Week One | September 30 | Building a Greenhouse
For the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge we are building a whole room — a greenhouse! And we will be racing the snow to get it done, too. I’ll let you in on the inspiration board as well as plans for my dream greenhouse — a place for starting seedlings, overwintering tender perennials, and extending our short Colorado growing season. Be sure to check in on all of the other ORC projects on the ORC blog here.
Here we are. After the last one I said I would never do a Fall ORC again. But guess what? Yep. This is the Fall One Room Challenge, and I’m in. Again!
Actually, I am super-crazy excited about this project, and I hope you are, too. This round we are building an entire room from the ground up — a DIY Greenhouse!
Let me start by saying: I used to think greenhouses were frivolous follies for the wealthy and decadent. They were for people who collected rare orchids and lived a somewhat Victorian life. I grew up in Texas where gardening is a 10-month sport, frankly. Why have a greenhouse, right? And then I spent years in California where everything is perennial, and with a little water most things will flourish.
But Miss Havisham, I was wrong!
A greenhouse can be a powerful tool for a gardener, and four years of living at the feet of the Rocky Mountains has shown me just how important a greenhouse can be if you want to grow anything that isn’t native to Colorado. In the four years we have lived here we have had snow as early as September 9 — last year — and as late as May 26. Snow! Not just frost, but snow!
Now, I might not be embarking upon this project at all if we had a garage where plants could be overwintered and brought in for freakish cold snaps. But, as we all saw in the Mid Modern Mudroom — this house does not have a garage. And I don’t have a good storage solution for things like dahlia tubers (Oh, how I LOVE dahlias!) and canna lilies and caladiums and....
So, we are building a greenhouse! Actually I need to be very clear: my husband is building a greenhouse. When we got married, our pastor preached about the marriage of The Poet and the Eagle Scout. If we ever were stranded on a desert island, Romano would build a shelter and resourcefully keep us fed and warm while I would feed our spirits with poetry and storytelling. Pastor Swanson wasn’t all that far off, frankly. It just was a pandemic -- not a desert island.
Romano and I designed the greenhouse together, but he has been working on it for several weeks. It is clearly a love and a joy for him — and I’m so thankful for it! Once it is enclosed, I’ll get to be more than an assistant, working on the interior finishes, painting, and outfitting it to be functional and beautiful, too.
That’s another thing: we are racing the snow here! Frankly, as I write this I am shocked we haven’t had even a frost yet. But we started work on the Greenhouse a few weeks ago in hopes that we will have it enclosed before the first frost. So far Mother Nature has been kind! And just in case you are wondering, that’s just fine per the ORC rules. I will update the project as it progresses. Oh, and one more thing: due to COVID delays and precautions, we have 8 weeks for this ORC instead of the standard six. Phew!
June, 2020: a pandemic afternoon looking toward the future site of the Greenhouse
The Greenhouse Location
We bought our house a little over four years ago. When we bought it, there was nothing in the yard except a falling down fence, a falling down shed, four falling down raised beds, and a LOT of weeds. Seriously, think thistles 8 feet tall and bindweed running rampant. Our lot also slopes toward the far corner. It’s dry and our neighbors’ trees suck every drop of moisture out of the clay soil. We have almost no shade, and we don’t have a sprinkler system.
When my mom first came to visit a few weeks after we moved in, she asked, “Why did you buy this house?” Yep. It was that bad. And the yard was absolutely the worst.
So what solves bad yard problems? Pirate ships! Our first full summer here, we built a pirate ship. It is epic -- the HMS Lucifrix. It is the centerpiece of every game when we have kids over to play.
Summer, 2018 on the Pirate Ship
The next summer, we did some minor gardening projects including shoring up the four existing raised beds, but the focus was on the shed. My husband spent months tearing apart, shoring up, and retrofitting the falling down shed into a workshop. That workshop allows us to do all of the other projects around the house and is an institution now.
The following summer, 2020, was the first summer of the pandemic. In a fit of prescient insanity, my husband ordered a big load of lumber at the beginning of lockdown -- before things got scarce -- thinking we might do some projects around the house. During the summer of 2020 we worked on the gardens and built a deck off of the workshop, a stock tank pool, a treehouse, and a stage for musical and theatrical productions -- someday, when it is safer for such things again.
The stage was the beginning of our hardscaping solution. The axis running from our house toward the far corner of our yard is the driest, hottest, barest area of our yard. There is no shade ever -- not even from neighboring trees. So it bakes in the sun and by mid-summer most years even weeds won’t grow here. But without even weeds, when rain does come, the water makes a little mud and runs down the slope. In winter, the snow evaporates here before any other part of the yard. It’s barren.
Ole and Pippa snuggling on the dry, barren axis.
After seasons of work and editing, the backyard master plan finally came together. We will build a pergola, the stage, and the Greenhouse -- all on this dry, barren axis off of the house. The pergola will provide shade in the middle of the yard. The stage is great for movies at night and theatrical performances and all kinds of play. And the Greenhouse will allow us to both overwinter plants and to extend our short growing season by starting seeds early. Together they divide up the yard creating zones, and eventually what isn’t grass will be covered in pea gravel -- permeable to allow rain to soak in when it comes, but not requiring watering.
Architectural rendering of a verson of the master plan for our yard.
We have had a mammoth summer of backyard projects again this year starting with having our fence replaced. The large pergola is about half done and the pond has been added. The changing room by the pool is also underway. Additionally, we built 21 new raised beds — mostly planted out with flowers. Oh, and I built a stumpery out of logs, too. I have worked really hard planting and cultivating perennials this year with the intention that I’ll fill in with annuals grown in the greenhouse moving forward. Additionally, we have covered a long stretch of our yard with black plastic in a bid to kill off the weeds flourishing there. In a year or two we will remove the plastic and begin work on that area.
The Greenhouse Plan
All of my images of greenhouses have been shaped by the beautiful Victorian and Edwardian greenhouses of England. But we live in a Mid Modern suburban home. Filigree ironwork and fancy embellishment would simply look out of place -- as much as I love it. Plus, those kinds of greenhouses are definitely outside of our budget. And my architect husband loves a good design challenge.
The Greenhouse Design Considerations
Heat: a greenhouse that doesn’t require heating except perhaps on the coldest of nights as we won’t be running power to the Greenhouse -- at least initially
Hail: We get frequent hail storms here on the Front Range, so a glass roof is pretty-much out of the question. It must be plastic.
Space: I want to be able to overwinter some plants in the greenhouse as well as starting seedlings and plants from cuttings.
Sunlight: I hope to be able to retreat to this warm, sunny spot on cold days -- allowing me to be outside without being freezing. Perhaps even being able to work on a laptop while soaking in some Vitamin D.
Water: I’ll need to be able to water plants in the winter -- preferably without having to use the hose.
Given all of those constraints, we did a lot of research on keeping greenhouses warm -- and cool. We have worked to maximize the amount of sunlight all day and will be using several layers of plastic to create an insulating layer. We will also be creating a Trombe Wall of sorts to store heat during the day and then radiate that heat into the Greenhouse at night. Any space not needed for sun exposure will be heavily insulated to keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. We have designed a water-collection system to fill two rain barrels inside the Greenhouse which can then be used to water plants as needed. And the interior has been space-planned for storage as well as work area and spaces for plants of all sizes. More details on all of this and how it works to come!
The DIY Greenhouse will be part science experiment, part engineering problem -- and there will be some fun design challenges, too. I am really looking forward to getting all of these pieces in place and letting them work their magic!
I will talk a bit next week about my primary inspiration for this project, but here’s the design board filled with greenhouse loveliness and dreamy horticultural fabulousness.
Will this all work the way it is supposed to? We should find out very soon! But in the meantime, I have a lot of work to get done. Thanks for coming along for this my ORC #5! It’s certain to be interesting!
To Linda Weinstein, the creator of the One Room Challenge, I offer my most sincere thanks. Thank you for offering this kind of opportunity and for opening it up to anyone. And to Better Homes and Gardens, the ORC media sponsor: thank you for making this possible! And to all of the other ORC participants: I’ll be sure to stop by to admire your work! It is always fun to do this together!
Ok. Gotta get back to work! Be sure to follow along on Instagram for daily updates. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to my newsletter below so the weekly updates will pop right into your inbox.
Cheers!
Angela
The Fall 2021 ORC Schedule
Week One | Sept 30 | The Before
Week Two | Oct 7 | My Gardening Guru
Week Three | Oct 14 | Garden Beds
Week Four | Oct 21 | Materials & Methods
Week Five | Oct 28 | Construction & Gardening
Week Six | Nov 4 | Making it Beautiful
Week Seven | Nov 11 | Water-Wise Gardening
Week Eight | Nov 18 | Before & After
Thanks to my sponsors for this project! Interested in being a sponsor? Let me know!
Don’t miss a single update!
Sign up and each installment of the One Room Challenge will come directly to your email on Thursdays! And be sure to stop by the One Room Challenge Blog to check out the other creative renovations happening across the country. You can also follow #oneroomchallenge and #bhgorc on Instagram for more inspiration! Be sure to follow me as well!
