Dear Janet and Friends,
For those gardens and gardeners who are concerned with year-round nutrition and
access to healthy food at affordable prices ("food policy")--probably
everybody!--greenhouses are incredibly useful, at least in colder climates (I
garden in Oregon). Up here, greenhouse can definitely save chard and kale and
onions etc. during the rare but devastating freeze-drying weather we
occasionally have; and of course everything grows larger and more quickly in a
greenhouse. Even for exclusively summer gardeners, a greenhouse can guarantee
lots of tomatoes even in a "cabbage summer" when plants not initially grown in
a greenhouse won't produce much at all.
So there are excellent reasons to promote greenhouse use in community gardens
in many areas of the country.
Buying an expensive (to me, outrageously expensive!) polycarbonate greenhouse
from a catalog may not be the way to go, however, especially when there is
significant risk of vandalism. Winter before last, I built a walk-in 10x20
foot greenhouse over raised beds fairly cheaply from pvc pipe, rebar,
agricultural plastic sheeting, and "garden clips." It's worked great. The
garden clips are still way overpriced and probably an innovative person could
figure out something much cheaper.
The key "engineering challenge" is keeping the thing in one piece during a
really strong wind. The solution I found was to clip pvc pipe to the plastic
where it meets the ground, and then locking that down with rebar that I bent
into an L shape and hammered into the ground. The rebar will not pull up, but
it is easy to rotate when you want to lock-down or release the sides.
Beyond that, the flexibility of a featherweight design may actually help. The
first year, I didn't even glue any of the pvc pipe together. This year, I
glued the spine which runs down along the center of the top, but the whole
thing still goes up or dismantles in minutes.
You can make a simple door just by clipping the plastic sheeting to a vertical
pole on one end. This year I got a recycled storm door and welded a frame to
stick it into (again, secured by L-shaped rebar). So far, it's worked
excellently.
Best,
Jonathan Brown
Beach Community Garden
Portland, Oregon
-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Parker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 9:37 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [cg] Greenhouses in comm gardens
Dear Friends,
Here in snowy Madison, Wisconsin we are busy planning for the season to come!
A gardener has been looking into building a polyvinyl greenhouse from a kit at
a large community garden with 110 families in a city park.
Any stories to tell from your experience or ideas of what might work?
Some concerns on our minds are:
- vandalism (the site is unfenced, and tagging and theft have been problems
there)
- limited usefulness (no electric runs to the site, so heat for seedlings in
spring won't be possible) (photovoltaic solar panels have been suggested to
power automatic ventilation for summer)
If you have ideas or tips you can share with us, please drop me a note with
your phone number and a time I can call you. Or reply to the list.
Thank you!
Peace,
Janet Parker
CAC Community Gardens
608-246-4730 ext. 218
1717 N. Stoughton Rd.
Madison, WI 53704
www.cacscw.org/gardens
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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