Comments on: Greenhouse Life – Moving Plants Back Indoors for the Winter

By: dabney rose

dabney rose — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:49:51 +0000

Just found your blog this morning Matt & i know i will look forward to seeing it often.
My husband built me a beautiful glasshouse from donated insulated windows & it truly is my sanctuary. I garden for fragrance and I too have a few tuberose pots brought inside for the winter & hope to have a few blooms this Christmas. 🙂
I also have a meyer lemon, ginger flowers, parma violets, osmanthus, cyclamen, daphne, sweet peas emerging & a monster staghorn fern.
I'm a bit warmer than you, down here in NC.
dabney

By: Miss Kelly

Miss Kelly — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:47:31 +0000

Thanks, Matt. I can't be the only one out here longing for a greenhouse, but a bit afraid of the whole process. It will cost a lot of money any way you do it, and there seem to be many ways to make mistakes!

Great site you've got here, so inspiring.

Mary Beth (aka Miss Kelly)

By: jc

jc — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:07:50 +0000

I for one would be VERY interested in the greenhouse story. I keep saying "one day", but in the meantime I live vicariously through the likes of others like you.
In the meantime I am washing the windows in the house to maximize what little the plants get.

THat said, what do you do as a pre-emptive strike against bringing critters into the house with the plants? Last spring was the first time in a decade that I had scale. This time on the citrus. And a few lears ago I started spraying for mealy bugs on the succulents (cacti, agaves and assorted crassula and echivera dishes and pots. Are your plants ever attacked in the greenhouse?

By: hopflower

hopflower — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:45:43 +0000

I don't need one where I live (quite like yours, anyway!) but would love to hear the story of your glasshouse, Matt. By all means put a post up about it. I would love it; and I think it would be helpful to others hoping to acquire one.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:17:29 +0000

I'd be interested in hearing about a cheap way to make a greenhouse. Time is ticking and I need to decide how to take care of my potted plants this winter!

By: Matt Mattus

Matt Mattus — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:13:45 +0000

Miss Kelly, That's a great idea for a post. I wonder if anyone else will find it interesting? There are many ways to build a greenhouse, ranging from a simple poly hoop house, to a glass and steel structure. I will admit that our venture was a bit of a nightmare, but it was also one of those projects that was exciting. I think I could share the story if there is enough interest, and, share what I would do differently.

By: Miss Kelly

Miss Kelly — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:01:48 +0000

Have you written about how you came to have/purchase a greenhouse? I'd love to have a greenhouse (msotly to overwinter tender perennials), but I'm getting overwhelmed by the considerations: separate building or adjacent to house? floor? ventilation? maintenance? cost of heating over winter? Size? If you have any pearls of wisdom on this subject, please share. I love the idea of having a whole 'nother gardening season!

By: hopflower

hopflower — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 07:37:31 +0000

Good lord. And here I am battling 98 F heat in California. Where is the autumn weather for us? My nerines however, are doing quite well outside now.

A gardener for an estate would certainly have time to transplant and pot up tuberoses: that was part of a gardener's job; which was full time, of course.