Greenhouse Update

OK. I got my greenhouse plastic in from Northern Greenhouse and have it installed. Check out the pictures:

One word: AWESOME!!!!

Of course it needs more work, we tacked the plastic temporary and still need a door, heat, vents, etc. Sort of a work in progress. It will be done though before the end of October. Check out my previouse post Building a Greenhouse to check this out from the beginning building process. I will add updates as I progress.

One more thing, the plastic from Northern Greenhouse was WELL worth the extra money. We stretched it, pulled it, nailed it, etc. Plastic from Home Depot or Lowe's, even doubled up would never have held up. A worthwhile investment if you are planning a greenhouse.

Bug Vacation

Here's a pic of my pumpkin, while it was growing, with what looks like a big bug family sunning themselves.

I've looked all over the internet to try and find out what kind of bugs they are but have yet to figure that one out. They weren't destroying anything so I just left them be. Looks like they're having a good time. If anyone knows what kind of bugs they are let me know.

**Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge it to really check out the bugs**

My Coldframe Experiment

I've read about coldframes and decided this was the year to construct my own. I had some old skylights laying around, not sure where they even came from so building it should be pretty cheap. I built the base from 2x6's and 2x10's to make the total height about 22". I filled it with screened topsoil from a local nursery and mixed in a lot of mushroom soil from the same nursery. Below are some pics:

You can see the start of the coldframe laying on the ground. I used 2x3's as the corner posts and you can see the skylight in the background as well. If you enlarge the picture you will notice the frame of my greenhouse in the far back and my cousin/helper, taking a break.

Here is the completed coldframe. Notice I left some of the 2x3 sticking out the bottom for support when it is placed into the ground. The size of the skylight is 51" x 51", plenty of room for all my cold weather plants.

My coldframe in its final resting spot. You can notice the sod has been dug up for next years expansion of my garden.

The finished product! From left to right: Radish/Cherriette, Carrots/Napoli (barely visible), Spinach & looseleaf lettuce. Seeds from Johnny's and Seed Savers Exchange. I tried Johnny's pelleted carrot seeds and they were great to work with. I'll never use non-pelleted again.

So, my coldframe material list looked something like this:

1. 4 - 2 x 6 x 10 @ $4.15 ea
2. 2 - 2 x 10 x 10 @ $7.59 ea
3. 51" x 51" commercial skylight - FREE
4. Misc hardware (12D nails, 2 1/2" drywall screws) @ $4.00???

Total Bill: $35.78

Not too bad for a decent sized coldframe. And if it works I have one more skylight for next year.

Thanks for stopping by and as always feel free to email me with questions or advice.

Building a Greenhouse

OK. Here is my attempt at building my very own greenhouse. It isn't completed yet but will be well before winter. I will post updates as I get further along.

Here's the start. My brother-in-law had some left over pipe so he offered to weld the greenhouse frame from pipe. I was going to make it out of wood because I'm a terrible fabricator. Hey, free pipe, free labor, I said go for it!

My dad on the left and brother-in-law on the right measuring for the center pole. Let me just say this too about my b.i.l., he is freakish when it comes to fabricating. Everything is leveled, square and perfect. Probably why I'm no good at it, I typically just slap stuff together.

Here is a picture after the center post has been welded in and the sides are done. The roof trusses were also welded in from pipe. See below.

This is the finished frame, setting in place in my garden. In the background you can see my beans and sunflowers.

This is a picture of the beds being built in the greenhouse. I added dirt and compost to fill the beds which are made from 2x6's and 2x10's to make the beds about 22" high. I also dug out in the center and added 2B stone later so I wouldn't be walking in mud since I'm going to remove the plastic every summer.

OK, here it is after the front has been installed and this is where I ran into a pretty big snag. The side you are looking at is the South facing side so, after I added the plywood almost the entire inside was shaded. I thought about what to do and came up with the idea to just install the wood front and back and cut plexiglass windows in later. This is as far as I've gotton so far but will keep adding posts as I progress. You can see my cold frame in the background which is working great! I'll add a post about that later too.