The greenhouse is almost ready for winter. We have a couple of cold nights ahead so I brought in most of the plants, minus my porch plants (since they are covered by a roof) and the repotted fig tree because the pot is so massive it will take two of us to move it in here. But there's plenty of room.
To make the greenhouse function the way I wanted, lights to see at night were critical. Especially for winter when it gets dark at 4:30pm. I also needed power available for a small space heater when we have polar vortexes and the sun won't be enough to keep the greenhouse above freezing.
Mike added a new power outlet to the deck, controlled by a new switch in the dining room, where I can plug in lights and an extension cord for a space heater. This way I can turn on lights and heat at the flip of a switch.
This light switch box also has a second switch for our new deck light!
So now we have light on the deck for the first time! It's literally been on the list for 10 years, but a low priority compared to other things. Honestly if we didn't need power to the greenhouse, it wouldn't have gotten done even now. (Mike took a basic homeowner's electrical class years ago, which was awesome, but just because he knows how to do it doesn't mean it's easy - electricians are expensive for a reason!).
We plugged in two strands of string lights to the deck box, which is controlled by the switch. It will also be nice to have for anything we need to plug in when we're on the deck (which is more often than you'd think, and we end up using the patio box or an extension cord from the dining room). The lights swoop from the deck to the fence posts into the greenhouse.
And I just LOVE the greenhouse lit up. And this will be KEY as the days are now getting shorter and shorter - when it's dark at 5pm I need to be able to see in there. We did extra lights along the back over the potting area so I'll be able to see better over there.
The greenhouse is still missing a few things... probably another wire shelf for plants (especially in the spring when I'm potting up my bulbs and starting flower seeds) and definitely a potting bench. For storage, I'm using this metal and butcher block kitchen cart we had unused in our basement (as seen in my previous post about painting it hazy blue). It has enclosed cabinet for tools and things... after years of living in my dad's damp basement I know it will be fine in the greenhouse. It even has hooks on the side for tools! And for now the top even works as a small potting area if I use a tray. Long term I'll probably put a board over the top, but I'm happy to put this cart to use. It's perfect in here (and I love the color...).
I'm still looking for a potting bench. There's one that I love but it's 4x what I want to spend so that's out. Maybe someday in the future, when I know exactly what I want and need for a greenhouse, but it seems like a ridiculous investment in the first year. It's much more practical to just settle for the affordable one on target/amazon/box store websites that I'm sure will be fine, even I don't love it. But I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I will hold out until I see what everything looks like with all the plants in here, if not longer because for now this setup is fine.
I'll probably share a few photos once I have everything in here and I settle in for the season. I love it that I have a place to grow things (and hide from the kids) in the winter.
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