How I Heat my Greenhouse over Winter

Hallo and welcome to my greenhouse in which I grow all kinds of exotic ,weird and wonderful things . In fact most of the plants that I grow would prefer it to be warm and sunny all year round .....but are quite happy to be put into a dormant state ,firstly by the lack of light anyway , by being cold and most importantly , by not being watered . It is the combination of being cold and wet that can kill .
 If a plant  can't make it through the Winter on my regime , then the rule for me is, that I can't have that plant !

Everyone says how mild the weather is in Cornwall , but we still need to be prepared for the occasional overnight frost or if the forecast is for a rare Arctic blast .
So this is not really about heating the greenhouse ..more ..how to keep the edge off the cold .

Generally I will rush up to my greenhouse and throw sheets of newspaper over everything ....

....next up , Heres the little beauty of a lamp that I found in a local charity shop , perfect !
I put a very long lasting 6-8hrs candle inside late evening and this just takes the edge off the cold ...I wouldn't want it to get too warm in there only for the temperature to plummet when the candle goes out and everything dies of the shock .
 I dont light a candle every night , only if we get a weather warning .
                              ......and then there is this...new idea that I had .......

Followers of my journal will remember " the day of the sheep incident " ! Lol !

Well I went round my garden scooping up that precious stuff onto this old - stable - mucker -  outer - hopper - thing and because it was lashing down with rain I shoved it into the greenhouse to keep dry....thinking I'll sort it out later ....next morning I realised the amount of warmth it was giving off ! So this is something that I shall think about doing on a more regular basis , over winter .

     This is how I have them arranged , and my seeds are all germinating  too .

I also use this foil insulation sheeting which comes on a roll from B+Q , which I roll out over the greenhouse rafters ( see top photo ) and I have a couple of those reflective
sheet things people put over their car windscreens..if you look on the above picture , you can see one tucked behind the white plastic trellis on the North facing greenhouse window....that is the side I keep all the Epiphyllums .
I have windbreak mesh hanging inside the door attached to cup hooks so no draughts from around the door .
Very tender and precious plants are standing on polystyrene sheets from old packaging .
   Make sure the keyhole is covered from the wind blowing in .
The good news is ....that we're almost through the worst of winter now : )