Every fall, before the frost came, KJ Blanche Scarlett Phelps, Jenkintown, Pa., used to spend days digging up and carrying into the house her begonias, echeverias, geraniums, and other plants that needed winter protection.
“If only I had a little greenhouse, or some space that could be converted into a hothouse . . .” she remarked one day while her daughter and son-in-law were visiting.
“How about a small greenhouse built onto the back corner of the house? You hardly ever use that outside the cellar entrance . . .” and Bill Pyle, her son-in-law, began to draw on a scrap of paper a plan for the kind of greenhouse he had in mind.
Mr. Phelps agreed that it was a good idea, and so the project was started.
Building The Greenhouse
The vertical cellar door was removed, and the rickety, steep wooden stairs, which had always seemed hazardous anyway, were thrown out.
The frame of the greenhouse was built around that former doorway with 2″ x 4″ lumber, measuring 9 3/4 feet in width, 3′ feet in height against the wall of the house, and diagonally forward the length of a regulation cold frame sash, which is 6′ feet.
The most expensive purchase the Phelps made were the three regulation cold frame sashes, equipped with small panes of glass that slid in and out easily.
With the frame and foundation of the greenhouse completed, the three glass sashes were fitted into place, and the two end sashes were nailed fast. The middle glass sash was put on hinges to open up and outward.
Wooden shingles were nailed around the frames of the sashes, making the entire top of the greenhouse weatherproof.
The right side of the greenhouse used the chimney for a wall, and where it extended beyond the chimney, the shingles were nailed solidly into place to cover the corner completely.
The left side of the greenhouse was shingled, too, except for a space 29″ wide and 31″ high. A removable window frame was built for this space (29″ x 31″) and fitted with a pane of window glass.
After the cat broke this window on a cold night when he tried to get into the cellar, chicken wiring was put on this removable window when it was repaired.
The roofing compound was poured into all crevices and cracks, especially where the greenhouse shingles met the house’s stone wall, making the greenhouse completely watertight.
Features of The Greenhouse
The inside of the greenhouse has three wooden shelves, each measuring 8’ feet in length and 24” inches in width.
On the top shelf are kept all the succulents and begonias. This gardener uses the middle shelf for potting and as a working shelf.
Mrs. Phelps calls the bottom shelf “the sleeping shelf,” for here are the geraniums and the amaryllis, dahlia, gladiolus, and canna bulbs, as well as other plants that sleep all winter.
Phelps’s old stone house has a hot-air heating system so that the cellar is just as warm and often warmer than the rest of the house.
“It’s amazing how much warmth that Winter sun radiates through those panes of glass,” Mrs. Phelps tells friends when they ask how she keeps the greenhouse warm enough all winter without any special heating system. The thermometer registers 50° to 55° degrees Fahrenheit all winter long.
Old Goose-neck Lamp
An old goose-neck lamp, Mrs. Phelps painted white so that it is easily seen, is the only additional heat used in the greenhouse, and that only in 12° degrees Fahrenheit to zero weather. The bulb in this lamp is the regular infrared type, familiarly called a sunlamp.
When the temperature in the greenhouse drops, Mrs. Phelps lights the lamp (which she puts on a stepladder) so that the bulb faces up toward the greenhouse windows, and then the heat reflects downward.
Stone Cellar Wall
This greenhouse has good humidity, for the cellar wall is stone, and when it is wet down with a water hose, this wall throws off the necessary moisture, so hard to achieve in the rest of the house during the winter months.
Cinders were spread over the old dirt floor because this part of the cellar floor had never been finished off with cement.
“That greenhouse takes a terrific beating from winter weather,” Mrs. Phelps explains when people say they couldn’t have a similar arrangement because their homes do not face in the “proper direction.”
The Phelps house faces southeast, and with the greenhouse built against the back corner of the house, northwestern winds have fall play.
While the greenhouse does get the afternoon sun, it also gets a full share of wild North winds and Pennsylvania Winter weather.
For that reason, some extra glass panes are always stored in the Phelps household. Falling icicles often cause breakage, and as long as the little glass panes are on hand, it’s easy to slip them into place when needed.
Maintaining The Greenhouse
With the return of spring and warm weather, the plants, bulbs, and foliage are taken out of doors, and the greenhouse is fumigated.
Mrs. Phelps hangs a bed sheet in the opening that leads from the greenhouse to the rest of the cellar, thus closing off the fumes.
The greenhouse is sprayed with a chemical to kill all fungi and is aired during the Summer by leaving the middle and side windows open.
“The most wonderful part of having such a greenhouse is the fact that you have leafing all winter long for indoor arrangements,” Mrs. Phelps says.
44659 by Sue Maxwell