Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Enclosed Porch is Definitely Not a Greenhouse

The Greenish Thumb gave me the idea to call my enclosed porch a "greenhouse". It's because all of my outdoor plants are now in this space. For the most part, many of the plants are doing well, but there are a few that are struggling.  Our house is 109 years old, and way back when, our enclosed porch used to be a regular porch. Somewhere down the line, one of the owners of this house enclosed it. When they did so, they never insulated the enclosed porch, so it's pretty cold in there. It's equivalent to an unheated garage. It keeps out the wind and the elements, but it's cold! I was out there watering the plants and saw that poor tropical Hibiscus wasn't doing so well. It looked droopy and pathetic.  See how the flowers and leaves are hanging low.
So I decided to move poor Miss Hibiscus into our dining room where it's warm and toasty.  Our dining room does not get much sunlight, but at least it's warm.  I gave her some nice warm water to heat up the soil.  Within 3 hours she really perked up.  This will be her spot for the rest of the winter.  I hope our cats leave her alone.  I put a plastic bag over the pot because I didn't want the overflow of watering to ruin our hard wood floors.  It's not pretty but it'll do the trick.

7 comments:

  1. I had the same delusion, that an enclosed space could basically sustain all plant life.

    Back to the drawing board. Glad yours picked up again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poor thing! I'd go to a thrift store and buy a plate to put under the pot and bag to make sure no moisture gets on your floor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a difference! That is amazing! I had to bring in a small citrus and put it in the kids room since that is the warmest and sunniest, I used an big old tupperware lid that didn't appear to have it's dish partner anymore LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can relate to that uninsulated porch. You can't help but wonder why someone would close in a porch and not insulate it first. If you could put plastic sheeting over the windows, that might help by cutting out drafts, and the heat lost from the wall of the house would help warm the room. Don't know if you would want to do the sheeting thing though. It might mess up your window trim.
    Stay warm!
    Veggie PAK

    ReplyDelete
  5. My mom has a porch like that where she keeps many of her plants. But she keeps an oil heater out their for the dogs and the plants do pretty well. She doesn't have as many as you, but she does have a bell pepper plant that is producing peppers right now! Ha ha!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks like she likes it better in the house.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hmmm, maybe you could convince the hubs to build a proper greenhouse then...

    hee hee - don't tell him I suggested this!

    ReplyDelete

We love to hear from you. Thanks for leaving a comment!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Book Recommendations

ad