It seems the 'greenhouse bug' is getting the better of me, having been gifted this 8x8 beauty in August by my husband and not being able to use it yet - gah! As you can see we still have snow on the ground, and I believe the high for today was 3c, although we have had warmer days. The small heat guage in my greenhouse shows the temperature in there to be 20c in the lower shaded areas, and was much higher near the top in direct sun. This seems promising.I am not what one would call a patient person, evidenced by the 'garden' that is already growing in my basement that I started several weeks ago. Room is slowly becoming scarce though in my growing area, and now I need to find a way to make my greenhouse think it's summer!
After researching the internet for a while, I discovered the wonderful world of 'heat sinks' aka passive heating. The idea is pretty simple - in the day time when the sun shines and heat builds in the greenhouse, strategically placed water barrels, rocks, bricks or sand collect the heat and then at night, slowly release that heat into the cooling air of the greenhouse. I decided this would be worth a try after watching several videos and seeing what has worked for others.
In the basement I discovered three water jugs I'd saved from a previous gardening project. In the recycling I found a few milk jugs. Out I went with these and a can of flat black quick-dry spray paint. After painting, I filled the jugs with hot tap water and placed them in the greenhouse. The floor of the greenhouse is brick with a base of sand underneath, so the unit already has some thermal properties built in. I placed some of the left over bricks on the shelves where the sun can get at them too.
I'm going to monitor temperature over the next few days to see what happens. I'd like to get a memory thermometer that shows the daytime high/lows, but I'm sure they're pretty pricey. For now I wait *sigh*. I'll post updates of this project, plus photos of the 'basement greenhouse' another day!
