Oh No!!!! It's too soon!

About 7 o'clock I looked outside and it was getting dark and said thank goodness it's going to rain. At 7:30 it was even darker and I looked out the kitchen window and up at the sky and no clouds! I ran to my computer and brought up the local radar .. no rain anywhere .. then it dawned on me .. the days are getting shorter... A chill went through me as I realized that. This Spring and Summer have gone by way too fast .. way too fast. I am one of those people who suffer terribly from Seasonal Affective Disorder, even this far South.

A fine haze of sadness is already swirling around my brain, before the greenhouse it was almost like a death sentence. I looked at pictures I took just a few weeks ago and compared them to ones I took this morning. There is definitely a change in the color of the light. No wonder the Scarlett O'Hara morning glory looked like muddy magenta instead of its usual clear dark pink.

The only thing to do now is start preparing for the winter. Gathering up and trading for seeds I want to start this fall for next Spring. Start thinking about clearing out the greenhouse and giving it a good cleaning and making room for the chaise lounge.

On the nasty bitter cold dark days of winter, I can go into my own private jungle stuffed with plants, heat and humidity and greet the anoles who bask amongst the leaves. I take off layers and layers of clothes and lie down on the chaise and soak up the heat and humidity and turn my face toward the sun with my eyes closed. It's the best light and body therapy one can have who suffer from SAD as I do.

It's just too soon .. too soon to have to be thinking about that.

X

The greenhouse is a life saver isn't it! I probably don't suffer as deeply as you do
but I used to get blue every winter. I've had my greenhouse for 7 yrs now and its wonderful.
I clean it thoroughly at the beginning of the winter. Then I wash all the pots. Finally it
becomes time to start seeds around New Years. Whew! Now I can play in the dirt, transplanting
the seedlings and checking for new signs of life. Nothing better than basking in the
humidity & life inside that greenhouse on a cold winter day!

Tam

Amen to that Tam .. my gardenia bush will usually push out a flower or two in late December just to cheer me up and the morning glorys always come through with bright colors to make it just a little bit easier to get up early in the morning. By mid January, the anoles and I are usually on a first name basis. They become so tame that they will crawl right onto my hands to eat meal worms I buy for them in thanks for their guard duty.

This year I am considering adding lights to the greenhouse to extend the growing day for the plants.

X

SHHH not yet!!!

I add lights to my bedroom to extend the growing season for me. I also suffer from SAD, and I found that full spectrum lights make a world of difference.

Mine is in my garage somewhere, nicely packed up still. I have to find it.

Just today, when my karate class let out, I looked outside and wondered why it looked so dark. Then I remembered. The sun sets half an hour earlier now than it did during high summer.

I just added a reply to the post about looking forward to fall and want to leave the same post here. I have mixed emotions about fall and the cool weather. I am a much happier person when the sun is shining and I can spend countless hours outside. Hopefully I won't bore anyone as the message and the sentiment are the same.

Since going into adulthood, fall has been bittersweet. When I was younger, fall meant new clothes, new supplies, catching up with old friends, meeting new people and though it was a time when everything around me changed, it was a good thing. I looked forward to the change of the season, the menu changing to soups and chili and homestyle meals, seeing the pumpkins, straw and scarecrows take over the scenery. It was time for football games, dances, leaving the windows open all day. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and the occasional fall fire...

Now that I am an adult, married with kids, fall means back to the hustle and bustle, back to fairly rigid schedules, running all over the city for sports, doctor appointments, birthdays, all the holiday hoopla, the end of hours spent outdoors, the end of sleeping in, the end of having nowhere to be. It means having to dig up a lot of my favorite plants and tell them goodbye and the end of blooms in most of the gardens.....

Although the end of something usually means the beginning of something else, it is still sort of bittersweet.

Thanks Badseed. Here in the South we don't have the definitive markers like you have for the changing of the seasons. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale so the only changes were temperatures and getting darker early. Like you though, Fall meant new clothes, new friends and school. There wasn't much of a change in diet for us.

The only thing that truly distresses me in the fall and winter is the lack of light. I have to admit, I love my thick flannel sheets and electric blanket. Nothing is better than getting into a preheated bed with soft, well washed flannel sheets .. Yet there are times when it's cold and damp that I cannot seem to get warm no matter what I do.

And the best part is that when it's cold, my quasi feral kitties get friendly! LOL

X

X, sometimes in the cold and damp the only thing that will get me warm is a hot bath. But having three kitties and a pekingese piled up on me is a bonus on many levels, too!

Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but have you ever tried using a tanning bed during the yucky months? I have to admit I am down some in cooler and darker weather but with six kids I don't really have the time to worry about me. LOL When I was younger I did use a tanning bed often during the cooler months just for the light and warmth. I stay busy outside as much as I can anymore. Having a greenhouse really helped with that. I start stuff in the greenhouse in February or March and don't really finish up outside until November or December in a good year. That only leaves a few months of cleaning, painting, planning, plant catalogues, putting nice touches on my spread sheets, sprucing up plant lists and gardening diagrams, etc.

As days grow shorter, I tend to want to eat all the wrong things and sleep all the time. Feel like a bear, trying to hibernate. Yes flannel sheets are a must! The bears must like them too. I find the short days and dim light stressful. After growing up in a cold climate I resent the cold and yearn for the long summer days. I approach it with humor counting the seconds added to each day after the winter solstice.

We actually like our flannel sheets year round. I've not found anything else as soft or smooth. :)

Ohhh flannel sheets in August here does not sound inviting. In the summer make it clean, crisp, cool cotton sheets... sorry : ))

For the last winter and a half in my condo, the heat didn't work right, and it was often a four cat night!

I doubt if I'll get five cat nights this winter. Bed is too small for five cats, and Dusty still picks on Patches.

Try Egyptian cotton sheets Badseed. The nice thing about them is that the more they get washed the softer they get!

I use 1 kerosene heater to heat my 3br house. Heck of a lot cheaper than electric or gas. I just turn the fan of the central air on to distribute the air. It can be 26 outside and 90 in the house! It will be interesting to see how much kerosene is a gallon this year .. the electric may be cheaper if it's rising the way gas is.

X

X ~ Where do you buy your kero. I have a couple heaters and like them but available fuel is tough to find here... pod

I found 1 convenience store here that carries the white kero .. don't use the red stuff if you can help it .. it has parafin in it and messes up your wick. You might look in the yellow pages and call around asking if they have the white.

X

It cost me about $4 bucks a night to heat my greenhouse with Kerosene. That comes out to $120 or so per month. I think it was slightly cheaper than electric.

Even at 103, we were sleeping on our flannel sheets. We had the air on. LOL We just love the way they feel. When we sleep on the cotton sheets, we both ugh! What count do you suggest on the Egyptian Cotton?

I hate cold weather and snow - little sunshine and my butt grows to trememdous size as I am not as active. I always have good intentions of cleaning out those stuffed closets, repainting rooms that need it, but somehow a good book or the TV calls to me. I have huge stands of plant lights set up in an unused room and I get hours of pleasure just standing there staring at the plants I brought in or have started.

Fall continues to be bittersweet for me. I love the leaf fire smells, but since I always am major stressed at holiday time, I cannot wait for Jan!!

Suns out - gotta get out in it!!

Badseed, I get mine from Domestications here is a link

http://www.domestications.com/ProductS.asp?dept%5Fid=10103&product=15033ACK01zz

Like I said earlier .. there is nothing better than getting in a pre-heated be with flannel sheets. That's probably the best thing about winter. I take mine off the bed when the nights get into the 70 and put them on when the night gets into the 60's.

I also take my computer monitors off of energy save and leave them on 24/7 .. the crt monitors put out more heat that you realize .. my super duper fast Black Mamba computer (i built it for VR and video editing) chugs out the heat too .. there are 8 fans in the case cause the processor gets so hot. I even have software for the processor to warn me if it gets too hot!

X

Badseed ~ at $4 a nite what size gh are you heating?

sarv48.....i am with you....my butt becomes huge....i become lazy and suffer from seasonal affective disorder.....just wanna sleep thru winter......i have lotsa good intentions for naught......too depressed....; i dread the winter; i live outside most of the spring and summer

Thank you for the link X! I'll check that out.

podster, it is only 8x12 but enough for what I need. In the spring I built a 26x9 hoophouse to hold the overflow.

HI: Got my first set of flannel sheets this past winter and I will never be without them again. Got rid of my elec. blanket. Since they only came with 2 pillowcases and we have 6 pillows on the bed, I got my hubby to take me to Wal-mart, bought flannel in different colors, measured my pillows, and made my own cases. When I realized how warm they were, back to WM, more flannel, made cases for my dau. and her hubby, my son and his wife. Then got to thinking about it, back to WM, more flannel (only $1.00 a yard), and am making a bedcover out of 3 different colors. At a buck a yard and a little time with a sewing machine, it is well worth it. At Christmas our church has a party and gifts are exchanged. You pick out what you like and then someone can take it away from you if they want it. Told my hubby I was going to make 6 flannel pillow cases and if no one wanted them, they would come home with me.

I also have a greenhouse and when I get "blue" in the winter, it is off across the drive to the GH, and spend a few hrs. in there. Rests my soul. Good luck this winter.

Badseed, I was curious about size/cost of heating. Of course you are in a cold climate. Calculating for myself. Do you not have a problem with any fumes from the kero heater? I am asking as years ago we had open flame, unvented propane space heaters in the house. I was convinced I didn't have a green thumb. All my house plants would die. I learned later that was the cause.

Being a morning person, I have trouble getting up early when days are dim. I get up and turn on every light to help me get going in winter time. And I do get out to walk when it is daylight. If I don't spend time outdoors or if we have a gloomy stretch of weather, my mood follows suit.


LC2sgarden, I grew up in Mn with looong flannel sheets. They would cover the bed as a bottom sheet, tuck in on the bottom and fold back up to form the top sheet. They were in a wide pink plaid or a wide blue plaid. I still don't like flannel pillow cases though as I like a cool pillow.

Podster I'm in the same zone as you and for my gh I just use a portable thermostat and forced fan oscillating space heater. Haven't lost a plant yet! and my electric bill goes up 5 - 10 dollars a month during winter. I also use 2ltr soda bottles painted black with water in them.

X

Black water bottles, what a great idea. I have seen large water containers in black but my space is too small for that and too large for a heat lamp. Last winter was mild but I need to be prepared. Even more depressing than short days would be losing a lot of plants! It is freestanding, I would have to run electrical cord for heater. That's why I was interested in kero. I do have one of those too.

x what are the black soda bottles for??

Black draws heat and water stores it. It ideally radiates heat back into the gh when temperatures drop.

Did you ever notice how 70 degrees is warm in the summer and 70 degrees is chilly in the winter?

podster, I'll have to check the heater to see what it says. We bought it new in the winter. It is a cannister type that is safe for indoor or outdoor use. So long as it is balanced and the flame is centered, it never even makes the slightest amount of soot or staining at all. I used it for months straight, dutifully filling it every night and again some days. I turned out thousands of plants from plugs, seeds and cuttings that I rooted and apparently had no issues with any type of fumes.

Excellent, that is great to know. Thanks... pod

It's called passive solar heating. As podster said, it collects heat .. the color black absorbs heat the best (you want to use flat black not glossy), where as lighter colors reflect it. It collects heat in the daytime and releases it at night. They have made a huge difference in plant growth in the winter. I start seeds on top of them as well as plants that don't do very well under cool conditions or ones I don't want to go dormant. I keep my greenhouse at dont freeze temperature at night, around 36 - 40 degrees. On a sunny day it can be 56 degrees outside and 98 degrees inside the greenhouse.

X

This message was edited Aug 14, 2006 2:50 PM

You know X, I always worried about such wide temperature swings. Does it seem to affect your plants? In the middle of winter, 98 would be a delight!

x how big is your greenhouse

The greenhouse is 9.5' long 7'wide and 6.5 feet high at the apex. It's a perfect size for me.

Podster, the temperature swings have never seemed to bother any plants in the greenhouse .. I overwinter neighbors stuff like orchids, baby avacado trees, house plants etc. and they do just fine. For the really finicky plants, I'll make sure that bottles are underneath them to keep the roots warm.

X

x....i just got a cheapo greenhouse this year to see what i could do.....then if i like it or i hate it or whatever heres hoping i can get a 'real' greenhouse....; will gallon jugs work to make the water bottles??

I dont see why not .. I used soda bottles because that is what I had lots of! lol.

X

I used a navy blue garbage can. I filled it with warm water in the morning then ran a heater at night.

This time of year I am reminded of the days growing shorter. I walk every morning with canine companions. I am frequently ensnared in spider webs. If we had dew, (too dry for dew) I could see where the webs are. I get a mouthful, face full and twice now, have unknowingly had a small spider drop down my shirt and take a nip where it hurts! Most aggravating reminder of days growing short! Uughhh!

I know most of you dread the winter months, but I look forward to winter. It rarely gets below 32degrees. I do bring in some tender plants although most plants stay outside year round. The sun does seems brighter here than up north. I can enjoy planting outside and redoing beds in the winter, whereas in the summer I usually have to change clothes at least three times a day because of sweating in the heat. The mosquitoes are the worse part of summer, because we do not have much winter they breed continuiously as well as the fleas. Last March our tempertures were in the mid 80's. I cannot even remember the last time I wore a heavy coat. Weeds seem to be the only thing that tolerates the heat and drought. I loose more plants in the summer than the winter. We go from drought to monsoons then drought and the plants boil and die. I do not have a greenhouse yet, but I do have a greenhouse window in my kitchen. I can not keep anything alive in it because it gets too hot and burns everything. I have tried painting white paint on the top glass, but the rain washes it off. On top of everything else as I get older I have become allegric to the sun, so I have to wear long sleeves, long pants and a hat to go outside. Now you know why I have to change clothes so often, the average temp. is high 90's all summer. So, I can not wait for cold weather to enjoy my yard.