I have never been a greenhouse gardener. Years ago I bought a greenhouse at the Fair - One of those plastic ones - the biggest one they had. When we moved it from our old house here, we must have somehow compromised the structure, because the next year, the ceiling collapsed and we had to get rid of it. But I had never really used it either - it was too hard to heat when it needed heat, it was never in the right place, and it ended up being a storage shed for a bunch of pots, garden tools, rolls of plastic, pipe, etc. I never grew a single tomato because of having a greenhouse.
That being said, I have always felt that a greenhouse was the necessary next step in my gardening world.
After watching sun patterns in my existing garden for several years, thinking about the perfect place for it during that time, and two days of hand digging around the water line that comes all the way from the lake, I turned Ron loose with the tractor and my vision.
My goal is to have half of it earth sheltered on the north side, and about a quarter of it earth sheltered on the south.
We managed to do all our excavating without breaking the water line. I have it drained for the winter, but it's still a major pain to fix water line breaks, so we were happy to find it before we broke it.
Next step - lay out a 9' by 9' perfect square, level all four sides, and smooth out the center.
Once the excavation is complete, we will line the edges with cement block - three on the north side, two on the sides, and one where the door will be on the south side.
We have recycled glass that we will incorporate into the walls and glass ceiling. The water line will be under the floor and will come out with a faucet inside and another outside to service the rest of the garden. More updates as the project proceeds.
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