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While researching greenhouses on youtube to see what was successful and informative, I came across these videos that I felt were noteworthy and decided to share them.
Aquaponics Greenhouse Tour
Aquaponics Greenhouse Fall Update
Aquaponics Greenhouse Tour - Winter Update!
I hope you have found these to stimulate the neurons!
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http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=77628
ReplyDeleteEarth-sheltered Greenhouse By Mike Oehler
Ninety frost-free days here in the mountains of Idaho close to the Canadian border are not enough to raise most vegetable crops. For several years, I watched in frustration as my tomato and corn crops succumbed to frost in early September. Even the hardy Swiss chard and cabbage would call it quits in October. I asked my old-time neighbors what they were doing about the problem. "Plant root crops," they told me. "Potatoes and carrots. Put 'em in a root cellar and they'll keep all winter."
I tried that and it did work. I found other "keepers," too, like apples and squash, onions and garlic. The cook at my favorite restaurant astonished me by keeping cabbage fresh for months by pulling it up and hanging it upside down by the roots in her own root cellar. But these weren't fresh-picked foods. I wanted fresh, organic greens in seasons other than summer.
In past centuries in early spring, wise farmers would start their garden vegetables in 3-foot deep pits known as "growholes." These pits were filled with three layers of organic material: The lowest layer was a foot of fresh horse manure; the second, a foot of topsoil; and the third, a foot of growing space for the vegetables planted in the soil. The grow-pit was traditionally covered with old storm windows or other wood-framed glass. The glass trapped both the sun's heat and the heat rising from the decomposing horse manure. The soil around the pit acted as a passive heat-sink for the sun's energy, absorbing it during the day and releasing it at night.
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Mike Oehler lives near Bonners Ferry, Idaho, in an underground house he built in 1975. He also teaches underground house construction.