Frigid air

It’s freezer-ish out and fridge-ish in.  Especially out in the plantry.

The outside temperatures have been forecast to plunge into the singles and inconceivable negatives for windchill or “feels like” temperatures for the next and past couple of days and I’m a little worried (a lot, a little) about the poor kids out there.  Yesterday morning I got up at 4am when the howling wind woke me (an hour before the alarm) to make sure they weren’t all frozen.  — As if I, barefoot in my bathrobe, could have reversed the process at that point.  (My great-grandfather, so I’m told, was just as nutty.  Plant Anxiety is a hereditary trait.)

There is a heater running – an electric oil filled radiator – when I remember to turn it on.  Lately I’ve been leaving it on even on sunny days just in case there’s too much crème brûlée in my evening and I might forget.  And yesterday Z stopped at Ace is the Place on the way home for some clips and hooks so that I could hang dog blankets in front of the drafty crappy doors for a little extra assurance.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the latest trend in home decor and I’d leave the blankets up indefinitely but the dog might protest.  He’s been very generous though, so far.)

But that’s my only plan for this terrifying temperature dip.  I have no back up.  If the power goes out, those plants could become icepops in a matter of hours.  Hours that I’d most likely be spending down the road making sure more important plants don’t die.  It’s ok.  I’m resigned.  I love my kids but almost everyone in the plantry is an orphan from work – I’ve already given them a second chance; a third might be too much to ask.  And mostly it’s ok because it would be a lazy gardener’s nightmare chore to move them all inside – especially after my trip to Logee’s.  It was difficult enough to find flat surfaces for a few 2″ cuttings – where the fershlug would I put the enormous lemon or the agave?   It’s so much easier to cover the doors with dog blankets and hope for the best.

In honor of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol of May Dreams gardens, here’s a list of what’s in bloom at Champignon (that’s our fancy name – means mushroom, yo – for the house and gardens):  Pelargonium sidoides, Pelargonium – something scented and variegated – maybe ‘Apple’?, Lavandula dentata,  a new Begonia from Logee’s – ‘Candlelight’, an old Begonia maculata var. ‘Wightii’ or “Polka dot” from Logee’s and an aphid ridden African violet.  Everybody but the begonias and African violet are in the plantry.

Stay warm this mid January and worry free (unlike me)!

The plantry

One of the things that “sold” this house for me (to me?) was a tiny enclosed south side entry porchlet/breezeway.  Nevermind that when we first looked at it, the entry was painted a bilious yellow and full of children’s shoes.  What I envisioned was a jungle – the greenhouse where my plants would live during the winter.   It’s perfectly bright with windows facing the three good directions.  On a sunny day during the winter it can warm up into the 70′s making it a perfectly passive solar heater which ratchets up the temperature of the whole house a degree or two when I leave the kitchen door open.  Night flips the coin to the chilly side.  The porch is uninsulated and although the windows have thermal panes, the 2 outside doors are bent and abused crappy metal screen doors with gappy sliding glass panes.

Last fall I repainted the room – from the bilious yellow to a bilious green and obnoxious teal.  Stand back, Martha.  (Some other day I will try again to match the lovely colors in my head.)  This summer we bought a full glass paned kitchen door that lets the porch light in.  When we buy the winning ticket, I’ll ask Z to enlarge the porch and convert it to a full greenhouse with working vents and drains in the floor.  For now, I’d settle on replacing the outside doors.  And until then I’ll probably just “winterize” them again with blow dryer plastic and draft dodgers.

Before my $15 hi/low thermometer stopped working, it actually never registered lower than 37°F.  Even so, last year I kept an electric oil-filled radiator out there for the really cold nights (insurance that cost an extra $30/mo.).  And the plants seemed to thrive (read: survive).  Everything out there can take it cold – the rosemary, lavender, phormium, geraniums and various oddball New Zealand shrubberies prefer to be on the cold side rather than come all the way into the house (which even at 58-62° is too warm for them).  Good news is things like the agave, lemon, and orchid cactus don’t seem to mind it at all either.

I like to have a name for everything and have had trouble naming the plant room.  I certainly can’t be calling it that.  “The Vestibule” has a nice ring to it – not too high faluttin’ or too low – but only the dog dons vestments out there.  Porchlet?  No.  Entry?  yawn.  The polls are open for write-in candidates and until someone suggests a winner I will have to call it The Plantry.