Keeping up with my Mini Greenhouse

Keeping up with my mini greenhouse this fall and winter have turned into quite the adventure.

 This fall I had the idea to convert my raised garden into a mini greenhouse. As it turned out I happen to have two friends that are very handy with tools. Not only did they improve my design they built it for me.

To the right is the second stage of my greenhouse. Mike and Betty had just finished installing the polycarbonate roof. Making the entire structure of this material would have saved me a lot of problems but wrapping it in weatherproof plastic was a lot easier on the wallet.



This store brought greenhouse is my back up. It now sits in the basement near the house heater. I have added a small amount of elephant garlic and a pot where I am growing potatoes but I made sure to leave room for anything that needed to be brought inside.


Everything worked great until the deep freeze hit. Durning late fall and early winter I harvested lettuce on a regular basis. I also managed to get a few potatoes. Just before Christmas, I gave away a few onions.

The temperatures inside of my greenhouse were warm enough to sustain temps down to twenty-two degrees outside. I was not prepared for what happened right before Christmas.  Below are the average temps in my area.

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in °F:	85	84	78	68	57	46

Below is the actual weather forecast for the same area. Check out the lows. No, that 1 degree is not a misprint. This was part of a weather pattern known as the polar vortex that is expected to last for at least another week.

Remember that basement greenhouse I mentioned earlier, well it turned out to be a plant saver. Here is a tray of spinach that came from the mini greenhouse outdoors. It will be used it in salads. Because the elephant garlic and onions were also in pots I was able to also bring them in from the frigid outdoor greenhouse. 

The remaining plants were covered for extra protection but that would not be nearly enough warmth so I added a heat lamp and a small heater which I only used at night. 

With daytime internal temps in the 20's I considered harvesting what I could and start fresh in the spring but something surprising happened.


Keeping up with my mini greenhouse part #2



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