Ok, summer’s over


Tonight I’ll finally take in my gardenia, banana, and jasmine plants; a frost is expected, our first. They might survive it; in fact, they probably would, but why delay the inevitable. When I visited the Botanical Gardens today, I saw that they’d ripped out their outdoor annual plantings. Ouch. I bet they still looked fabulous too. But they’ve got to get their bulbs in, just as I do. The lilies are in but none of the tulips. I hope to do all the pots for forcing today and tomorrow.


Thank goodness I have a winter project: my new indoor greenhouse, which, believe it or not, will be created from the nondescript room you see above and at top (all the office stuff will go, but I’ll probably put back a lot of the art). It has great southern light, which I’ll supplement with some kind of other lighting (I need to research it). The room is quite cool, and it will be easy to add moisture, as it’s manageably small. Other people in this area have successfully done this with spare rooms, so I’m hopeful. We picked out a new hardwood floor yesterday, and will paint it after that. Then I'll need to find plant stands, humidity trays, lights, all that. A big project for a small room.

Comments

I have read about such areas in a house. I will be most intersted to see how your green room evolves. Please keep us up to date.
Carol Michel said…
I need to pot up bulbs for forcing, too, and plant my bulbs outside.

The green room sounds like it will be nice. I have a heated sun room which has east, west and northern exposure. It's full of plants, and I wish it was twice as big.
LostRoses said…
Great idea, wish I had a room that would do for a green room. I'm tired of sharing my living room with all the plants I hauled in before first frost and I've finally relegated them to the basement. Love your solution.
Annie in Austin said…
What fun, EAL - a place to keep summer all year! I could have used a place like this during a long Illinois winter - maybe using big square fired tiles instead of hardwood, because I'm a messy indoor gardener.

I have some bulbs to plant, too, but want the ground a little cooler first.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
firefly said…
If you have lights, you can start your own seeds -- then gardening season begins in March instead of May.

More varieties available to you in the Select Seeds catalog too.

I'll be putting 30 English bluebell bulbs in the ground next week.

(Cursed Bluestone sales ... !)
Unknown said…
Oooh... how fun. The only spare room I have is a northwest corner and also serves as a studio for painting and drawing. But I still may steal some of your ideas as I follow along with this project. :)
kate said…
This will be a great project for the winter ... I can picture the room already.

I've had my plants inside for at least a month now. It was so hard to bring them in, but it's kind of comforting having them inside now.
lisa said…
I love your room idea! I'll be very interested to see how this goes, as I am trying something similar myself. My plants have been in for a week, and I forgot how much nicer the house looks with them in it.

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