WE picked this thing up on sale year before last, and we have found the spot for it. It’s heavy—takes Jane and me to carry the package; and large enough for a cafe set and shelves for plants. We’ve been puzzling over to how make sure it doesn’t go airborne in our occasional 40 mph winds, and think we have the idea. The highland Scots tied two stones on a rope and flung them at intervals over the rooftree of thatched huts to prevent wind damage. And I think that will suffice.
This gives us a place to shelter plants, to get morning glory and moonflower started early enough, and also a place to treat some of our whitefly problem that turns up in the winter with plants indoors. We didn’t get the pond open yet: we were going to, but it was bitter cold and blustery, and it just wasn’t a good day.
Jane and I got the skeleton up, and we’ll figure out the covering tomorrow or the next day.
We went out to eat tonight—rarely do that—and caught part of the Mariners game down in spring training. They’ve been going great guns, and scored two in the first inning. This is good. We’re happy.
So we’ll have a plant area outside that’s immune to the freezes. Got this monster at Lowe’s a couple of years back, but they often repeat things. It’s the cheapest greenhouse at this size you can get, even if it’s not on sale.
Very stout pipe for the framework: it weighs a ton. And no tools needed for assembly, just wingnuts.
I, on the other hand, managed to bash Jane in the forehead with a pipe as I maneuvered to save her from stepping back on a stack of heavy pipes; and then I had my hand around a joint I was adjusting when she decided to help from the other end of the pipe: caught a fold of skin on my ring finger, and it’s going quite purple and puffy in the immediate area of the pinch. The Keystone Cops are in full display. It’s spring and we’re back in the yard. Feels good.
I remember seeing a webbing network on thatched houses in Ireland –anything of that sort should help. Husband has a nylon gazebo/awning thing that he takes when racing — you see similar at craft fairs. Just a frame and a top. He ties cinder blocks to legs. Too bad it’s not round, or is it? The Celts and a lot of Native Americans were on to something with their roundhouses and teepees. They’re wonderfully aerodynamic and winds just swirl around them with little to no fuss. For you I think the biggest thing would be to really seal the base of the cover to keep air from getting up under it. I would be so excited about getting a range of herbs going!
Does the south side get full sun when it drops in the winter, or is it shaded by a fence or neighbor’s house? Here’s an idea…
Get some 8x8x16 concrete cinder blocks. Paint one side black, one side white. In November just dry stack the blocks with the black side out, say an inch from the wall (glass or plastic). It makes a portable Trombe Wall. In summer turn ’em around with the white side out. Reflect the light. There are always some plants that don’t mind the shade. You can go up 2 levels with 8″ block, then go up another two with 6″ block. The 2″ ledge can support a shelf. Another shelf can go on top.
In a pinch, there’s the unaesthetic but cheap method of using old tires (which landfills usually give away) instead of rocks or cinder blocks.
I remember helping my father put up the shelter around the fig-bush in West Texas one year. The wind was picking up while we did it, and the little dry fruits on the Russian olives hurt when they hit. The shelter was one-by frames (like tall window frames) for the sides with plastic sheeting wrapped around both sides and stapled down, and a top that went on and was hooked into place all around. (The sides were hooked together too.)
If you use cinder blocks for your tie downs, they also make pretty decent planters.
We have a spur of the old driveway that lies between the fence and the pond: it sits on that concrete, between the cherry tree bed and the big double gate and the fence at right angles to the gate. It’s partly shaded by the fence, partly by the 40 foot tall hemlock behind the gate, but the problem is fierce sun here, that can overheat a greenhouse so fast. So this will actually be good: most of our plants are partial-shade, and others are house plants that need a place to be for the spring, until a kindly summer. Whether we will take the frame down for summer and winter, I don’t know; we’ll play it by ear.
A greenhouse! Someday we will have one……meanwhile I manage with my sun room, which is essential for winter survival. If you are on dirt you could use the system required for sheds in this area. Steel cable and ground screws, able to survive a category three hurricane.
We still have small lumps of snow on the ground in shady areas. The pond is clear of ice and the goldfish are swimming. Do you have any concerns about pump and filter freezing if it should get cold again….or does the running water take care of that?
We haven’t installed the pump quite yet—and we’re pretty done in after wrestling the frame into position. I’ll get Jane to take some pix as we go.
I am sore and stiff this evening, and finally realized that it’s because I wrestled (literally, rock and push) a 250 lb monster about 1’x1’x6′ out of a nook at the back of the garage and as far as the garage steps before calling Jane to help me move it onto sawhorses in the driveway. It was what you could call a full contact sport.
I hear you about the wind. We have a small child advisory* in effect until 3 AM, winds 35-40 mph with gusts to 55. With blowing dust. Have had sinus migraines two days hand running. Ugh.
*Children who weigh less than 50 lbs should be belayed to something (tree trunk, car, etc.) before you let them outside.
It is true that no one can take a job that you have done well away from you. They may take the object, the tools, the credit, the money, but they cannot take the accomplishment. Well done, to get it so far!
Well, and I had worried about overcrowding or junking up the back yard, but the scale and situation of this one is just perfect. It’s a walk-in, which ordinarily either you build yourself of wood, and then have trouble if you don’t have a good design and vent the thing right, and trouble with rot—unless you use cypress—or you spend literally thousands on a kit. But this one should do, and I think it cost us less than 200.00, which is less than you might spend on lumber and panels. It’s short, end to end, and you can open both human-size access doors at either end, and since one door is butted up against the fence, within a foot, you’ve got shade and shelter—which is the other deal with greenhouses: the sun can turn a small one into an oven. A very LITTLE sun can heat one nicely. I had one about four houses and two apartments ago which was an absolute delight, built right onto the house, via patio door—a 4 Seasons job, which I dearly loved. It was about 8’x 8′ and I grew orchids…had blooming catteleyas, which is not easy in Oklahoma. This one is about that size, with a peaked roof. You may have to duck to enter, but you can stand once inside, and there’s just about room for a tiny table and two small chairs. We love breakfast outdoors, and this may serve that purpose too. We hope to get the skin on asap. We thought of butting it up against the back door, but our door opens outward, so that was no good. And we have the hawthorn tree and the need to carry groceries up and down that walk. But putting it back by the gate means it sits back from the turn to the garage, where we come and go between garage and house, and it has ample but not excessive sun. We always wondered what to do to use that corner.
PS: Jane swears the thing is no more than 100 lbs, but I swear it’s 250…
She’s probably right, however. Lord! This getting older is a bitch!
Getting old(er) is not for wimps. My father did his last home improvement job, a roof over our front steps, when he was 80; I am not looking forward to the day when I can no longer tackle the project of the week, especially since I still have a long list of projects!
Yup! Helpless is my least favorite word, closely followed by useless…
I’m telling you guys, when you get into the neighborhbood of 60, start working out as never before. Use it or lose it!
I agree, “It’s a bitch”! 🙁 🙁 But as we do get above “that certain age” even “working out” produces declining returns–our hormone balance changes, losing testosterone, etc. 🙁 And no amount of working out will repair my knees–even if working out wasn’t of declining benefit–there’s just not a lot of muscle around the knee. It’s mostly ligaments, tendons, and cartilage that don’t have the blood supply for even simple repairs.
Paul, try turmeric for your knees and joints. Fresh is best but you can also get pills. Stopped the pain in my knee overnight.
OK, nobody else said it, so I will:
“The highland Scots tied two stones on a rope and flung them at intervals over the rooftree of thatched huts to prevent wind damage.”
The trick is finding rocks light enough to be able to throw them over the hut, and yet heavy enough to hold it down. Those husky Scots may have had an advantage over you.
OK, OK, I’ll go look at Jane’s pictures now. 🙂
Lol! I think ye tosses th’ rope wi’ a lighter stone. 🙂 THEN ye tie th’ heavy ‘un to th’ ither end.