A Temporary Greenhouse
Moving household objects over the mountain is one thing, trying to move plants is a completely different beasty! I was able to move my interior house plants on my own in my SUV. The exterior plants, especially the larger ones I needed help. My friend Laurie with her refrigerated truck came to my rescue! My mom has been plant sitting for me during our transition from Denver to Palisade. Together with her sister and my mom, Laurie loaded up her truck and brought my potted garden over the mountain. In preparation for the move, mom held off watering the plants so they would not be as heavy. We took additional precautionary measures and sprayed the plants for Japanese Beetles and quarantined them in mom’s green house for a month. The last thing Andy and I would want to do is bring that destructive bug to Palisade!
On deliver day, the plants arrived a bit wilted but in one piece! The days and evenings are still warm enough that Andy and I have been enjoying them on our two outdoor patios. However, with October upon us, we also need to plan for the colder months and where we will store the plants. While discussing possible options, Andy had the brilliant idea of using the fruit shed that came with the property as our temporary greenhouse.
We surveyed the shed, it has insulated walls, electricity and what look to be two sets of grow lights already installed. We have an unsubstantiated theory that one of the previous owners might have perhaps used it to grow pot. No proof… just a theory! It could have also been used to dry the Pecan from the eight nut trees on the property. In addition to the grow lights there are hooks installed in the ceiling which we will use to hang and additional grow light and multiple heat lamps.
The floor appears to be plywood. To protect the wood and ensure that we don’t damage the floor with moisture from watering, we lined the floor with a plastic sheet that we then attached to the walls. It is the same thing we used to create the walls of our garage greenhouse in Denver. When it is not used to make greenhouses, it is actually a plastic drop cloth for painting. This plastic sheet will act as a barrier and contain any excess water. It will also increase the humidity level in the shed which will be good for the plants. We couldn’t find the temperature gage we had in the last greenhouse, so Andy ordered a new one from Amazon. We do still have our timer so we can set the lights on a timer so the plants will have some down time. Once all those things are in place our temporary greenhouse should be good to go. Then we just need to keep an eye on the weather, when it starts to drop below 40 degrees, it’s time to move the plants in for winter.
In addition to the central greenhouse area, there is a small outer room with some insultation. If I’m thinking I might experiment and store some spring bulbs planted in pots in this outer room. If it works, then next spring I could have pots full of blooming tulips and daffodils that would add a splash or color to our patios!
Eventually the plan is to build both a glass greenhouse and hoop houses that we will use for the farm. In these we would start our flower and vegetable seedlings, as well as store our patio plants, assorted dahlia tubers and pots of spring bulbs. Until then, we are perfecting our skills at creating a temporary greenhouse!
