It's coming together!

My first garden catalogue has arrived, the days are getting a wee bit longer, and I'm getting the itch. My hubby has been very busy for the last few weekends working on our backyard garden-shed-retrofit-to-greenhouse (you can see the external reno work last August by clicking here). Things have been changing slowly, as Lee finds time on weekends.

Here's a shot from November, when he swept off our "sunshine ceiling."
I like the pear tree's shadow on the snow.

Most weekends, it's been pretty chilly in there 

and Lee's had to run a little space heater to keep from freezing, 

but this past weekend, he was able to work sans heater in just a jean jacket
because it was above 0 C (32 F) and the sun was beating in.

In September, if you recall, he lifted the old floor, and we had the soil underneath

tested to be certain that it wasn't contaminated with asbestos
(hence the hazmat suit). It wasn't -- it's actually decent soil.

In October, Lee made like an earth mover, digging trenches for

the installation of an underground heat-saving system 

(so that, hopefully, we can use our greenhouse's solar heat

to operate it nine months of the year).

Then he put in a new floor, leaving a small planting area 

next to our southern exposure. We can always pull up

flooring for more in-floor planting space if we want it.

For the past two months, he's been insulating the walls

where we don't have much solar gain.

As is the case with retrofit renos, not everything is square,

and it's taken Lee some figuring and jiggling to make things work.

The long beam on the right side, which we will be able to use for 

hanging plants, was a real challenge to put in (we were sore after that).

 I hope I won't be cursing the telepost too much as I work in the space 

(something has to support that beam -- it's heavy!)

We still have a ways to go before I can start seedlings out there, 

but it should be ready for peppers and tomato plants in March,

God-willing and fingers crossed!

I'll keep you posted!