After my
plans of August 7. and my
update of August 25, the greenhouse is finally ready for use. And first frost is still a couple of days away. I didn't keep an exact record of costs, but I made about 4 trips to Home
Depot, 2 trips to Fleet Farm, and spent about $50 on hardware and
lumber. I had some of the hardware and lumber on hand, maybe $25 worth,
plus of course the remains of the collapsed greenhouse, which was
priceless.
With my limited skills, it took several weeks to complete. I
made preliminary plans, but was constantly changing them due to my inexperience and the need to adapt to the
materials that I had on hand.
The door panel can be removed in warm weather to prevent overheating. With the door and vent closed, on a sunny 68 degree day, the inside temperature went up over 90 in a short time. The whole thing is light enough to be moved by three strong teen-age grandchildren, with one old grandpa to supervise. Because it is so light, I'll have to stake it down to prevent our winter winds from blowing it away.
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| Door and vent closed to maintain heat. |
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| Door and vent open for circulation |
I still have some air leaks to plug up and some painting to do, but I've moved in some herbs and will be moving some tomatoes in. Soon I'll probably also be starting some fall salad crops. Next spring I should have plenty of room to start my new plants.
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| Left to right: basil, thyme, chives and spearmint |
Other Winter Preparations
We've canned 10 quarts of tomatoes and 7 jars of plum jelly. We'll continue to can more tomatoes as they ripen up til frost, but as I've mentioned before the garden hasn't been that great this year with the drought and such. We've eaten all the rest as it came in, with no surplus for canning or freezing. We should be able to save some acorn squash and potatoes for winter, but hard to say how much at this point. I'm hoping for some Halloween pumpkins before frost, but they're still green at this time. I started some fall tilling today, have a long way to go. A more detailed report will come later.
