My New Digs!

[RobinB]

I haven't been around Tomatoville much lately, and this is why! We finally bit the bullet and had a greenhouse built this summer in our backyard! The size is 12' x 24'. The frame is steel, and it's covered with two layers of greenhouse film which are inflated by a fan that runs continuously.

The ground in our backyard is basically just decomposed granite. It took a day to level. Then, the frame went up. The frame is anchored to the ground by pounding in t-stakes and then bolting the steel frame to these. It is supposed to withstand 75MPH winds. Hopefully, it won't come to that, but it is usually windy around here.
2-frame.jpg

A neighbor and I built redwood raised beds to go inside while the frame was being put up. I'm really glad that I got a friend's husband, who is a contractor, to help. The project was way beyond my skill set!
3-redwood-beds.jpg

The front wall has a door and motorized shutter/vent which will be controlled by a thermostat. We didn't have time to figure it out, and it's only set up to control cooling. I won't need it until spring. The back wall has a 3-speed fan which will also be controlled by the thermostat.
4-doors-fan.jpg

Here we are putting on the first layer of plastic. We got the beds inside and filled before the plastic went up. Much easier than trying to fit them through the door later!
5-inner-layer.jpg

After both layers of plastic were on, the end walls went on. They are a single layer. All the plastic is attached with wiggle wire in channels.
6-end-walls.jpg

Here's a shot inside the gh after both layers of plastic were on.
7-filled-beds.jpg

And, the outside.
greenhouse-ext.jpg

We purchased a shade cover, and since it was finished in early August, it went on immediately.
8-shade-cover.jpg

It is definitely challenging so far. Next year, I'll be able to start my fall things when I should, but I tried starting everything in August anyway, just to see what would happen. We had such a warm fall that I couldn't take the shade cover off until mid-October. So, some of the fall/winter seeds that I started got leggy.

I've got a couple of electric oil-filled heaters out there. Lately, it's mostly been in the mid-20s overnight and high 40s in the daytime, so it's been pretty easy to keep it above freezing at night. I have had to turn the fan on most days lately if the sun is out, it gets in the mid-80s in there. We have had numerous cold fronts through and it's snowed twice. Two weeks ago, we got 10" of very heavy wet snow. Trees and branches were breaking all around us and we lost power for 27 hours. That overnight without power got down to 20.2 inside the greenhouse. Everything was covered and the only thing I lost was a few tomato plants. Five are still alive. Not happy, but alive.

Here's a shot inside, taken on November 17, and some of the lovely greens I've been picking.
GH 11-17-1.jpg
GH 11-17-2.jpg
salad greens nov.jpg

Next week, we are supposed to get yet another cold front through, but this time our lows are supposed to dip into the low teens with daytime highs below freezing. Who knows what will happen?! At some point, I'll probably lose most of it, but we'll see how far I can push it. We have now dipped below 10 hours of sunlight per day, too. I have added some incandescent Christmas lights in amongst the plants to hopefully help with a bit of heat under the blankets, and I put in two 55 gallon drums filled with water and painted them black. I also just bought a 12' round solar pool cover/blanket. Basically, a giant 12 foot circle of bubble wrap. I plan to cut it in half and install it on the two end walls.

Robin