Winter drags on - Sunroom is a bright spot

After last weekend's busy household happenings this weekend has brought lots of time for happily pondering progress on my winter workspace. The sunroom now has a door, all it's windows, and insulation. And Jerry, my fabulously handy husband, hooked up the radiant heating system he installed in the floor.

Radiant heat feels very different from the forced air heat in the rest of the house. The thermostat that will run the pump for the hot water hasn't been connected yet, so last night Jerry connected the pump directly and let it run for about 4 hours to try it out. Before we turned it off for the night, the air temperature in the room rose from the low 40s to near 60 while the temperature on the concrete slab floor reached about 68. It felt very comfortable. That was rather amazing considering that same temperature might be a little chilly with forced air heat. The temperature shift in the room was slow, I believe, because the slab loses heat very slowly. My plants should thrive in the gentle warmth at their roots. Kudos to Jerry for coming up with the idea and for seeing it through :-)

I'm looking forward to moving into the new space soon, and so thoughts have turned to how to use the space efficiently. As you can see the windows are about 2 1/2 feet above the floor providing very little light to plants sitting under them. So I am designing narrow, movable benches on which plants can sit just below the window. They need to be low enough that the plants sitting on them will not further shade the floor yet high enough that the plants can capture a little sunlight. I think about 20 inches high will work well. On the underside of the bench will be a fluorescent light fixture to light an adjustable shelf. The electrician has installed outlets beneath each window so I'll have power. I hope to start plants under the benches next winter. I think 4 benches should be enough to span the two 9-foot windows and adequate space for several flats of seedlings. I've never had space for starting plants. Learning how to do it and tending the seedlings as they develop should provide some happy distraction while waiting for spring in the years to come.

For this year, I'll have to suffice with watching my sunroom develop. In spite of the fact that most of the work is not mine, I am enjoying the progress. It's a lot like watching a scrawny perennial planted in the fall sprout from the ground the next spring and become the beauty you hoped it would be. In fact, as I see this room grow into being it's almost exactly that same thankful, full-in-your-chest, wide-eyed feeling I get when I discover a plant is about to bloom - like I've discovered treasure. It's an odd, but welcome, feeling this time of year for a gardener.