Science > Gardening
Putting up a greenhouse
Seamas:
Just wanted to share a couple of pictures with the forum of a greenhouse we're putting up at our place here in Vermont. My mum applied for and won a grant that is paying most of the expense. We've done a little more work on it since this picture was taken, but this is about what it looks like now:
The dimensions are 26 by 84 feet. You can see the front of our tractor, a 35 hp machine, on the far left. We're planning to grow fall, winter and spring greens (spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, etc.) and onions in it primarily so that we have fresh food to eat all year, and we are going to sell to our local food coop.
Dawn:
Wow that is awesome! Congrats on the grant and hard work!
unk:
Are you going to plant in it this fall? And how much does a greenhouse that size cost? I'm in NH and I built a small 3'x10' hoop house structure to attempt fall and winter greens. I used hollow core cinder blocks filled with hay and dry leaves topped with a solid block. I'll put plastic sheeting hoop style over it when the temperature drops. My neighbors grow for the food coop and they had harvestable spinach out uncovered until about mid-Dec.
Seamas:
Hi unk,
We are planning to plant this fall, but we haven't figured out how much we are going to plant. Our plan is to roughly follow the system laid out by Eliot Coleman in the New Organic Grower and the Winter Harvest Handbook which calls for rapid succession plantings in the greenhouse (for continuous production) in the fall and early spring. The greens are covered by an additional row cover within the greenhouse, for added protection from the cold. His research indicates that this system is like moving the greens 3 USDA zones south. For us here in Northern Vermont it would be like moving those rows of greens south to Virginia or North Carolina for the winter (zone 7).
I'm not sure exactly how much it costs, I think around $6,000. I think it depends alot on what kind of "extras" you build in, like extra bracing for wind and snow load, 1 or 2 layers of plastic, metal vs wooden end walls, etc. We did get extra bracing, which was not yet installed in the picture I posted above. There's also alot that goes into it beyond the cost of the greenhouse, like the site preparation, adding amendments to the soil, getting running water to the site and of course actually erecting the thing. Anyway, if you're interested, we purchased this greenhouse from Ledgewood Farm, which is in New Hampshire, so you should contact them if you are ever considering a commercial greenhouse. They make them on the small size as well, I think their smallest is 14 feet wide by 22 feet long, which would be much less expensive. I'd be happy to share the information about the grant with anyone who's interested as well, I believe they are planning another round for next year.
The greenhouse you built sounds like a great start. If you cover spinach it should hold all winter. We've had great luck with two varieties of spinach called Space and Winter Giant, with different varieties of kale, fordhook giant chard, a plant called Clatonia, or Miner's Lettuce and different types of mustard and arugula. Good luck!
Seamas:
Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago that my aunt took.
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