Winter Greenhouse Gardening in Colorado
The growing season is brief where we live, at 8,000 feet in Colorado. That’s one reason we were so pleased that the house we bought here came with an attached south-facing greenhouse.
We were busy getting settled in during the fall, and didn’t get around to planting the greenhouse till mid November.
Out of doors, it has gotten as cold as 29 degrees below at night here. At first we were using a small heater in the greenhouse, but it does have insulating shades we put in at night AND a small hot tub which radiates some warmth. So we got brave…
… and stopped using the heater. The coldest it has gotten to since then inside the greenhouse is about 25 degrees.
The plants seem to do just fine with these slightly-below-freezing temperatures. Most of them are brassicas like kale, kohlrabi, and brussels sprouts. Our bok choy has been doing great too.
Starting about a month ago, we’ve been eating quite a few greens from the garden. Here are some I collected a few days ago. The ones on the left I stir-fried lightly. We ate the ones on the right in salads.
Our greenhouse in Colorado was built into the house, which made all the difference in keeping the heat in. Now we live in NM and Kelly built a greenhouse onto the house and it gets a lot of sun. But in general there are many ways to keep heat in… try a search engine for more ideas than I could come up with!
What are using to keep the heat in. I live in Denver and I’m looking for a way to use my Greenhouse during the winter.