My poor greenhouse....

[lonewolf]

....is so cold (17 degrees at night) and nothing is growing, not even the lettuce.

It's too expensive to keep a heater going, so what now?

Do you all just shut it down during the Winter months?

[Dutchy]

I do but some one next to my plot has one of those old fashioned oil cook thing Coalmans stove or what ever it is called.
Those things you put lamp oil in and then light the wick ( some have three wicks ) and in the old days it was used for cooking whilst camping out.
Sorry but maybe the description helps in understanding what I am on about.
Anyhow.
He has this on a low in his GH with a sheet of metal on top.
This provides enough warmth to keep things frost free. In general his lettuce is ok but of course there are no tender things like toms or aubergine.
Carrots too seem to be ok and radishes although they need watering every day.
I just have some plants overwintering in there but when it goes to minus 20 I have to get the oil heater construction on the go too.

[Ladygardener]

I use my mini growhouse over the winter to keep the small perennials dry and protected from most of the elements. If the temp goes down low enough they'll get the frost but I have the inside bubble wrapped which helps a little. I don't grow any edibles over the winter months except for the Garllic which I plant out anyhow.

[Rosefriend]

Nothing is done in the GH in Germany...only checking plants in their fleece jackets and if possible watering them now and again - they are mostly frozen for 6 to 8 weeks of the winter though...

I did once try growing winter lettuce - that froze and then rotted....sweetpeas were useless as well but a lot have good results with autumn sown sweetpeas LW - perhaps you could try those??

RF

[Tig]

I don't try to grow things in my plastic greenhouse over winter, no point as it isn't thick enough to be warm, but it does keep some things dry (not very at the moment as the plastic roof has rotted and it is like a colander :

I've grown Winter Density lettuce over winter in the cold frame, they are quite hardy. Then plant them outside in spring and had decent sized lettuce by April/May.

Do you get things packed in the white polystyrene over there? I keep any that is a decent size and stand pots on it as it seems to provide some warmth. Unless you are growing/keeping expensive produce/plants it doesn't seem cost effective to heat a greenhouse over winter. It will soon be spring

x Tig