THE GREENHOUSE

It's been a long time since I have posted anything to the blog...

We built a greenhouse next to the garden to extend our growing season with winter lettuce, spinach and such and to nurture seedlings before they go out into the garden.

The greenhouse is 8' x 12'.  The foundation is a 4x6 pressure treated timber frame with a geo-fabric weed proof liner filled with sand and topped with 12"x12" paver blocks.  The construction of the greenhouse is standard 2"x4" stick construction with 8' side walls (more height helps in our hot humid environment).  The covering is a corrugated plastic material (looks sort of like cardboard but milky white HDPE plastic) that lasts 15-20 years, much longer than clear film (3-4 years) and is much less expensive than polycarbonate sheets.  The door is a standard 30"x80" full size storm door.  You can see the 16" exhaust fan (yes there is electricity and water piped in) which can keep the interior temperature tolerable for growing even in the middle of our hot summer temperatures.

 There are automatic louvers at the bottom of the back wall to allow a full interior air exchange every 40 seconds (that's what keeps the interior temperature from climbing to oven like temps in the sun.

Inside there are two 6' benches on each long wall with an aisle down the middle.  Not much in the greenhouse at this time of year.  Those are sage and tarragon plants in 2 quart pots at the end of the bench.  The legs of the benches fold up so they can be stored flat against the walls in the winter when we bring in the tender plants (like rosemary bushes) grown in large pots or 5 gallon buckets.  You can see a bit of the paver block floor in this photo.  In late winter / early spring the benches are covered with 28 standard 1020 nursery flats each holding 48 seedlings for a total of 1344 seedlings for the garden.  Everything we grow - indoors or in the garden is grown organically using no industrial pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers.