The new greenhouse
During May I talked about the greenhouse project. Earlier in the year I had sent a quick drawing on a post-it to Andrew Wing, woodworker to the gods.
We met to discuss the build and I decided to increase the size to 4m x 6m as the proportions felt better. The wood was ordered and during early June some lovely people came to dismantle the old glass greenhouse to re-erect at their home. On 28 June Benoit arrived with his digger to dig out the footings. Andrew started building the half wall with block immediately after.
The greenhouse is constructed in Douglas Fir and there is barely a screw. Most of the joints are secured by dominoes. They’re large oval dowels that look very beautiful and make a strong joint that can’t twist. The ‘glass’ is 10mm thick polycarbonate sheets of 3m in length. Stable doors at each end give me both good access and an excellent through-flow of air when the fans above the doors at each end need some extra help.
Inside I have electricity in case I want to install lighting. That also lets me have a 5G router so it is a greenhouse with extremely fast internet. Why, well why not? There is also a handbasin with running water, a tap and a hose permanently attached so watering the plants is super-easy. Outside the greenhouse there’s another tap that comes directly from large storage tanks that collect water from the roof. I don’t use that on seedlings in case it contains bacteria harmful to the young plants, but it is ideal for watering the raised beds in and in front of the greenhouse. All three beds are made from corrugated iron. I found them online for the first time in France earlier this year. They are absolutely standard in Australia but I’d never seen them here. They have the great advantage of the sides taking up almost no room - as opposed to wood or block which would steal a lot of real estate from the interior.
On one of the shelves there is a monitor that tells me the temperature and humidity in the greenhouse on a screen in my study some 50m away. This unit will be invaluable in allowing me to open and close the doors as necessary to avoid potential loss from over-heating or frost.
I bought the shelving units in the centre from someone local who had advertised them on Facebook Marketplace. There are five in total - costing 50 euros - but just two are in use at the moment. The others will be called into action in the spring.
In the corner there is a hotbed. Next week I have a delivery of fresh horse manure, not composted, which I’ll load into the hotbed. During its decomposition it will provide lots of heat to keep the greenhouse frost free during the winter. We had our first frosty night of the season last week 24 October.
I picked off about five side shoots from the tomato plants in the potager and plunged them into the compost in the raised bad. I think that was during the first week of September and now the plants have grown huge on a diet of Orgasyl and are giving us their first ripe cherry tomatoes. Even though today is 29 October we have just had tomato soup for lunch made with the almost-last of the fruits from the potager. I’m hoping that the greenhouse tomatoes will keep us going for a while longer. This is the latest I’ve ever managed to keep tomatoes going.
Now that it’s a reality I can’t believe that a sketch on a post-it note could turn into something so beautiful and practical. It was supposed to be a present for my 70th birthday which isn’t until late next year. So I get to enjoy it for a whole year in advance. Lucky, lucky me. Thanks Andrew. Thanks AliB.
