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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: mtncats@planetcomm.net
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Greenhouse Construction
  • Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 13:24:22 -0400


Hi Shannon,

Sharing your antipathy for plastic, can't help you with a natural fiber
cover, nor would I want one. I recycle sliding door glass for overhead
glazing. Not an approved application and I wouldn't spend time under it
during a hail storm. After 10 yrs I have yet to experience a broken panel
despite high winds and a lot of airborne tree branches on this mountaintop.
Door panels where the seal has sprung a leak, and the panel fogged, are free
for the hauling here.

I separate the panes, scrape with a razor blade, and don't worry if it's not
perfectly clear. Transmittance isn't ideal, but the price and longevity is.
Typical width is 34". I use an additional rafter down the center, which may
be the reason I've never had one broken. Be sure it's tempered glass, some
of the very old units weren't.

There are several brands of extruded aluminum systems for sealing the seams.
All too expensive for my taste. I use recycled aluminum strips of whatever I
can find, weatherstripped with an EPDM product from Resource Conservation
Technology in Baltimore, inexpensive and incredibly long-lived.
Alternatively, you could use wood strips with EPDM weatherstripping.

Most places have a local wood that's decay resistant. Here, it's heartwood
of white oak, black walnut, black locust, and our local cedar. Pacific yew,
redwood, red mulberry would all be fine. Probably also your local cedar.

Harvey has good insight to greenhouse use here:
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/greenhouse.html

Tom (in central Va where March broke the record for driest in 132 yrs
recorded)

On 4/1/06 at 11:56 AM ferns wrote in part:

>shannon
>CAlifornia- here we tied a record set in 1982 for the most rain in march.
>
>greenhouses .. does anyone know if they can be made from any wood or
>plant materials found in north america? a light emitting fiber that
>can be woven? nettle fiber? i've only seen greenhouses made from glass
>& plastic, i'm not too fond of plastic...






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