Hi guys, thanks for the encouraging words. We've done a ton of work on it this summer, so I'll see if I can get a few more pictures up in the next few days. There are a bunch of tomatoes in it that we're growing for the local restaurant I work at and we're planting about half of it to winter greens spinach, chard, and kale.
Gonzo said:
I'm glad you posted. Eventually, I'd love to have a greenhouse/patio combination where I could sit and have my breakfast and morning cigarettes in the bleak mid-winter. But I have to start somewhere within my means, perhaps by starting with building cold frames.
Thanks Gonzo, sorry I never wrote back in the spring. It was really nice to go out there in the spring and on a sunny day and work in a t shirt when it was 0F outside. Cold frames would be a great place to start. If you'd like a great reference book you might try
Cold Climate Gardening by Lewis Hill. He lived one town over from me and was a friend of mine before he passed away a few years ago. There are lots of simple ideas in his book, like using old hay bales to build wind breaks behind tomatoes, and plans for cold frames and hot boxes.
davey72 said:
Wow, this is awesome. This may be the direction i have been looking for with regards to my own life. Is there any type of link you may have to show me how to keep the heat in the winter?
Griller said:
Glad to hear! Since your friend is in Canada it can't be too warm winters there... I suppose -20C the lowest at least in his area? If so, you just set me at a great ease friend. I've been planning to buy a piece of land in two years from now, to start some larger scale gardening, winter gardening in a greenhouse like your friend, and I've red about winter greenhousees briefly but didn't think it might be possible without a lot of extra heating tricks in this climate. Did my research on those tricks already, from air heating pumps and right colored material and reserving fireplaces to plants that produce heat and how you utilize sunlight better for heating, that's linked with reflecting and black materials
If that greenhouse warms up so efficiently, then building one right next to the living house for humans might actually save a pretty penny with the warming expenses, ground heat pumps are quite expensive. Thanks!
Mr.Anderson said:
I bet you get some serious cold up there. Are you going to add lots of mass (water or concrete blocks) to hold heat at night? Looks great! Congrats.
It does get cold in the winter. In December, January and February the night time temperatures regularly drop to -20F/-30C, and there are usually a couple of nights when we get a -40F/-40C reading just before dawn. I picked up some funky little black heat retention tubes at a greenhouse auction, and I've tried big 50 gallon barrels filled with water, but I think the mass of the ground is what is most important. We are building raised beds, which will help keep the frost out on the edges, and we might eventually replace the cedar logs we have now with bricks or concrete to add thermal mass. We used both clear plastic and spun polyester fabric, one brand is called agribond, to cover the crops inside the greenhouse. So you end up with a little mini greenhouse inside the big greenhouse. We found that second covering really helped to moderate the temperature swings in the spring, which lessens shocks on the plants.
After reading the Vegetarian Myth I have mixed feelings about this greenhouse. I am proud of all of the work that went into building it and I'm looking forward to all of the food we are going to grow this winter, but I am also struck by the enormous amount of petroleum energy that went into producing all of the metal and plastic. We purposely chose a growing system that doesn't require supplemental heat, and we are focusing primarily on growing winter greens and treating traditional greenhouse crops like cukes and tomatoes as a secondary crop.
Anyway, nice to log in and see your comments, I'll add greenhouse pics to my to do list. :)