My Greenhouse Construction Thread (picture heavy)

[MoonShadows]

After several years of wanting to build a greenhouse but never getting too it, last Spring we decided, too late, to buy a greenhouse. (8 x 16 Mt. Rainier Redwood Greenhouse) It arrived on a huge tractor trailer from the other side of the country in late May in 11 huge cartons and sat on our front porch until we moved the cartons under our back deck and covered them with tarps for the winter. Another season without a greenhouse!

But, we did get the area for the 6x6 foundation dug and added the crushed rock, although it wasn't too smart piling up the dirt and rocks right next to our construction site.

You can see what I mean about piling the excavated dirt and rocks so close to the work site! Guess I should have planned this out a little better.

Now this next picture is what happens during the winter when you leave all this dirt next to the site, and your chickens like to scratch and take dust baths. Here are a few of them taking a rest on the 6 x 6 fundation beams.

So, now it is March 8. We are finnaly getting some decent temps where we can start to work outdoors, but we don't have much time if we want to use our greenhouse this Spring, and between one of us commuting to NYC everyday and the other working part time and running our home business part time, there never seems to be enough hours in the day.

So, this thread is to document the construction of our looooooong overdue greenhouse, and to provide even more motivation for us to get it done....since you guys will hopefully want to see progress and pictures on a regular basis.

So, sit back, relax and watch!

 

[MoonShadows]

I applied a very light coating of the cinnamon powder after lunch this afternoon, and I would say about 95% of the white mold is already gone! Now, to see how the cinnamon powder affects the plants...if it does so at all.

BTW...I read today on a few internet sites that you can use cinnamon powder in place of root hormone....some even say it works better than root hormone.

 

[Mini Horses]

Hey, spritz some water and have a sauna!

 

[MoonShadows]

The Kitchen Garden 365 arrived yesterday, and I put it together today. Easy to put together and sturdy. I made a container soil of 1/2 compost soil mixed with peat moss, perlite and some seedling starter I had. Then, I took some of the spinach and lettuce plants I had started in the greenhouse and transplanted them. I'm waiting on some herb seeds and a couple of other varieties of lettuce and spinach. I'll plant them in between.

 

[MoonShadows]

Update: It's been 2 weeks since I put the plants in this container garden. They are thriving, and I am going to start cutting leaves for fresh salads.

The unit is self watering with a 3 gallon reservoir on the bottom. When I first put the plants in, they said to wet all the soil well, so the "wicking" process starts from the reservoir; however, since the top of the soil was wet for a few days, I noticed that fluffy white mold started growing on the soil...probably because I didn't use sterilized potting soil but a mixture that included a very generous amount of our compost. I let the top dry out and the mold died and just about disappeared. The plant roots are long enough to take advantage of the bottom watering.

Now, the other day I decided to add a couple other varieties of spinach and lettuce along with some basil and dill. Since I planted seeds, I have to keep the top moist. Well, the white mold is back on the surface, and I am afraid of the new seedlings suffering from damping off disease when they start to grow....not to mention breathing in mold spores is not healthy either. And, even if they survive, I will need to water them from the top until they establish longer roots and can take advantage of the water wicking up into the soil.

I did some reading and learned that house plants are prone to white mold on the soil surface because of lack of good air circulation and/or not using a sterilized potting soil. I've always used sterilized potting soil for regular house plants and never remember getting soil mold, but wanted to use our black gold compost for these plants. From what I found, most articles suggest he most natural "remedy" is to use powered cinnamon sprinkled on the soil or a mixture of steeped cinnamon or cinnamon oil and water in a sprayer. They say that will keep the mold in check and not hurt the plants. Has anyone here ever tried this with house plants...which can be prone to mold on the top of the soil?

 

[MoonShadows]

She and my grandfather were Polish immigrants. They opened their first store in New Rochelle, NY in the early 1920's. They called it White Way Dairy...White Way after "The Great White Way"...Broadway's bright lights...only "45 Minutes from Broadway"...a George M. Cohan song. You can't see it in the pic on my website because I cropped it out, but my mother wrote the info on the bottom of the pic.

My mother, the oldest of 3 children, born in 1917, will be 100 years old if she lives until May 11, 2017.

Here is a pic of her and my grandparents

And, a pic of her with my sisters and brother on her 96th birthday...

Pardon me for waxing nostalgia......

 

[MoonShadows]

My husband hates crows, but we saw a bunch chase off a hawk the other day so he's not been grumbling as much about them, lol.

Well a compost/manure heating idea won't get us too far in NH but if we move south it could be a huge help!

I think I told all of you the time I was walking the dog and a hawk came tumbling down a stand of pine trees next to us and was dead when it hit the ground. A bunch of crows attacked and killed it in mid air.

 

[MoonShadows]

Thanks, Joel and Mini Horses.....but, no rest for the weary...just yet!

This morning we started off by driving 8 pieces of rebar at 45 degree angles at the ends of each beam to anchor the whole structure to the ground. We also decided to hold off on the slate floor for now and try to get the structure up and enclosed between today and tomorrow since they are predicting bad weather for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Next, we started erecting the front and back walls and doors, something that became somewhat of a real challenge as it got quite windy out. As the afternoon wore on, we got the top wall supports and roof ridge support put on, and then with one roof truss in place and one side wall panel in place on each side for some greater stability, we decided to call it a day. I am aching from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet! Pics below, and we hope to have the structure finished tomorrow. We will still need to add the redwood benches and slate floor.

 

[MoonShadows]

Thank you Sumi & Deb.

Well, today we finished the complete frame of the greenhouse. We still need to put down the slate on the floor and assemble the 2 redwood benches that span both of the 16' sides, but that can be done in the rain they are predicting the next few days. Tomorrow will be an off day on the project as we have to get 45 cases of product labeled and packed for orders we received the past few days.

Here are today's pics!

The roof rafters, trusses and side walls finished.

The completed basic greenhouse...a few views.

There will be more pics as we put down the slate, build the benches, and begin seeds.

Hope you are enjoying our project. I know we are! , but we both have aches on top of our aches!

 

[MoonShadows]

Well, with my part time job and our home business really gearing up for the season (up 72% over last year at this time...yahoo!), most attention has been paid to keeping the lawn cut, erecting a canopy over our back deck, moving some raised beds and doing more planting. However, I did get some time to do a little more work on the greenhouse. Since it is getting late to plant anything in it for the summer season, I will probably not really begin to utilize it until the late summer for some 2nd crops, so I have turned my attention to things that need to be done on the outside.

I didn't like the way the rain ran off the roof to the ground creating a furrow in the dirt and splashing muddy water up on the first foot or two of the greenhouse, so I put on gutters last week.

I also decided to create a border around it and plant some flowers, so this morning I was at Lowes at 6:30 and bought 30 - 16 x 8 x 4 concrete blocks to start building the border. I got most of them down, but I'll need to buy more to complete the project. Once it's done and filled with dirt and flowers, I'll smooth out the soil around the greenhouse and replant the grass.

Here are a couple of pics of the gutters (one side) and the border so far.

If they don't call me into work tomorrow, I am going to try and finish the border and start filling it with dirt; although, that's a maybe since my arms feel like silly putty right now; don't know how stiff I'll be in the morning.