The house I grew up in had a feature I haven’t seen much in the US, basically one of the living rooms had two areas for plants where my mom had some big beautiful tropical plants. I asked my parents about it and they said in that part of the house the plants were planted directly on the soil, basically when building the house they left two holes for plants (about 3×3 feet each).
I think I could find away to do this on my new house (Kansas), maybe some unexcavated part of the front of the house, but my worry is will this be a good thing to do considering the different materials used here for construction, like wood, drywall, etc.
Have you ever seen something like that done?
What should I ask my builder to do to protect the areas on that vicinity?
Thanks,
–Carlos
Replies
Greetings casolorz,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
Thanks, I was probably not to clear on my question.... I'll probably just ask my builder if he has ever done something like that.--Carlos
Carlos
The "bump" that rez provided was to move your inquiry back up to the top so that others could see it again and hopefully someone that understands you problem will catch it this time around.
I don't have any idea either but this too will serve as a bump. Hopefully someone that knows your situation will be along to help.
Doug
That's a very cool idea.
Frank Lloyd Wright managed to get a river/stream to run thru one of his houses & I've seen homes which have been built around old trees (an aunt had cutouts on her deck to accomodate Oak trees) but never anything like you described.
Hmmm, just thought of some potential problems. Radon & heating/cooling loss. Definitely something to bring up w/the builder as it might violate some city code (insert eyeball rolling emoticon here).
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I would think in we can have basements we can have plant pits. Maybe not just an opening in the floor but rather a recessed area of the floor with drainage at the bottom. I couldn't imagine a builder can't do that, and should be easy to design. Fill it with store-bought potting soil and plant away.--------------------------------------------------------
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So it sounds like I'm not crazy :-)
Now I'm off to ask the builder and try to fit it on the floor plan I guess.
Here is a shot where I built one as part of a semi-jap style house. It was the entry vestibule and shoe removal area. Lots of venting skylights in the roof, and the whole thing was located at about 4' lower elevation than the main floor to keep water down below where there would not be flooding problems
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Sweet, thanks. Yeah we were thinking of making it part of one of the entrances or a sitting area shared between the bedrooms.--Carlos
my first thought is that there could be some moisture and temperature control problems that would add tot he cost of construction
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You mean moisture coming from the soil? and temperature differences coming from it as well?
Plants generate a lot of humidity to th e air, and you have to water them to keep them alive.Insulating against heat loss to the soil under your house is an issue also.
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I don't know if the plants will add much moisture, I usually struggle trying to keep up the humidity of my house so my house plants won't die, I am pretty excited to build a new home with a built in humidifier.