Glassed in Porch

Hello, I am new to this with growing a row garden once, semi successful, about 35 years ago.  

I have a 8 foot wide 25 foot long glassed in front porch.  The porch faces southwest and gets lots and LOTS of Sun.  This results in very high temperatures on the porch in the summer, even hits 80 in the winter on a sunny day.  The glassed in porch has large window panes from floor to ceiling.  They do not open and there is no ventilation, unless I have the double door open, which I prefer not to in order to prevent pests and critters.  Any ideas on how I can mitigate the heat on this porch, or is the heat good for growing plants with only needed to water once to multiple times a day ?  I would like to build my SFG boxes and have them on this porch.  Thoughts ?  Advice ?

Thank you, 

Tom

Hi sebepopi!  Welcome to SFG!  You will never turn back I guarantee it!

Can you build a door in where you open the door with chicken wire/mesh?  So you can open it and not have an invasion!  Just thinkin’

What about installing one of those small temperature-controlled attic fans on one end of the porch that would kick on when it gets too hot and improve circulation as well as cooling?

Sebepopi,
Welcome to the forum.
Please share some photos of your porch and doors.
I am thinking you could possibly use those screen door curtains, the ones with the magnets down the center.
Jim

Sebepopi, Welcome to the Forum from California! It sounds like the porch could work for winter but I think some modifications would be needed for summer. In the summer, if sun screens or sun shades were added to prevent scorching by the sun, it may block too much needed sunlight. Looking forward to your photos.

sebepopi wrote:Hello, I am new to this with growing a row garden once, semi successful, about 35 years ago.  

I have a 8 foot wide 25 foot long glassed in front porch.  The porch faces southwest and gets lots and LOTS of Sun.  This results in very high temperatures on the porch in the summer, even hits 80 in the winter on a sunny day.  The glassed in porch has large window panes from floor to ceiling.  They do not open and there is no ventilation, unless I have the double door open, which I prefer not to in order to prevent pests and critters.  Any ideas on how I can mitigate the heat on this porch, or is the heat good for growing plants with only needed to water once to multiple times a day ?  I would like to build my SFG boxes and have them on this porch.  Thoughts ?  Advice ?

Thank you, 

Tom

Hi Tom , welcome to ANSFG

 Have you ever thought of installing a thermostatically controlled electric fan in the window . Any good glazier or perhaps even yourself should be able to use a hand operated radial glass cutter that uses a suction pad on the glass to hold the center of the hole being cut ,  to cut the correct sized hole 
 If you want an example  of what such fans look like put " Expel-air glass window mounted extractor  fan" into Google UK  . You should also be able to find fitting instructions on line for them  so you can see what is involved .
 Usually it is just a case of cutting the circle of glass out , putting in two seals and camping the fan in place with the louvers on the outside .  Then putting power to the fan ... 3 hrs work approx .
 Some such fans can either be switched to pull air  or push air out depending up on your needs but these are fairly expensive.
 I know the UK prices seem high , no doubt there will be similar ones much cheaper in the USA

sanderson wrote:Sebepopi,  Welcome to the Forum from California!    It sounds like the porch could work for winter but I think some modifications would be needed for summer.  In the summer, if sun screens or sun shades were added to prevent scorching by the sun, it may block too much needed sunlight.  Looking forward to your photos.

You can get very cheap sunshade washes for glasshouses here in the UK.
It is a fine powder that you mix up 2 gallons of warm water in a 2 gallon sprayer . 
You simply spray the wash on the glass  and drag a soft brush over the sprayed on shading wash as it is drying  . It dries to a barely opaque white or light green .  To remove it rub it off with a soft cleaning cloth .
 Some of these  products return to being almost totally clear when it gets damp /wet or rains .
So you get the benefit of the shading  changing according the weather on most days  when it rains & there is not a lot of sun.
  This year I rubbed the wash off some of the glasshouse sections with shading as it was a wee bit to effective ( we had a lousy year save for a few weeks in July)