My Greenhouse Construction Thread (picture heavy)

[lcertuche]

MoonShadows

I had something similar a few years ago but was a recycled project. I started with a large metal shop shelf. I attached a shop fluorescent light with chains that could be adjust to height over the plants. It could have easily been duct taped to the under the shelf. The tubs of soil were under the light. I had a timer to turn the light on and off. If the shelf was tall enough you could use a couple lights. It worked good for seedlings and starting my tomatoes and peppers. In the winter I kept a calamondin orange tree under it. I kept it in the living room but it would work anywhere that wasn't too cold. I don't remember if I had wheels or not but it would be easy enough to rig something up. I been thinking about doing another shelf up because my new place doesn't have any sunny windows to speak of.

 

[Hinotori]

You can sterilize the soil yourself by baking it.

 

[MoonShadows]

I love to hear about family history...I go back in this country to 1725. My hubby's family came over on the Mayflower. His family tree that one member did is over 20,000 people...What a large tree...LOL

I love to hear about family history, too. According to what my father told me many years ago, our family, on his side, date back to the House of Burgess in Virginia. The House of Burgess was the first legislative assembly in the American colonies in the 1600's. At that time, our name was spelled "Gwyn", not "Guinn".

@MoonShadows I finally got round to checking our your website. Wonderful story and business! I wish I could buy and sample some of your products. Maybe one day when I talk you into flying over here for a visit?

Sumi...a visit to Ireland is on my bucket list...and, I'll be sure to bring you some of our products!

 

[MoonShadows]

I've been pretty quiet around these parts lately....been busy with a few other projects...one of which was building a new website for a friend...138 pages! My hip has also been hurting lately and sitting at the computer aggravates it, so other than building that website and my online business dealings, I've haven't been following my "regulars".

I thought I would give you an update since I last wrote about our kitchen garden just before Christmas. Replacing the composted soil with sterilized seedling mix and adding a wee bit of organic fertilizer, adding the led grow lights to my T5 lights, and putting the lighting unit on chains so I can adjust it has done wonders. The plants are growing quickly and there is no mold to be found on the soil! We have been harvesting the result for two weeks now.

In this pic, you can see how I removed the "fixed" lighting fixture from the top bar (drilled out the rivets) and rigged it up on chains so I can lower and raise it as needed. It was just too far away...a real design flaw by the manufacturer.

A little hard to get good pics with the fixture so low and the fact that these were taken at 4 in the morning when everything was dark except for the kitchen garden, but these will give you a good idea.
Lettuce and spinach

Side view up close...basil, dill and parsley in the foreground starting to get itself established.

 

[NH Homesteader]

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!

 

[lcertuche]

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.

We often see small birds (much smaller than crows) chasing, harassing larger birds like hawks until they decide to leave. The group effort is amazing.

 

[MoonShadows]

Those "jobs" we have really get in the way of doing the work we WANT to do, don't they??

It's Saturday, so I'm hoping you will have nice weather & a day full of work at home! I had a list but, you can't do roof work in 25MPH winds. I'm on my "other" list.

Sure do! I can't wait until I can be home full time just working my home business and doing what I want to do around here. No work today. I had to travel into NY to see my 99 y/o mother. Tomorrow, they are predicting rain and snow. I will have to work a least 3 days this week, but I'll be off Friday and all of Easter week. I'm making sue my camera has batteries!

 

[Denim Deb]

We don't have tamarack around here, except for the odd ones that people plant. For those that aren't familiar w/it, it's a type of pine that actually loses its needles in the fall. It's also known as larch. The word tamarack is an Algonquin word meaning wood used for snowshoes, or something like that.

 

[MoonShadows]

Yesterday was pretty much a wash out; it rained a good part of the day, and then it was too wet to work. The winds did pick up later in the day with gusts up to 45mph, so the area is fairly dry to get some work done today. I would rather stay in this warm house rather than work outside where it is about 42 with wind gusts up to 20+ mph, but this greenhouse is not going to get up on its own.

We had 5 cubic yards of rock dust delivered late yesterday afternoon. Once we finish leveling the foundation, we will add the rock duct around the outer foundation and inside as the floor over which we will lay slate that will add to the thermal ability of the greenhouse. Only problem is the closest we could have the rock dust dropped is about 60 yards from the foundation, so that means many wheel barrel trips back and forth.

Below, X marks where the rock dust was dropped and the arrow at the end of the route is where it has to be dumped on the other side of the house (not visible on the other side of the rock ledge)

I'll post some more pics after today's progress.

 

[MoonShadows]

Today was a very productive day.

We got the 16' sides leveled, although one of them it a bit twisted from lying on the ground since last April...but I think I can work with this.

Then, we started hauling the rock dust. We used all but a bout 1/2 yard of it.

We then tamped it and soaked it with water to let the "dust" lock it into place.

Between what we have left near the shed and the pile up near the front of the house, we still have 8-10 wheel barrels full of rock dust.

Tomorrow, we will drill through the 6 x 6's at a 45 degree angle at the end of each beam and drive 3' pieces of rebar into the ground to anchor the beams...8 anchors in all. Then, we'll construct the bottom frame of the greenhouse, attach that will steel angles to anchor the bottom frame to the beams, and try to get the slate laid on the inside floor. We'll use the rest of the rock dust to "perfectly" level the slate floor.

Looks like Thursday and Friday are going to be rainouts here, so hopefully we'll have Saturday and Sunday to start (maybe finish) the actual construction of the greenhouse.

Very tired, but having fun!