i wish we could do an overhaul on the greenhouse. post some pics sir

Wow, what a story. I guess things always work out for the best, but I wonder why the town noticed. Did someone call them?

Sounds like you wound up with a great space. I know you don't post pics, so our loss!

Good luck with your new place...

Jane

The town received a complaint from the fire department. They noticed, as they drove by, that the old GH was within 2 feet of the house. That space is not enough for the porky firemen to get through in case of an emergency. The code calls for a 4 foot space.

As I was making plans for the new GH, the city engineer suggested I attach it to the house. I was amazed as I thought it was too close, that being the main problem. He pointed out that the code calls for a 4 foot space. If it's attached there is no space and the code does not apply.

The workings of the bureaucratic mind is an amazing thing. So now it's attached to the house and the firemen won't have to worry about squeezing through a space because there is no space. That by the way is the warm house, but while the inspector was at my place he looked at everything and found fault with the cold house also which is why it got rebuilt, twice as big and much better.

After all is said and done, I should thank the fire department, without their prodding none of this would have happened. I'm retired, got nothing better to do and it was fun building these 2 GH from scratch all with HD parts. I always say that at age 72 I can do everything I could do at age 40, it just takes me 3 times as long and I only work when I feel like it. One 2 x 4 at a time and one nail at a time, it all got done.

Nick

I enjoyed reading this immensely. You have a great attitude, Nick!

My university graduating class chose as class motto:

"Nulli bastardi curundum" which roughly translates into "Don't let the bastards grind you down"

Nick

And after all that, the world ends tomorrow....

We may escape after all, unconfirmed reports have it that Australia, where it has been Dec 21 for some time, is still afloat. Arthur, if you are still alive, give us a sign.

Nick

It is 17.13 Eastern Daylight Time. If we can get through a few more hours we should be OK.........

I'm in San Francisco, and having some familiarity with the difficult SF Building Department, I knew that it was a good idea to check with them before I built my greenhouse. I found that they called anything 100 square feet or larger a "building" and anything under 100 square feet a "shed". Buildings had lts of code restrictions which my proposed greenhouse would have violated, including its location on a property line. But sheds had no restrictions at all. So I now have a beautiful 96 square foot glass "shed' with a slate floor, white Victorian trim, and no hassle from the city officials.

360 square feet- did you put a nice reading chair in there? I bet it feels massive. I agree that the updating process can be very enjoyable. I have been going through my computer orchid files during these dreary winter days and updating photos, checking to see if the last potting change was beneficial- all in preparation for the spring repotting frenzy. It feels good to be busy. Good to be good at something. Good to have pretty green things all around.

One of the things I did besides cataloging who is dead and who is alive is to write down an aproximate leaf count for each plant. Obviously the sign of someone with too much time on his hands. But knowing that in Dec 12 the plant had 15 leaves gives me a better feel for how things are going when I look at it again a year from now. Not necessary for plants that are bustiong along like a freight train but useful for delicate and expensive ones like Lepanthes were it's touch and go at the best of times.

Nick

Hi
The end of the world was canceled due to lack of funds and a very bad translation lol The ice age will return as planned Why do so many people buy into that crap!!?? gary

My Dream would be to have the various growing enclosures all linked up and maybe add a cold house to the series. Of course, i would enter from the house so i would not have to brave the elements by crossing the lawn to get to the entrance. Now how should I run the series.....probably cold house first because that would be great in summer...I could even have slate floors......

Lisa, there is some law about empty orchid growing enclosures. That space for the chair would/will be soon be full of orchids.

Arthur is correct about empty bench space. It is not only illegal but also immoral. It will be filled with orchids as soon as possible.

Nick

Just looked at the date on the computer.... 22nd December. I always get confused about about the longest/"shortest " days 21or 22nd? Doesn't matter much. Happy shortest day to all the real orchid growers in the frozen north!

Nick, loved the immoral bit.

So Nick,

Did you every track down the last few Draculas you needed to complete the collection?

Still short a few precious holdouts. The flast handful are tough to get. Not particular beautiful, just not available.

Nick

I had TWO chairs out there, guys... had to remove one because of the very valuable space. The one I have keeps getting kicked from place to place and is now right in front of the door to the outside, where no 'chids can be anyway. But I do like to take a book out on the rare sunny winter day we get here and enjoy the heat and humidity and look at all the pretty greenery, so I think one chair can stay.

Lisa, I use a folding chair. Last week I found myself hanging some plants from the back of the chair. Now I can't fold the chair nor sit on it!

Well, we did survive the end of civilization and I heard today, a metorite, which was on course to hit earth and destroy it in 2040, has changed its course, missing Earth entirely.

Soooo, Happy Holidays to all..
Jane

Nick, do you count the leaves you know are on their way out? I like your idea, but my plants lose leaves do to age, fungus or sunburn.

Jane

This is the first time I have done this, mostly because I picked up each and every plant as I moved them. They got repotted, checked for bugs and snails, divided and cataloged. For big healthy plants I did not count the leaves, just guessed to the nearest 10 but for iffy plants who seemed to be just hanging in there, I accurately counted. I hope it will give me a better idea how they are doing in their new surroundings. If 6 month from now they still have the same number of leaves, a different location, more or less water etc will be tried. Remains to be seen if it has a practical benefit.

Nick

Good idea. I brought most of mine inside yesterday because the temps dropped into the 30's. Shocking, felt like I was back in NY hauling plants in and out. Dropped two Catts and had a mess. Had to do a quick repot. These Catts haven't done anything since we moved here but I noticed each had 2 new growths starting. Nice healthy ones. I was pleasantly surprised because I had given up on them.

After moving here from NY, many got sunburned so I knew those leaves weren't long for this world. That was the reason for my question.

Glad to see the growths.

Jane

Nick,
am curious. How are the cyps doing? Are you vernalizing them? Hope to have a post up sometime in Jan. on mine.
Apart from the native Selaginella species, Cypripedium californicum is about the only angiosperm that I give a real hoot about.

We have a utility fridge that fell out of use so I have a dedicated fridge for them. Left the 3 large one in their pots, the seedlings I bought are in Ziploc baggies as are the Pleiones. Put them there in late Nov, Pleiones will come out first around Valentine day, Cyps a little later.

Nick