Greenhouse update.

I am both happy and relieved to report that the greenhouse is now complete.  It took most of Saturday to erect the structure.  Thankfully the weather was almost ideal as it wasn't too warm.  It is still summer afterall in this part of the world.  It would not have been completed without the very able and determined efforts of my friend Mark, my wife, son and daughter in law.  It was challenging to say the least.
The biggest challenge came from the fact that the greenhouse had sat for almost 2 years before it was built.  It was stored in what I considered a relatively safe area but was somewhat exposed to the weather.  When opened, the instructions were unusable.  We printed the instructions from online but they were for the newer model and the numbers did not quite match up.  My wife and son were able to piece the door and vent parts together through what I would call dogged determination and methodology.  I would not have been so successful.  Lesson learned here not to procrastinate.
After siting the 4"X6" wood supports and laying down a run of marble stones in the troughs we dug, we then cut the wood to their proper sizes and leveled them on the stone.  We then attached the wood pieces to each other by using L brackets and 3 inch wood screws.  Once that was completed, we began the construction of the greenhouse.
As can be seen from the picture below, the process was to build the 4 walls separately.

This is the one of the wall sections which was comprised of about 10 pieces.  Once all 4 walls were built, we transported them to the site and attached them to each other.  Then the middle support was attached along with the three supports on each side which act as the channels for the "glass" inserts.
We then finished the greenhouse by inserting the vent into the section for it and attached the sliding door to entrance wall.  I then screwed 3" wood screws though the base of the greenhouse into the wood base framing.
Here is a picture of the finished product.

The greenhouse is 8 ft long and 6 foot wide.  It actually feels pretty spacey inside right now.  I am sure that will change once I load in selves and such.  The sunlight is diffused by the panels.  Both the space and the diffusion of light are better seen in the picture below. 

On Sunday, I began transferring the various shelving units I have into the greenhouse.  As can be seen below, there appears to be enough room for what I have planned. 

I hope to be able to try to grow the traditional root crops inside it.  I will then have a real feel for how far into the winter I can grow plants.  It will definitely help me with growing my own plant varieties and timing plant maturity in the spring and throughout the summer.  

That's all I have at this time.  My next step is to get as much of the garden plots reset before it is too cold.  I will keep you posted on that and the many goings on in the garden.  If you should have any questions, please drop me a line.  Thanks for visiting!

Work progresses in the garden

As noted in my last post, I had much to do in order to set my garden up for next year.  I can report that I made some progress in that regard.  When a project is this complex, you have to think what is the most important task at hand.  Clearly, that would be the assembly of my new greenhouse.
I had to first decide the placement of the greenhouse.  I chose the end of one of my old beds as it affords the best southern exposure for it as seen in the picture below.

The greenhouse will be the central hub of the garden.  I will use it in the early spring to begin seeding flats of spring crops and then I will use it to grow seedlings for succession plantings during the summer.  It will also afford me the ability to start late season crops earlier for transplanting into the garden in the fall.  I will have friends and my son coming over this weekend to begin the project.  I did some pre-work in the interim so that we could get as much finished as possible.  Having never attempted such a project, it is a little daunting when you begin to think of all the steps involved.

As you can be see in the picture, I have dug trenches where the 4X4's will be placed for the base of    the structure.  This will reduce the risk of the greenhouse moving or even tipping over in high winds. But first, we will put down a layer of crush and run stone in the trenches in order to allow the water    from rains or snows to dissipate from underneath the wood.  This will reduce the rotting of the wood over time.

Once the stones and the boards are in place, we will begin the process of constructing the greenhouse.  That seems like it is going to be a very long process as most of the build your own greenhouses are just adult sized tinker toys.  They are somewhat akin to IKEA furniture.

On another note, I seeded carrots about two weeks ago into a flower container I picked up at our local Big Lots.  I decided to use it for carrots given the depth and structure of the piece.  I mixed a cheap bag of top soil I bought on sale from Home Depot for the base product and mixed in some time release fertilizer really well.  Then I added some Amish seed starting soil into that.  I then spread a layer of the Amish soil on the top, poked spacing holes and added yet some more of the Amish soil into each hole.  I then seeded the holes, covered the seeds with the soil and sprayed them with water.

I am keeping them in a plastic FlowerHouse greenhouse that I have.  As seen above, they are doing quite well.  I am hoping to get more seedings of cold weather plants completed.  Unfortunately, the greenhouse construction is taking up most of my time right now.              

Well, thats all for now.  I'll post more pics of the greenhouse as we/I make progress.