Hi GPODers!
If you’ve been following along over the past several weeks, you know we’ve reached the end of Cherry Ong’s series on her garden greenhouse installation in Richmond, British Columbia. If you’re just tuning in, or missed any installment of the series, be sure to go back and check out the previous parts to learn more about this inspiring project: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
Now that Cherry has covered every aspect of the decision-making and building processes, she’s sharing all of the gardening joys and challenges faced in the seasons since its installation.
Tender Plant Migration in the Fall
Initially, I had the goal of storing all my tender plants inside but that meant maintaining a higher minimum temperature since I had some tropicals. Tropicals also require much more humidity so I decided to store tropicals inside my home. Thankfully I only had a few.
The greenhouse stored mostly tender succulents for the winter. I grouped and placed according to how much sun they require. Taller ones only had one area for placement since it is a galley type storage.
Cherry’s precious plants all cozy and glowing under the creative fairy lighting they installed.
First, Second and Current Winter
The polar vortex arrived and returned for the greenhouse’s first and second winter. The first time the temps went to -20°C/-4°F, the temperature in the greenhouse dropped to 3°C/37.4°F!
No one was home at the time so the moment we got home, we installed a second heater in the greenhouse. The power was fed through one of the louvres. This corrected the problem within the first hour. The second heater was needed for a short period of time (days).
Where there was succeeding forecast of below zero weather, we would install the second heater right before the storm arrived preventing a dip in temperature for the greenhouse.
I really love that you can so easily see all of Cherry’s incredible succulents and cacti from outside of the greenhouse. In the middle of winter, surrounded by snow, it looks like a magical desert oasis.
We’ve been fortunately enjoying a mild winter this season, but the question of how to feed the power for a second heater should we need one has arisen given the replacement of the louvres with the automated exhaust fan. My husband was brainstorming and thinking of replacing one of the glass panes adjacent to it with plexiglass. He can then drill a home for the feed.
Second heater in place in this photo.
Outside you can just barely see one of Cherry’s creative holiday swags and a colorful winter container arrangement, but inside the greenhouse tells a completely different story. A beautiful Black Rose aeonium (Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’, Zone 9–12) has no idea about the chilly world just outside their glass home.
Winter January 2025: Much less snow on the ground, but still equally as exciting to see all those tender plants thriving in the greenhouse.
Be sure to check back into GPOD tomorrow to see the final installment in this series. We’ll be saying goodbye to the snow and seeing how this new greenhouse has transformed Cherry’s space in the warmer months, as well as getting a fabulous tour of the containers she has created over the past few years that make this small corner of her yard lush and colorful. If you’re at all familiar with Cherry’s incredible container creations, you know you won’t want to miss it!
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