch inside the greenhouse
that preceded its construction. It is still
accessible through our
dining room French doors. The Adirondack chairs make a
great place to sit with a glass of
wine or a cup of coffee in the winter when the sun is out. There are two
areas on either side of the center path which is compacted dolomite for plants.
The north side of the path has now been converted from pea gravel to
concrete. The path leads down a slope between the two separate areas to the pond and a small patio paved in slate
tile. The patio also has the small wood stove. On the south side there is a recessed
hallway/work area hidden by a fence for the potting bench, the sink and storage.
The pond was of
readymade plastic and holds around 100 gallons. I purchased "feeder"
goldfish at a pet store and they flourished. "Feeder" goldfish are
normally sold for feeding larger fish and aren't viewed as the best
quality but they grew to about 6-7 inches with a surprising variety of attractive
markings and began reproducing. The number leveled off at about eleven
after a few were moved to an aquarium in the house. They are well over eight years old now.
