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Press Releases
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Backus man escapes to a summer setting with a step through the back door
Dix builds glass green room complete with hot tub, fish pond and lots of plants
republished from February 21, 2003 issue of the
Brainerd Daily Dispatch
By RENEE RICHARDSON, Senior Reporter
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BACKUS -- Even in midwinter when flower color and green plants seem months away, a Backus man is able to be in the tropics just by opening his back door.
Sculpted green leaves the size of pillows wave slightly in the breeze on a rainforest plant. Tropical island music plays in the background. Warm water beckons nearby. Flowers, in vibrant pink and deep red, grow near small banana tree plants. The temperature hovers near 80 in the morning but drops comfortably in the afternoon as the sun moves across the sky.
And no plane tickets or heavy imagination are involved.
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Triple-pane glass, cedar beams and field rock went into creating a green room in Backus. Inside a hot tub, tropical plants and island music create a tiny haven away from mid-winter doldrums | |
Instead Daniel Dix spent about two years building what he calls a green room. Custom-made glass, cedar beams, a hot tub, a fish pond and plenty of green growing plants are part of the creation.
"This really helps me to sit out here," Dix said. "Put on some island music and it's like a mini vacation."
Dix's profession as a landscaper helped provide the green plants, some of which used to fill rooms in his home. And his desire for more light than a short Minnesota winter day promises was behind the building project.
The sound of moving water is in the background where the summer pond fish are spending the winter in a smaller pool. Four inches of small rocks cover the floor. Heat radiates up as heated water flows through hard plastic tubes beneath the rocks.
"You walk in here barefoot and the ground feels warm," Dix said.
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A large impatiens plant has provided red blossoms since summer. In the foreground, a papyrus plant thrives in the rock pond where the pond fish are wintering. | | 
It took about two years for Daniel Dix, Backus, to build his green room, which he said is designed with an emphasis on people, not plants. The glass room with its stone base is like an encapsulated summer. On a winter day when he is outside, Dix said the room is always an inviting green. (Dispatch Photos by Renee Richardson) | |
"It's amazing how many people bring me plants," Dix said, noting he was becoming the orphan plant house when plants grew too big for his friends.
Larger slices of rock from a large boulder act as a walking path. The smooth surface was created when the boulder was cut by a monument maker. Pinks and stripes accent the slab. Triple-pane insulated glass provides a view of sky and field beyond the green room.
While the temperature is downright hot in the morning at 80 degrees, the room cools to the 50s in the afternoon. At night the temperature can be about 40 degrees. Most of the plants thrive through the changes. They go outside during summer months when temps in the room are too hot to enjoy. One, a giant red impatiens, has been blooming all year.
Dix plans to get a greenhouse-like covering to keep the heat down this summer. But he said the green room, about 18 feet by 16 feet, is used steadily from September through May. It is not perfectly square. A rounded side curves by the hot tub. Outside large rocks provide the wall base for about two feet before the glass takes over. Inside cultured rock was used on the house wall to connect the two areas.
Dix was able to save money by using his own labor, but he said recreating the room may be about $25,000. A backup gas furnace is ready to provide heat if the outside wood burning stove isn't fired up.
"I call this a green room not a greenhouse because it's for people not just plants," Dix said.
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Daniel Dix stood on a chair to water one of the hanging plants that line cedar beams, illustrating his plant maintenance. He said everything in the room was designed to allow water to slosh without harm or cleanup, including the layer of rocks that makes up the floor. | |
The end of the room is gabled, which Dix said gives the room a cathedral like feeling. Sculptures from Jamaica and Guatemala accent the room. A striking dragonfly lamp hangs by the hot tub. A ceiling fan high overhead mimics a light breeze with the plants gently swaying.
At night, Dix said he can be outside in the snow and look toward the house where the room has a reddish and green light. It looks so inviting, he said.
"It's almost like you are outside," Dix said. "Up north and tropical all at the same time."
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