We had hoped to get our greenhouse operational before the winter, but as usual, life happened. Baby came and mom was pretty incapacitated for a while. A lot of our CSA members came through in a pinch to help out with the extra work, but we didn’t get a chance to finish construction. So we’ve been trying to play catchup, putting it together little by little. We’ve started a few flats of seeds indoors, but we really need the greenhouse functional for the bulk of the seed starting. So despite the cold this weekend, we worked on the greenhouse end wall construction.
What I’m calling a greenhouse is often referred to as a high tunnel. We don’t plan on providing heat to it but will depend on solar heating. We plan to use this greenhouse to house seedlings in early spring. In addition, we will be planting heat-loving plants like bell peppers there for an early start and a late harvest. Which means ventilation is key. This fall we’ll also plant cool-loving plants for an experiment in winter growing of salad greens and other cool-loving crops. If all goes well, we may even offer a few CSA shares of a special extended harvest or winter harvest CSA. Stay tuned for details.
Well, this weekend we managed to finish the end wall construction by framing in the two ends. For end ventilation we added 3 hinged windows on each end. The “windows” were leftover covers to my coldframes I had built for us when we lived in the suburbs. Now those cold-frames are really a joke as far as the size required for our current situation, so I removed the covers and framed in the end walls to accommodate the size of 32″ by 32″. I bought the double-wall polycarbonate for those covers at Stuppy Greenhouse Supply in Kansas City, MO.
The upper windows since we can’t reach them are fitted with a cool gizmo with wax-filled piston that expands at warmer temperatures and opens the window without electricity and spring closes when it gets cold. The two lower windows will be fitted with a string to pull them closed. We will be able to tie them off at various degrees of opening.
I’ve got a few more things to do before putting on the plastic covering. I need to connect the cross support bracings for added wind control and I need to cover all the sharp exposed metal with duct tape to prevent tears in the fabric. Once we are ready for the fabric we’ll be looking for a windless day to call all the Redfearn Farm friends out to help us install the fabric covering. Stay tuned. We may be in need of your help within the next week or two!
I don’t think this egg laying hen knows what to think of the greenhouse.