Greenhouse in the Winter

In my last entry, I posted a picture of our small greenhouse.  It has icicles hanging from its roof due to some recent snow and cold weather that has come our way.  

We have set a small electric heater in it this winter.  This is the first time we have tried to heat it in the winter and were not sure how much heat it would take to keep things inside from freezing. But, this small heater seems to be doing the trick, because even on days when the sun doesn't come out, it seems to keep the temperature at around 50 degrees.

Normally, we only heat this greenhouse in the early spring when we have tomato and pepper seedlings started to sell at the farmers' market.  But, this year I grew some tomato plants in large pots outside and couldn't bear to let them freeze when we had our first frost, so I moved them into the greenhouse.   Here they are down the middle on the gravel floor.  

As you can see, we have a few other plants in here . . . some aloe vera on the shelf to the right and some prickly pear cactus plants on the ground under it.  These are a thornless variety that has pretty yellow flowers.

We also have some planter boxes full of leaf lettuce that we are enjoying this winter.

I find it so nice to go in here on cold days.  If the sun is out, the temperature inside will quickly climb to 75 or 80 degrees.  And, it is wonderful to enjoy the green growing plants in the greenhouse when everything outside is brown and drab.