Very seldom is the word "pit" associated with "heavenly." Patrick Sweeney, of Carbondale, has turned an attached pit greenhouse into what one could call a heavenly one. The greenhouse was constructed by Sweeney some 20 years ago and has long since paid for itself through salad greens, a solar collector, and a space to start plants for the spring planting season.Very seldom is the word "pit" associated with "heavenly." Patrick Sweeney, of Carbondale, has turned an attached pit greenhouse into what one could call a heavenly one. The greenhouse was constructed by Sweeney some 20 years ago and has long since paid for itself through salad greens, a solar collector, and a space to start plants for the spring planting season.

In order for a greenhouse to be considered an attached pit, several things must be done with the construction. To someone wanting to build such a project, Sweeney says, "the structure must be on the south side of a home, lower than the house itself."

Sweeney explains the reason this is are important: "The house will block the north wind, the southern exposure gives the most heat and the final caveat is that heat generated by the attached pit can flow naturally back into the home."