Building Our Greenhouse

          I learned to garden from my dad and and my grandfather. They both loved to spend their days among their plants, composting and checking for pests hiding among the green leaves. I have continued on with their passion for plants, particularly all the veggies. I love to plan out what I will grow, what companion plants will work best together, and I normally pick one wacky vegetable to plant or new growing technique to try out without many expectations. I tend to think of my growing style as more of an ongoing experiment and I adjust as needed. This has made my experiences more enjoyable without my perfectionist nature having a chance to come in and ruin all the fun. The problem with loving to garden in New England is that you are waiting around for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw for a good part of the year. This does give me lots of time to peruse my seed catalogs, draw out my plans, complain about the weather and watch my winter rye bravely face the elements. This year will be different; we built ourselves a greenhouse.

I say we because I could not have attempted this without my stepfather, who came up with the design, sketched it out and we built it from there. His creativity was quite impressive, and I am in awe of his carpentry skills and ability to envision something and then turn it into something tangible. I also have to include my sister, Heather, and my brother, Josh, for helping us get this project completed in time. We were working against the seasons, needing to change out the raised beds that were supporting out summer vegetables, reinvigorate the soil with compost and get the rest of the area prepped before we could begin the actual construction of the greenhouse. We all pulled together and made it happen.

My original idea was to have a cold greenhouse based on information I pulled from The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman, using the greenhouse structure to protect my plants and floating row covers to keep the soil warm enough to grow some colder weather produce until it was too cold to support anything. This would most likely have happened in January and February and would have enabled us to start our spring veggies earlier than mother nature usually allows. Once Kevin got his wheels churning, he quickly figured out a way to heat the beds as well as our water to prevent freezing. We are using heated cables, normally used on houses to prevent ice dams, to heat our beds. We plan to keep them on a timer to coincide with the outside temperatures and sunlight and to monitor the bed temperatures throughout the day. With any luck, we should have a warm structure that is hopefully a refuge for me and my plants throughout the cold months.

To construct the structure, we used:

• Pine Strapping
• Flexible plastic conduits
• 2×4 and 2×8 boards
• Concrete form stakes
• Thick semitransparent plastic sheeting
• Screws
• Nails
• Waterproof tape
• Roof heating cables

We tackled the build in about two days. The first step that we had to complete was to level the ground. I have a preexisting garden with raised beds, and we placed the greenhouse over five of them. We started with the base, then the back wall, adding the conduits, braced together with our strapping. Once we felt that was secure, we added the plastic and the front panel. We have an airtight door that can easily pull out and in, instead of dealing with hinges. There is a little more to do inside, a few more pieces of strapping to brace the inside more securely, but right now we are in good shape to be finished before the real New England winter blows in.

          I am now planning what we will grow and what we can get a head start on in early spring. Right now, I have some herbs and lettuce growing along with the pride and joy of my garden all summer long, my beautiful marigolds. I am excited to see what will happen throughout the winter and am looking forward to a little oasis from the inevitable snowstorms that will come our way. What should I try to grow this winter? Or a plant that may require a longer growing season than New England could usually provide that I could start in the greenhouse and move outside once the weather allowed?