Perennials: New to heucheras, 1 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
It was built as a passive solar heat source for our house, so the only heat is from the part of the wood stove pipe which is vented out of the house for about 8' (the stove is in the house) and then back into the chimney. You can see it in the picture at the far end of the GH. It get cold at night and on cloudy days, but with the massive grey concrete walls and beds and the brick floor, it absorbs a lot of heat that then radiate out at night. We have lost very few plants because of the cold. We don't light the woodstove until it starts to get dark (3 or 4 in the winter) and use our back up heat as little as possible. On cold sunny days the house gets too hot at times. It has worked very very well for us. The wood used was recycled from a Rheingold brewery in NY in 1982 from vats that where being taken apart. It used to have a faint beer smell. The glass is standard sliding glass door panels. Three have finally lost their seal and need to be replaced. We have an old chain pull which opens up a vent to let out the excess heat, so nothing is complicated. I just emptied most of it out for the summer, so here is the before and after shots. Patti