Canadian Backyard Greenhouse Winter Update. How We Designed Our Solar Greenhouse. We live and garden on an urban lot in Calgary, Canada, located on the 51st parallel north and approximately 80 km east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies.
This northern climate presents many design challenges, including less than one hundred frost-free days, an annual mean temperature of 4.1 degrees Celcius and summer cyclonic weather patterns (i.e. high risk of hail). We are also considered to be a moderate temperate desert as our precipitation is around 500 mm including snow. However, one of the advantages of growing food up north is the long summer days. There is no better place to observe this than in Alaska which also has an average of 100 frost free days but is renown for growing the largest vegetables in the world. Also, despite being cold in the winter, it is rarely overcast and we enjoy mostly sunny days. There are two major considerations when designing a greenhouse: heat and light.
Aquaponic Greenhouse. Solar Sunspaces and Greenhouses. Dozens of free design guides and plans for dozens of sunspaces and greenhouses you can build.
Attached sunspaces can be a good way to solar heat your house, provide some additional living space, plant growing space, a place to read the newspaper and look at the views, and a place to hang the laundry for solar drying. Very versatile and they look nice to boot. Sunspace designs vary widely depending on whether you want to 1) provide heat for the attached house, 2) provide more living space, or 3) grow plants, or some combination of the three. Be sure to review the guides below so that your design does what you want it to. Advanced "4 season" Greenhouse Designs - Open Source Ecology Forums. Designing an underground greenhouse. I've written previously about a couple of other insulated greenhouses, so I thought I'd focus here on what makes Oehler's design different.
The most obviously unique feature of Oehler's greenhouse is the cold sink --- a lower aisle near the front. The original purpose of the cold sink was to give Oehler head space on the downhill side of the greenhouse without requiring so much excavation on the uphill side. But, as the name suggests, this lower aisle also allows cold air to pool away from the plants. A nonprofit organization to develop and teach sustainable ways to grow food. Turning an Empty Backyard Pool into an Urban Greenhouse. Winter Permaculture Design Course. An internationally recognized, 72-hour training in the ethics, principles, methods, techniques, and practices of Permaculture Design + 24 extra teaching hours + 24 hours group/independent work, a 120 hour certificate course.
Date: Five-Weekends Feb. - April 2014A New Paradigm in Sustainable Living The winter season is an excellent time to learn the design principles, processes and practices of permaculture. How to Create a Greenhouse From an Empty Pool. The Underground Greenhouse – Free pdf. Le pool greenhouse air. An innovative P.E.I. hobbyist - Greenhouse Canada. Growing a variety of grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes and even kiwi in a partially underground greenhouse is more of a hobby than a business for Laurie Bell of Huntley, Prince Edward Island.
But this veritable mini-Eden is a source of great pride for this Islander who operates a poultry farm for a living. Salvaging old guardrails and recycled telephone poles, Bell built a 25- by 65-foot hillside greenhouse in which he grows fruit and vegetables well into December. The idea had been brewing for a few years, but it wasn’t until three years ago that he set to work on it. The project took four months and cost $3,000. The key to its energy efficiency is that it is built into the side of a hill. ENGINEERED TO MAXIMIZE SOLAR ENERGY UTILIZATION A lot of research and planning went into the project. The greenhouse is 15 feet tall at its highest point, barely containing his tomato plants. Anywhere Greenhouse withstands winds up to 60 mph.
How to Make an Underground Greenhouse. Underground Greenhouse Manual. Build a $300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening (Video) Growers in colder climates often utilize various approaches to extend the growing season or to give their crops a boost, whether it's coldframes, hoop houses or greenhouses.
Greenhouses are usually glazed structures, but are typically expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. Greenhouse in a Swimming Pool - Winter Harvest. Salad greens, chives and braising greens thrive in this winter growing space, a greenhouse converted from an old swimming pool. Outside temperatures dipped down as low as 3F (-17C); yet this space remains productive without any additional heat. It is heated by the sun during the day, and stays relatively warm (around 32F (0C)) on coldest of nights. Plants are happy and harvest is in full swing. This unheated growing space was created in an old swimming pool that has fallen into disrepair. Old swimming pools are hard fix; this one was built in the 1950-s and doubled up as water cistern for irrigating fields and pastures.
Photo above is taken around 5pm in January - with low winter sun shining from the west (left side on the photo). Turn Your Foreclosed Swimming Pool into a Permaculture Fish Farm. Like many foreclosed properties in the state, this one in Mesa, Arizona, had an abandoned swimming pool.
The enormous expense of keeping a swimming pool running was just no longer sustainable for the sellers. But rather than spend thousands to fix the pool, the two young homeowners who bought the home decided to transform the abandoned pool into something useful. A nonprofit organization to develop and teach sustainable ways to grow food.