Got my Green House up

Well, the green house was put up today, thanks to the help of the kids.
I placed it over a couple of the new squares... they should start
heating up much better now. We are in the process of replacing all of the beds, and mixing stuff up. Today was in the low 40's with a split between rain and sun. I was going to use PVC piping, but the wood was cheaper to put up, and still pretty easy when you do some pre-drilling.



A bit of a different angle I put a small "buddy heater" inside and it heated it up to 80 degrees F in about 10 minutes. Once the soil warms up a wee bit, I am sowing carrots and getting the lettuce and peas out there!

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It's still cold here... we still have snow on the ground; at least the crocus are blooming though!

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I was happily surprised on how warm it was inside of the green house once the sun came out. I am mainly using it to heat up the soil (there is some black plastic on it) and frost protection. The sides can all be raised for venting if it gets too hot in there!

Yay!
Mark

On a longer, sunnier day, you may very well want to curl up in there and take a nap. I got my hoops up to 90* one afternoon, before I had plants inside, and if mine was as big as yours......I would have napped.

It looks fabulous. My question to you, because I honestly don't know, is what is your game plan for any decent wind? Again, mine is small enough, my hoops only require a "spine" for support. Yours looks like it carries a higher wind profile, and may need more. But, like I said, I dunno.

Wow! That looks great! Like BBG said, I'd be a little worried about wind too-hopefully it will stay in one place! Okay, dumb question here- I know nothing about "greenhousing"- do you have to keep the buddy heater going the whole time or just to warm in up in there at first and then let the sun do it's thing. I'm trying to learn this stuff because I'd love to start earlier next year since the building/mixing "hard" part is done.

Glendale-gardener wrote:Wow! That looks great! Like BBG said, I'd be a little worried about wind too-hopefully it will stay in one place! Okay, dumb question here- I know nothing about "greenhousing"- do you have to keep the buddy heater going the whole time or just to warm in up in there at first and then let the sun do it's thing. I'm trying to learn this stuff because I'd love to start earlier next year since the building/mixing "hard" part is done.

It does have a fair wind profile, but a lot smaller than other structures I have been in with comparable bracing. It is about 5 1/2 feet tall and only 4 feet wide, measuring about 11 feet long. It is attached with 3 screws per upright (12 uprights total) and the bracing on the sides are going into the prevailing wind. I gave it a fairly good series of shakes, and it seemed sturdy enough; the location has a pretty fair wind break to it (neighbors garage, some pines, mature maples and ash. I am supposed get some thunderstorms tomorrow, and I'll keep an eye on it, but unless the wind gust up around 40 miles an hour, I expect it will be fine. If not I'll place some guy ropes on it, I have them ready to go, but I just didn't have the time to get them out today.

I have only ever used wind row covers before in the garden before, but I have had black plastic on the beds for a week and the soil has only gained a couple of degrees, so I am going to do what Mel suggested in his book, I am going to keep the black plastic on another day then mix the warm soil to the bottom and bring the cooler stuff to the top and let that warm up, hopefully it will increase the speed in which the soil warms so I can have better germination rates. I figure another couple of weeks should bring the soil up into a plantable temperature, at which point, I will use the heater at night if it is needed for heavy freezing. I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and don't want to spend fuel heating dirt.

BBG, it was quite a treat crawling inside this after we were done building it in the 40 degree on and off drizzle, my son and I got into the walkway between the squares, and he said you know this is warmer in here than our house! He was right! and because we had been out in the cold weather for a few hours, it was extra nice... no wonder the plants like it!

Mark

It's looking good! My yard looks like yours, I can hardly wait for the green!!!