Week Seven | November 11 | The Penultimate Week!
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: the penultimate week of the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge! It’s been a really busy week, too. We made lots of progress on the Greenhouse. It probably doesn’t look all that different, but it is. So much of the work this last week has been fiddly, highly-customized work — making windows and one of the doors, making windows for the cold frames, finishing the insulation and interior sheething.
Left to right: Canna rhisome, Dahlia tuber, and Gladiolus bulb
So. Much. Sawdust.
One of the things which has made this project slower than we had hoped is the fact that almost every piece of wood we are using has to be milled first. If you are new to these updates, I should explain. Last spring we installed a new fence. Fencing supplies were in short demand which made getting them difficult and costly. So we opted for locally-harvested beetle-kill pine from a local supplier. But the wood had not been milled — great for a fence, but not ready-to-go for this project. So we have planed and finished every piece of wood in addition to everything else we have done. I’m so happy with the finished product, but it has meant more time and lots more effort.
A happy by-product of that milling: tons of sawdust. And that came in handy this weekend when I dug up, divided, and stored all of my dahlia tubers, canna lily rhisomes, and gladiolus bulbs. They are all packed away in soft layers of sawdust and wood shavings, ready to be stored in the greenhouse and then replanted in the spring.
A whole barrel full of sawdust!
One of the containers of canna rhisomes packed away for a few months.
DIY Flower Press
The flowers may be nearly gone, but I certainly still have them on my mind. I haven’t had as many tutorials as usual during this round. Frankly, I just haven’t written most of them up yet, but they will come. This one, though, is really fun! I made a flower press — something I have always wanted. We actually needed a book press for Owl and Ember, so I made two: one for books and one for flowers. I have the whole DIY tutorial for you this week, and I think they both turned out so well! The flower press will live in The Greenhouse, too. Right now it is filled with the last blooms of summer which need just another week or two to dry out. I can’t wait to open it!
I also created a tutorial for the sunprinting process that I used to decorate the top of the press. It is so easy and fun! Enjoy!
Creative Siding Solutions
Another issue we have encountered: we are running out of 6” wide wood! When we did the fence, we ordered extra wood knowing other projects would come along. However, we didn’t calculate precisely as The Greenhouse wasn’t even a dream at that point. We just knew we would use the wood somehow, and since wood was hard to get and expensive, buying extra made sense. Well, we are down to only a few 6” wide boards at this point — and a good stack of 4” boards. So we will have to get a little creative using up scraps and shorter pieces for the siding on the Greenhouse. It isn’t a big deal. We have enough — but it is going to be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle making it all work.
This just makes the whole process more fun, right?
Progress shot as the siding is going up. It wil be a jigsaw puzzle to finish it, though!
And if anyone happens to have a time-turner on hand, I could use one. Not only do we have to finish The Greenhouse this weekend, but our spring bulbs are arriving, so I will be busy busy busy planting this weekend, too. I’m really excited, though! We haven’t planted any bulbs in the ground at this house yet, and I’m excited to have some early spring color next year!
Plants waiting to go into their new home! They have been shifting from the patio to the kitchen for weeks now. Not convenient, but I am thankful for a few weeks of unseasonably warm weather so far.
I don’t mean to be coy, but I think that’s all I want to say about this week. Next week is the big reveal, and I am excited to lift the curtain at last! And to get it all done, too!
Finishing touches on the cold frames!
The Nice List
I am just going to tuck this right here: The Nice List is now available! Buy a copy! Give a copy! It makes a great gift, and there are gift packs available with 3 and 5 bundles, too.
Goals for this Week:
Finish it!
Move the plants in!
Take photos!
Be done!
Will we make it? We have never been this far behind before, but then again, we have never built a One Room Challenge room from the ground up before. Watch my Instagram for updates, and next week will be the final reveal! Hooray!
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!
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!
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