You see, in Wellington, I can garden all year round. We have never had a frost in the five years we've been at this house -- unless you count a tiny dusting of it on the car windscreen one morning in June 2010. We grow lettuce, all sorts of herbs, green onions, and all sorts of greens outside, year round. Basically, nothing dies back, it just keeps on growing.
So, I look on the Denim Homes client website most days, and there's a weather app on there that swings madly from -10 to +3, back to -5 and up to zero... all over the map. Right now it says "-4, feels like -9. The worst one I saw recently was -29. I actually didn't believe that one... surely a malfunction in someone's thermometer?
Anyhoo. I am a gardener, and I fully intend to garden year round in Nova Scotia. Those of you who know me know that when I set my mind on something, I'm doing it. Hence the glasshouse extension.
That's the glasshouse, sticking out from back of the house. It's got a frostwall around its foundation, just like the house has, so it will hang on to the heat of the earth from about a meter down. It won't freeze, in other words. The back wall will be insulated just like the house walls. All we need now are some glass walls and a glass roof, and I will be a year-round gardener in Nova Scotia.
I truly hope this isn't a pipe dream. I've got my heart set on it. And it looks like it will be a gorgeous sun trap. The door runs from the Utilidor into the greeenhouse, and that little window is just a peep hole from the kitchen. I will be able to see what's growing from the kitchen sink. Perfect.
The only hitch with all of this, is that my expectations of a glasshouse for Nova Scotia conditions, and what is actually required of a glasshouse in that climate are miles apart. (That's a kind way of saying I haven't got a clue.) I was busy searching online for nice garden glasshouses, that didn't cost much, thinking how perfect they would be for extending the growing season. The quote came in, and frankly I was stunned. The specs on these rooms blew me away. But it has forced me to admit that I just don't get it yet. I don't know what that winter is going to be like.
I've been back and forth with the designer and the suppliers about this glasshouse so many times. But here's where it's standing, still a sketch, waiting for me to sign it off.
It looks exactly the way I imagined it. It costs way more than I imagined. That's because it's made of super winter-proof glass, with super insulated aluminium joints. It's also got bug screens (that's another thing nobody in New Zealand has ever heard of, except in their tents!) I just need to accept this is what I need to be a winter gardener in Nova Scotia. The people who live there know better than I do. Of course they do.
So I'm going sign off on the drawing, and get over myself on the extra cost. The garden is definitely my happy place. It's the place I get inspired, the place I get absorbed and lose track of time (that's being in the zone I guess). Plants and me, we have something ancient and profound going on. We're going to have the best glasshouse ever!
I've just popped out to the Wellington tiny glasshouse. It's +29 out there.
