OK, so we've been thinking and dreaming about it for a while. My husband has gardened in the basement for the last 5 or 6 years. We've decided it would be a gift to both of us, so.... we took the plunge and have ordered our greenhouse. It's to be a cedar-built greenhouse, fully insulated. Not too big - 8' by 10'. We don't know if we can really grow throughout the winter, but will give it a try. For sure, it will extend our growing season. We are dealing with a company out of British Columbia, Canada (not too far north of Seattle, Washington). At least they should know something about cold weather. Here's their web-site:
http://cedarbuilt.homestead.com/
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| Example photo from their web-site |
Now, it's time for us to get to work. The greenhouse should arrive in about 8 weeks, or sometime during the first part of November. We want it up before the snow flies. We've monitored the sun in our backyard all summer to choose the best location. With consideration of both the hours of sunlight and of being non-intrusive to other uses of our yard, we settled on the very spot of the pine tree which was struck by lightening last year. The tree must come down. (Yea! This is actually a good thing. There are 2 pine trees on our back property line and I'm not a fan of either.) Our friend Ray, of the Good Neighbor Tree Service, had both pine trees down and ground up in less than 1 hour. Wow, that was fast. Now we're just waiting for his partner to come and grind away the stumps. Ray left us the pine chips to spread on the blueberries and flower beds next spring. I asked him to dump the chips right on some black-cap bushes that I've been unsuccessfully trying to eradicate. There - take that, you berry brambles.
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| Note the 2 pine trees on the right. Both are now gone; greenhouse will replace the tree closer to the house. |
My husband is off to get the building permit as I type. Then we need to create the base. Yes, we've lined up help for that also. We're suppose to be able to put this greenhouse up ourselves, kind of like "Lincoln Logs", but so far we're asking for a lot of help. I'll definitely keep the blog updated on this.
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| Pine trees are down. Chips are smothering berry brambles. Stumps are awaiting grinding. | |
That is a HUGE fall project. I love the look of it and it will look lovely in your backyard. What kinds of things are you and Dave hoping to grow in there over the winter? Can you do some late lettuce by any chance?
ReplyDeleteWas nice seeing you last Monday....
We're hoping to grow lettuce, spinach and other cold weather greens. I'm also hopeful that the geraniums that Dave fills our basement with every winter can weather the winter in the greenhouse. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteBy the way - I used the long-arm quilt machine in Arcade last Tuesday. Quilted 2 denim quilts; Worked so long I was very stiff and sore the next day.