Part 2: On heating, or not heating the nursery to grow houseplants.
I hope you enjoyed reading part one detailing the different methods of heating a greenhouse. If you haven’t read part one, you can find it here!
In this blog post I wanted to outline how I started, where I am now and where I want to be in the future, in regards to heating. As someone who is always trying to reduce their carbon footprint, tackling the issue of how best to heat my greenhouse is a top priority and some of my decisions may surprise you. I am always open to learning and growing, so if after you read this and have any recommendations, I’m all ears. Let’s grow together.
Harriets mission statement
Growing plants sustainably will always be the main focus of my business. For the world to thrive, businesses need to focus on how to better their environmental impact on this wonderful planet we call home and that’s why I want to remain as transparent as possible with you all about the behind the scenes of Harriet’s Plants.
When I took my first tentative steps into growing commercially I used a VERY expensive diesel heater in the greenhouse. I’ll be completely honest, this not only felt utterly uncomfortable for me but it also kept me up at night, added stress to my day to day and make me hugely worry about the effects the nursery was causing to the environment around us all. I had great intentions with this heater. I wasn’t initially going to use diesel in it at all, I looked for engineers everywhere I could to help find someone that not only knew what they were doing but also were happy to do what I so desperately wanted, which was to turn the brand new diesel heater, into a heater than ran off of old waste oil from local restaurants. This meant I would be able to recycle a useable waste product as well as heating my greenhouse with a clean burning product.
Long story short, no one wanted to do it and everyone said “you should just burn diesel, it’s cheaper and easier for you”.
I felt like I was in between a rock and a hard place and as I was new to growing at this stage, I felt uneducated in how best to heat the nursery with the impending winter of 2019, which if I remember rightly, was a very cold one. I wanted to build a sustainable houseplant business and for that I thought I needed to grow stock all year round to be more available for both shops and my loyal customers. To do this I felt I had to heat the greenhouses manually in the colder months with diesel and it’s something thats weighed heavy on my ever since.
I now heat my greenhouse with 100% electricity and do what I can to minimise the consumption. This minimisation means that I keep the plants over winter at a reduced temperature but never allow the plants to get below detrimental temperatures so that they remain healthy for all my orders.
From winter 2022 onwards, Harriet’s Plants will not use fossil fuels to heat the greenhouse and it’s something I feel so amazing about as it’s been such a stressful thought process for me to find the best option. I do have to caveat my energy consumption slightly, as currently the electricity I use within the nursery is out of my control as I am not the land owner. If it were in my power I would want to ensure that this was 100% renewal energy- however I cannot make this claim currently. In the next 5 years I want Harriet’s Plants to be completely off grid and will be using solar energy and hopefully wind power to sustain the nursery
My current strategy for growing is outlined below.
My number one strategy for reducing the energy cost of Harriet’s Plants is simply, to not actively grow in winter. Therefore, I will be heating the greenhouse to the minimum it needs to for the plants survival rather than artificially creating sub-tropical temperatures in snowy Staffordshire. This means that as the temperatures drop in the UK, the heated benches that we have made will keep the plants at varying temperatures for them to thrive, but not actively grow. The great thing about buying houseplants that aren’t heated to temperatures that are warmer than the average house, is that the likelihood of survival when they reach your home is greater than if they are used to higher temperatures. I will be retaining more hardy plants that are already acclimatised to the UK winter. I will also be reducing what I grow in the winter months. Simply the less I grow, the less space I have to heat.
Succulent Bundles
Shop succulent bundles for the plant lover in your life
Finally, I will be creating a Micro climate by grouping plants together. This means placing plants that prefer similar conditions together to keep them warmer. Succulents love a dry and warm environment but will be absolutely fine in a frost free environment away from tropical temperatures. On the opposite side of the spectrum is your tropical loving houseplants such as the Monstera deliciosa or the Philodendron bipinnatifidum. These plants will be grouped together and covered to keep the warmth at the base of the plants and in the atmosphere around the leaves. As the beds will be covered it will mean that I can reduce the base temperature, which will use less electricity, but the covers will keep the heat in…think of it as lots of mini greenhouses within my larger sized nursery.
So that’s my plan, alongside insulating my greenhouse as best I can, I also want to lean more into the rhythms of nature. Nothing is meant to bloom all year round, including us! I don’t force my plants to bloom at silly times of the year as this sets the consumer up for failure when the plants gets to their house.
I will be using the winter months to start other creative projects rather than trying to fight against nature and artificially heating a jungle in Staffordshire. I hope you agree with my decision even though it means less variety of peat free house plants for a few months of the year. The environment is the main focus of Harriets Plants and therefore this has to be done until a more self sufficient nursery can take over.
Don’t worry though, I still have plenty available and plenty growing but I just won’t be growing new varieties until temperatures pick back up again. As the weather warms and spring emerges so will I and so will LOTS of new plant babies.
2023 is going to be a very exciting year for me. Lots of change, lots of learning and ALWAYS, lots of growing!!
Leave your comments below if you’ve got this far and want to share anything with me. I value every single opinion and look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Love Harriet xx
