We built the greenhouse the summer of 2008 and I was literally planting under Bryan working on a ladder trying to complete it. I was determined to get a fall crop in and the cutoff for planting, in order for good root establishment before shorter days, was September 15th. I wanted to experiment with the cold weather season. In the slide show below, you can see the pieces Bryan put in place for what is called a "subterranean heating system". We excavated an extra two feet of dirt, cut holes in two 55 gallon plastic drums to accommodate 4 inch french drain pipe, a bunch of them and laid this perforated pipe along where all the growing beds would be then buried two layers of these pipes. Blowers (fans salvaged from old forced hot air heating systems) were to be placed on top of the blue barrels to move the daytime sun heated air through these tubes to store the heat in the dirt, charging up it's thermal mass. We also found and placed fifteen 55 gallon black metal barrels, filled with rain water, along the north inside wall of the greenhouse which act as additional thermal mass storage, storing the days heat and slowly releasing this heat at night. We are also using an automatic (wax filed piston) vent opening device to add venting to the greenhouse. For the greenhouse covering we used Solexx™. Solexx™ is a unique twin-wall greenhouse covering material. Solexx™ comes in rolls and can be shipped in. Other greenhouse covering products come as flat panels and must be freighted in. Check these costs in your area.

We still have some tweaking to do but we made it through the first dark winter months eating greens all winter long! If you have not read elsewhere on this website we are located at an altitude of almost 9500' in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Having fresh greens to eat in the winter without traveling to the store can be a challenge... but to our surprise not a road block. Incorporating a subterranean heating system into our greenhouse has been a wonderful success.

The best greenhouse book I've read (and I've read a lot of them) is:

The Greenhouse Gardener's Companion by Shane Smith.

I followed Shane's instruction to the tee for winter gardening and feel that was why it was a success.

Spring/Summer Season 2009

Shane Smith's book was definitely indispensable in the incredible learning curve of the first full year. I led myself to believe that the summer crop would be much easier than a winter crop. This was not the case. Just because I have an enclosed, thermal mass heated space, I had to learn that summer vegetables still need consistent warmth to even germinate. I tried to start the seeds too soon leading to much frustration and empty growing beds while I was transitioning from leafy greens to tomatoes and cantaloupe. I also learned which vegetables take up too much room for what they produce such as brocolli and cantaloupe. As of August 11th, I am still waiting to see if the season is long enough to allow the fruits to mature fully. I have beautiful plants but the fruit is small and we are already dipping into the 40's outside. The greenhouse temperature has been pretty consistent the whole summer with day time temps averaging about 86' and night time 60 degrees. The summer was a cool, rainy one so the kale continued to produce all summer along with zucchini, cucumbers, swiss chard, chives, carrots, cabbage and lemon basil. I am growing cherry tomatoes and they are still thriving as of October 21st along with the peppers. For the Fall crop, I replaced the cantaloupe, cucumbers and squash with spinach, onions, more carrots, swiss chard and beets.