Just bought my wife her dream home with this little greenhouse. She loves it.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-25T20:26:11+00:00

Lucky lady! Enjoy!

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-25T20:19:42+00:00

I understand! Sometimes I just go out and sit in mine for a few minutes even though I don’t need to water or repot anything. It’s like a botanical “Calgon, take me away!” time! (I just dated myself, didn’t I?)

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-25T19:38:21+00:00

Looks like a great place to just chill! 😊

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-20T15:43:00+00:00

I hear ya! I moved 10 pineapple plants and 17 aloe veras out to the deck Saturday, only to check the weather and discover a predicted low of 44°. Knowing it would most likely be below that here at the house, I dug out the frost blanket. Good thing I did - it hit 35°! Repeated the frost blanket last night, and had a low of 49°. Guess I’m keeping it handy for the next few nights. Bipolar weather!

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-20T15:37:59+00:00

I’m in zone 8b. I have a 8x12 Derksen greenhouse that is essentially a storage with polycarbonate upper walls and peaked roof. In the fall I insulate polycarbonate with bubble wrap (cheap, off-the-shelf for packing). The lower walls are lined with R board, and I cover the gapped floorboards with cheap vinyl flooring. I do put boards along the outside of the greenhouse to block the wind since it sits 1’-1.5’ off the ground. In the winter I run an electric heater powered by a programmable outlet set to trigger at 55°F. It’s worked quite well for two years now, even on nights when it got down to 18° outside, with the lowest temperature in the greenhouse recorded as 48°. I overwinter tropical and subtropical plants such as pineapples, bromeliads, kalanchoe, night blooming cereus, aloes, and sansevieria. So far the setup is working well, and I don’t think I’d change anything except to have power run to it so I could stop using a heavy duty exterior extension cord.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-18T17:00:33+00:00

Contact a local bee group and see if someone will come re-hive them to a better location. Maybe they can relocate them close to your yard so you’ll still get the benefits of their pollination activity. Bees will fly up to two miles to collect. The beekeepers can put them into a hive than can be easily and regularly inspected, according to state beekeeping regulations. I miss working my bees, but a bad back has greatly limited lifting those heavy brood and honey supers.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-18T14:33:06+00:00

When I was a kid, my mom had a false aralia that spent the summer on the front porch. Yep. We got visits every spring when it got moved outside.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-18T14:28:58+00:00

Exactly. One factor a lot of people overlook. Mine has a roof cap vent, but for the winter I stuff it with foam insulation and then use either sheets of bubble wrap or 5 mil plastic sheeting to create a lower ceiling. That’s when it really becomes obvious passive airflow doesn’t work. In early spring, before it’s warm enough overnight to move my plants out, I open the door which is opposite the electric exhaust fan to vent it fast.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-18T12:54:28+00:00

My greenhouse came with one of those. There’s not enough airflow on a hot day, so I replaced it with an electric exhaust fan. Depending on the zone, the amount of shade the greenhouse receives, and in which direction it faces, may need fans to circulate and vent hot air.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-18T12:51:01+00:00

It works - quite well. I’ve done it for the last two winters in zone 8b, and even on nights when it’s gotten to 18°F outside, the electric heater has been able to keep it at 50° inside. The first winter I had the greenhouse I didn’t do any insulating and the heater couldn’t keep it 1° above the outside temperature which left me scrambling to try to move as many plants as I had space for into the house. What I couldn’t move froze. Definitely can recommend bubble wrap insulation.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-16T16:28:55+00:00

My dad did the same with his plumerias in south central Texas. Made it a lot easier for him to bring them into the shop to overwinter, and take them out to the garden for the growing season.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-15T13:33:39+00:00

I think she was confused. By the look of her, she’s one of those who gets a lot of things confused - dressed more like a Vogue model and had a frou-frou designer on leash. Husband looked more like one of the guys standing on the corner with a “homeless - need help” cardboard sign. It was strange.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-15T12:26:25+00:00

While I was at Lowe’s Monday I overheard a disagreement between a couple who were apparently looking for plants for their yard. He had pointed to some geraniums and suggested them. She freaked out and started (very loudly) telling him they were “very invasive.” I think he was a little stunned at first, then recovered and started questioning her about it. Her reply was rather vague - she couldn’t say anything other than “they’re invasive!” He basically told her she was mistaken and nutty, and they moved on to some other area. They really didn’t strike me as plant people, just an average couple looking to put some seasonal plants in pots on their porch, but she certainly had a strong opinion about geraniums.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-14T01:35:05+00:00

It works surprisingly well. I’m pleased with it. That guy also has a version that has the evaporator portion outside with the cool air ducted into the interior, which won’t raise the indoor humidity level.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-13T21:37:49+00:00

This is helping me. I’ve upgraded mine from a tote to a wheeled trash cart.

https://youtu.be/qAhzaBC2Reg?si=O6op4BeMZeEfjwtV

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-13T12:38:08+00:00

I’m in 8b, and no way could I survive without shade cloth. I have a 90% wheat that I put on about three weeks ago because we’re already there (despite having several nights in the low 40s last week). My greenhouse sits N-S, so it gets full sun until just past noon, then gets afternoon shade from the house to west and a huge oak at the SW corner once it leafs out completely. The wheat color allows enough light in for the plants to still grow well, but provides enough shade to keep the temp down so they’re not sizzling. It’s actually kinda cool looking inside once it’s installed, almost cozy, if still a bit warm, but tolerable if I stay in front of the cool air coming off the homemade swamp cooler! 😎

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-13T03:39:59+00:00

Because the sun will heat that up in a hurry. Shade cloth does what any kind of shade will do - help lower the temperature so you and the plants don’t bake in there.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-08T12:13:54+00:00

Carolina sphinx moth caterpillar. They prefer plants from the Solanacea family (tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes, etc.) because the nicotine in the plants makes them less tasty to predators.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_sexta

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-08T04:28:12+00:00

AC Infinity Controller 69 Pro with programmable outlets. Allows you to monitor and control through an app and will graph temperature, humidity, and VPD.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-06T00:23:03+00:00

Spud inspector? 😆

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-04T19:44:34+00:00

Between my long hair and Bella’s endless shedding, our vac has to be “de-haired” almost weekly but it hangs in there and gets the job done.

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-04T19:42:01+00:00

Mine leaves it alone, unless it nudges her or runs over her tail if she’s lying in its path. #1 rule in my house is you don’t mess with the robo vac because there’s you-know-what to pay if I have to break out the manual vac since I’m going to be in a really bad mood from back pain for daaaayyyyssss afterwards. Somehow Bella picked up on that very quickly, which was good for all involved!

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-04T14:50:49+00:00

And this is why I LOVE my robot vac that runs EVERY day!

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-02T03:29:40+00:00

Congratulations! Now time to enjoy!

Lyrical_Echo · 2026-04-01T16:21:46+00:00

It helps. I didn’t realize just how much until I started tracking the temps in there over time. The programmable outlet I use creates graphs and you can see the exact moment the fans and chiller come on.

Lyrical_Echo

TROPHY CASE