Hardy Tropicals UK

Due to a bit of a reshuffle I have got 'Carte Blanche' to create a new gardening 'utility' room. The reason being that a) it will give more room in my conservatory to use it as a leisure room, and b) it negates the wild conservatory tempertaure swings at this time of year.

I essentially want to use it as my seed room, propogator room and for overwintering tenders that won't make it in a conservatory. It needs to be functional ... rather than beautiful. I just wondered what advice you might have ... before I get stuck in. The room I have in mind is well lit most of the day, and a storage heater keeps it at a constant 18C (ish) 24 hours a day. I aim to have plenty of work surface under the window for seedlings etc, plus some surface for working. I will also have some shelving for propogators etc.

Any other ideas that would make it work?:

Do Not Disturb sign

Sounds a great idea, unfortunately I don't have space for such a room, but good luck with it.

Are we talking a spare room being turned into a growing area? If so, start by painting it white. use reflective foil as well to bounce as much natural light around. Have a ready supply of room temperature water to hand, ie water butt, things dry out quick in an inside growing room

Yes Flounder - a spare 'spare' room that I have convinced the good lady to let me turn in to a garden room. White 'reflective' walls is a good one to remember and have already planned to have a watering can live in there to keep a supply of room temp water. There is a door to the garden from it so the water butt is close to hand.

Sounds like it will be a great space...very envious!!!

Thank you for the idea. I have a spare room and so have just started a Garden Room. The walls are not white yet but I've got a table in front of the window, a small water can and have now planted my two Musa Sikimensis seedlings which arrived today. I don't know how much they will grow this year but it will be interesting to see how they look towards the end of the year.

Good stuff Waggy - our garden rooms can grow together!! I am wondering about how far to go ... grow lights etc, but thinking that probably isn't necessary. Ultimately I need a bright, warm space to nurture seedlings, small plants and overwinter tenders.

I will probably smarten it up with some indoor plants/palms too once the basics are in place.

I hate do ask this, because I have put two posts up tonight, and both have been a bit negative, so please excuse me!! Isn't this a recipe for damp and mould problems in the room with transpiration, water standing in cans etc - especially with the heat produced (not that water needs very much heat to evaporate)? Just a thought......

Thanks for your post chris. It gives room for thought. I do not want mould and damp, but i don't think I will have too many seedlings in my room. I've got five young plant on their way and hopefully it will not be long before I am able to transfer them to the garden. At the moment the only plant i plan to fetch in next winter is my yucca rostrata. Unless I learn from here meantime that it can remain outside. Gosh it's gone dark quickly this evening - I was watching a bird on my feeder before I read your post.

as long as you aerate the room you shouldnt have damp problems. I dry all my washing in the front bedroom, and a full 7kg load of wet washing gives off some serious moisture into the air, I leave the windows cracked ajar overnight, no condensation on the windows in the morning and shirts on hangers are dry. If I forget and leave the windows closed, the glass is dripping in the morning. So as long as you leave a window cracked from time to time, shouldn't be a problem

look at solar to provide an extra bit of heat and light .... look at these kits which are pretty cheap (I have never seen them installed, and have only read about them on the internet, so I don't know if they are worth the money):

http://www.powerbee.co.uk/power-kits/so ... e-kit.html

there are other options that are much more expensive such as this:

Just opened the window a bit and swapped the small watering can for a sealed water spray. Thanks again.

waggy1 wrote:Just opened the window a bit and swapped the small watering can for a sealed water spray. Thanks again.

perfect!

I used to get condensation in the bedroom at night, only have patio doors so can't crack a window in there when sleeping, in the summer leave them open some nights but this time of year Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So I now leave the bedroom door ajar and the bathroom window cracked too, not had any morning condensation since. Damp in houses is all about good management of airflow I think.

waggy1 wrote: It gives room for thought. I do not want mould and damp.....

If you're setting up something permanent(ish) you could try fitting an extractor fan with a built in humidistat

Arlon Tishmarsh wrote:If you're setting up something permanent(ish) you could try fitting an extractor fan with a built in humidistat

Dunno how good / effective they are, but you can get them with heat-recovery (so the exhaust air passes through a heat-exchanger so that the cold, incoming, air is preheated so you lose a lot less heat that having a window open a crack etc. and you can then have loads of air changes so no humidity problems (even in a shower room).