Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[lava <lava@mindspring.com>]

How can you build two 48-foot greenhouses for only a few hundred?
:)
-lava

At 03:23 PM 3/13/2010, you wrote:

> Sorry to rain on their parade, but we can't all 
> get big grants. And at those costs, the food 
> grown is too expensive to eat ... Good thing I 
> can build two 48-foot greenhouses for only a few 
> hundred and easily get the payback in one market season.
>
>
> Greenhouse project promotes self-sufficiency
> http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/137888.html
> The greenhouse at the Brooksville Elementary 
> School is seen in this photo taken Saturday, 
> Feb. 27, 2010. (Bangor Daily News/Rich Hewitt)
>
>
> BROOKSVILLE, Maine — A grass-roots project seeks 
> to promote self-reliance and self-sufficiency by 
> making low-cost greenhouses available to 
> interested individuals and institutions.
>
> The Greenhouse Project, sponsored by the United 
> Methodist Church of South Brooksville through 
> The Reversing Falls Sanctuary, already has built 
> several small greenhouses in the area — 
> including one at the Brooksville Elementary 
> School, which has been growing vegetables throughout the winter months.
>
> The hope of founders Tom Adamo of Penobscot and 
> Tony Ferrara of Brooksville is to encourage more people to grow their own food.
>
> “The goal is to produce a greater percentage of 
> our food locally,” Ferrara told a group of 
> people during an informational meeting Saturday. 
> “Active greenhouses help us to become more food-secure.”
>
> The idea, Ferrara said, is related to the 
> Transition Movement, which holds that, in the 
> face of a time of peak oil, climate change and 
> economic crisis, it is up to local communities 
> to become more self-reliant. That means 
> communities should develop ways to meet local 
> needs including food, energy, transportation, neighbor care and health.
>
> The project was jump-started by a $5,000 grant 
> from the Community Health Alliance that allowed 
> them to negotiate a discounted price for the 
> materials which include framing lumber and 
> triple-wall, polycarbonate sheets plus fittings. 
> The sheets are lightweight, stronger than glass, 
> and nontoxic, Adamo said, and they are rela-tively easy to install.
>
> A 6-by-12-foot attached greenhouse would cost 
> about $400 to build. A freestanding model 
> requires additional materials and could run between $2,500 and $3,500.
>
> Adamo and Ferrara installed a small, attached 
> greenhouse at Ferrarra’s home and, with a crew 
> of about 15 volunteers, built a free-standing 
> model at the Brooksville Elementary School where 
> students have been growing greens all year.
>
> “The beds are producing to beat the band,” Adamo 
> said. “[The students are] eating lettuce, spinach, chard.”
>
> The two basic designs include growing beds that 
> are heated from below through a piping system 
> that pumps warm air from the upper levels of the 
> greenhouse through perforated PVC pipe set 
> between layers of crushed stone below the soil.
>
> “The soil temperature [in the school greenhouse] 
> has not gone below 45 degrees all winter long,” he said.
>
> The project, Adamo said, already has built 
> several greenhouses and has several more 
> scheduled to be built this summer. The plan is 
> to gather interested people or institutions, 
> conduct a site evaluation and make 
> recommendations on a design and develop a basic cost estimate.
>
> With the continued discount, the project will do 
> a group order for materials that will be 
> delivered locally. Homeowners then can build 
> their own greenhouse, or the project will provide volunteers.
>
> “Everyone we’ve talked to is growing more than 
> they can eat,” Adamo said. “We’re asking people 
> to share their vegetables with neighbors or the 
> food pantry, and, if we have volunteers to help 
> you build your greenhouse, we’d like you to volunteer to build someone else’s.”
>
> The project plans to place an order for 
> materials in March, with delivery set for sometime in May or early June.
>
> Adamo said the project is self-perpetuating.
>
> “As we resell the materials to you, that’s 
> refunding the grant, so we can do this again and 
> again, until everybody has a greenhouse,” he said.
>
> The project has applied for another grant that 
> would allow them to donate materials to area 
> institutions and to hire underemployed or 
> unemployed carpenters to work on the greenhouses.
>
> About 40 people attended the informational 
> session Saturday; a dozen or more said they were 
> interested in building a greenhouse and signed 
> up for a site evaluation. Anyone interested in 
> more information may contact Adamo at 326-8868.
>
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