As fall approaches many of you may be considering a greenhouse to extend your growing season. Perhaps you want to grow greens all winter or get a jump-start on spring. These were all my goals in erecting a greenhouse at our high alpine homestead, most importantly, food sovereignty.
When we began our journey into the high alpine wilderness we knew we wanted a greenhouse but had very little practical experience. I did some basic research and found a reasonably priced greenhouse kit with 2" tubing and the highest snow load available. For around $5000 we got a massive 1500 square foot Alpine Glacier Series conventional greenhouse. The instructions and set-up were relatively easy and we were well on our way to food security! Alas the adventure truly begins.
The first year went swimmingly and we grew tons of food in raised beds and directly in the ground. We were proud of our efforts and even though winter was setting in, the harvests were abundant. As the snows began to fall I began by removing all the snow from the structure and perimeter to prevent damage. For a period of time I couldn't even access the greenhouse and over 10 foot of snow built up on the greenhouse. Because of the high amount of daily freeze and thaw a glacier of sorts formed on either side of the greenhouse which became impossible to remove. Encased in it's sarcophagus, the snows continued to pile up until the stress was too much and the structure began to fail.
In order to save the greenhouse a friend and I set to work reinforcing the interior with massive beans to sure up the walls. It worked! Using a 4 ton shop jack we were able to sure-up the entire structure with 4x6 beams the entire length of both walls.
We made it!
Fast forward to Winter 2016/17 and our access to the greenhouse became cutoff around mid January due to the snowpack exceeding 10 feet. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The snows continued to pile up with over 25 feet of total accumulation, maybe more. Unfortunately, volumes of snow in this magnitude were too much for the reinforced structure and massive failure occurred.
The lessons learned here are invaluable. Do not use a conventional greenhouse where snow may accumulate and removal will be too cost effective or impossible. Always remove the film if you are in this situation. Only rigid greenhouses are practical to weather the conditions we were facing and are worth the additional investment.
We are now developing, designing, installing and testing various rigid geothermal greenhouse designs we are going to be using moving forward. These structures are crushproof and harvest the suns energy and store it in the ground for use later in maintaining proper temperature levels. Stay tuned for updates on our future Solar Greenhouse projects.
Help us get to 1000 subscribers. Like and Share.
Best Conventional Cold Weather Greenhouses:
GROWING DOME® GREENHOUSE KITS:
High-Altitude Gardening in the Rocky Mountains:
When we began our journey into the high alpine wilderness we knew we wanted a greenhouse but had very little practical experience. I did some basic research and found a reasonably priced greenhouse kit with 2" tubing and the highest snow load available. For around $5000 we got a massive 1500 square foot Alpine Glacier Series conventional greenhouse. The instructions and set-up were relatively easy and we were well on our way to food security! Alas the adventure truly begins.
The first year went swimmingly and we grew tons of food in raised beds and directly in the ground. We were proud of our efforts and even though winter was setting in, the harvests were abundant. As the snows began to fall I began by removing all the snow from the structure and perimeter to prevent damage. For a period of time I couldn't even access the greenhouse and over 10 foot of snow built up on the greenhouse. Because of the high amount of daily freeze and thaw a glacier of sorts formed on either side of the greenhouse which became impossible to remove. Encased in it's sarcophagus, the snows continued to pile up until the stress was too much and the structure began to fail.
In order to save the greenhouse a friend and I set to work reinforcing the interior with massive beans to sure up the walls. It worked! Using a 4 ton shop jack we were able to sure-up the entire structure with 4x6 beams the entire length of both walls.
We made it!
Fast forward to Winter 2016/17 and our access to the greenhouse became cutoff around mid January due to the snowpack exceeding 10 feet. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The snows continued to pile up with over 25 feet of total accumulation, maybe more. Unfortunately, volumes of snow in this magnitude were too much for the reinforced structure and massive failure occurred.
The lessons learned here are invaluable. Do not use a conventional greenhouse where snow may accumulate and removal will be too cost effective or impossible. Always remove the film if you are in this situation. Only rigid greenhouses are practical to weather the conditions we were facing and are worth the additional investment.
We are now developing, designing, installing and testing various rigid geothermal greenhouse designs we are going to be using moving forward. These structures are crushproof and harvest the suns energy and store it in the ground for use later in maintaining proper temperature levels. Stay tuned for updates on our future Solar Greenhouse projects.
Help us get to 1000 subscribers. Like and Share.
Best Conventional Cold Weather Greenhouses:
GROWING DOME® GREENHOUSE KITS:
High-Altitude Gardening in the Rocky Mountains:
Comments
Post a Comment