I’ve had several questions about greenhouse farming in Kenya. It’s quite surprising how information goes everywhere these days. So, I’ve but this video together to help those of you in Kenya wanting to get started in greenhouse farming. I’ll put together more videos for you guys in the coming days.
I don’t know about you, but night time temperatures are finally beginning to drop. That means fall is coming. In my area there are about 80 to 90 days left before first frosts. Enough time to squeeze in a fall garden.
This also means winter is not far off, and now is the perfect time to set up your cheap greenhouses. (This assumes that you’re living in the northern hemisphere.) To determine how much time you have left in your area, consult your region’s climate data. The United States Department of Agriculture and the National Climatic Data Center have accurate information regarding frost dates and growing season length. If your country doesn’t have this kind of information, then local growers are the best bet.
Set up your cheap greenhouses before the first frosts. If you want to keep a winter garden, then it’s vital that you plant and mature your crops before those frosts come. This way once it gets cold erect a cheap greenhouse to protect them. They’ll last all winter in a sort of holding pattern allowing you to pick and eat as you’d like.
Grow’em big,
Damon
I sent out a survey several weeks ago asking what are the stumbling blocks to building your next cheap greenhouse project. Most of you answered that you were overwhelmed with information. It’s amazing that in the information age that so much information paralyzes people.
Well, here’s a video showing how to plan a greenhouse by answering a few basic questions. The example shows a solar dehydrator, but the principles are the same. A simple greenhouse shouldn’t take long to plan, twenty minutes or so. This is a general course of action to help guide you during the beginning, to help avoid information paralysis.
Okay, the final steps to planning your future cheap greenhouses is easy. Take a day or two and note how the sunlight and shadows fall on your yard. Which part of the yard gets the most sunlight? When do the shadows fall; do they come in early morning or late afternoon? Is your yard shady or not?
Always build your cheap greenhouses to capture the most sunlight. You can trim trees back or cut them down to allow more sunlight. Shred the leaves and limbs for compost. Chop up the trunk for firewood. That’s all to step seven:
Step Seven: Determine a location for your greenhouse.
The Last Step
Get it done. Seriously, stop reading this blog, and build your cheap greenhouse!
Grow’em big,
Damon
NOTE: As a reminder here are the Nine Steps to Planning a Greenhouse, Part I.
Here’s an interesting video on a neat hydroponics system. However, the video is a response to a viewer’s post. the viewer was concerned that if we were all disconnected from the food grid that it would cause a breakdown of western society. Well, the truth is as follows:
I’ve combined these two parts because they are similar. Deciding what building method to use and a design are joined at the hip. As such I recommend that you complete both steps at the same time.
Step Six: Decide if you’ll build from scratch or a kit.
Step Seven: Select a Design.
By now you should have decided why you want a greenhouse, set a timetable, set a budget, checked local regulations, and determined a size to fit your situation by all answers given. Now is the fun part: selecting a design and determining how you’re going to build.
It is fun. It’s where most people start, but it leads to frustration because there are so many designs and so much information available that it becomes overwhelming. This is why I recommend the above approach.
Design
Again, the design you choose is determined the answers given in the previous steps. If you only have $100 to spend, building a $10,000 geodesic greenhouse is out of the question. If you have $2,000, yes, you could build something bigger, but don’t get too greedy by buying a $2,500 greenhouse on a credit card when you could build a modest unit for $500 and keep $1,500 for a rainy day.
Cold Frames are the cheapest form of greenhouse. If fact they are miniature greenhouses, too small to walk around in, but adequate to protect your plants through out the winter. In fact all my cheap greenhouses are based on the cold frame model. January of 2010, I had fresh arugula, cilantro and chard all winter.
High tunnels are big cold frames, true greenhouses but as simple as a basic cold frame. They are the predominant form of greenhouse in agriculture. They look like cylinders cut in half and turn on the side forming a half circle tunnel. They can be erected quickly and inexpensively. If you want a full sized, no frills greenhouse, a high tunnel is it.
Lean-to greenhouses are your classic home-scale greenhouse. It’s like have a half greenhouse butted up against your home. This uses your house’s exterior wall for thermal mass, especially if your house is brick. The great thing here is that you only have to build half a greenhouse!
I don’t have a name for these kinds of greenhouses. These are greenhouse houses meant for sanctuary more so than plant production. I wouldn’t call these cheap greenhouses; they are more like luxury greenhouses. If your why is about building a get-a-way, go for it.
Scratch or Kit
With so much mass production, building from scratch is hardly a money saver unless what you’re building is a niche product that no one is mass producing. When building from scratch make sure that you have carpentry skills or else you’ll have to pay some one else to build it for you.
Building from kits is a good idea because the manufacturer has worked out all the details and measurement for you. However, if you build from a kit you are leaving the design up to the manufacturer.
Surf
At this point look at a bunch of options. Pick 25 greenhouse designs, e.g., cheap greenhouses, luxury greenhouses, kits and plans. Narrow it down to two or three that best fit your situation based on the questions answered in steps one through five. From this list of three pick the best one, and don’t look back!
Grow’em big,
Damon
Here’s a neat video showing what I mean by how solar dehydrators use the same principles as cheap greenhouses:
Okay, it’s time to finish the planning a greenhouse series, but it’s good since I’m planning to build a dehydrator based on the cheap greenhouses’ principles.
Step Five: Determine the Size You Need
Code Cracker
Determine size based on your budget and building codes. Your local building and zoning authorities will advise you on codes and zoning ordinances. Their policies will dictate the size of your cheap greenhouses. It’s hard to say how big you can build because each state, county and city has different laws. In general the smaller you build the easier it is to avoid attention, not that you’re trying to get away with something. Anything larger than a small storage shed may need approval. That’s how building codes and zoning ordinances dictate size.
Money! Money! Money!
If you have big money, building a big greenhouse may not be the way to go. Build less greenhouse than your budget allows even if you have a big budget. This will give you a little in reserve in case something goes wrong during the building process. In other words if you have $10,000 for a greenhouse, build a $5,000 greenhouse and save it in reserve in case something goes epically wrong.
If your budget will only allow for a 16 square foot cold frame, hold your head high and get as much use out of that cold frame as possible. Again if you only have $100, see what you can build for $50 to $75. Save a little in reserve. If you have to buy an extra piece of wood or a little more glazing, you’ll have enough in reserve to cover it.
You can always save a little more or wait a little longer, but at some point you’ll have to decide on what you want and move forward.
Grow’em big,
Damon
Okay, here’s something cool: Build a cheap greenhouse for dehydrating. One of the problems I’ve had with growing veggies is abundance, too much to eat, and I can’t give it away fast enough before it spoils. (Well, at least there’s composting.) Some would say plant successively. Well, I do. I plant spring, summer and autumn gardens. Planting based on how much you’ll eat in one week is too much planning for me.
Dehydrating
Bag them? Freeze them? Pickle them? No! The freezer is packed out as is.
Solution? Dehydration. After Googling and wading through tons of information regarding dehydrators, I stumbled onto solar powered dehydrators. No, not these high-tech panels mounted atop your roof for deep space telemetry research. These operate off the same principles as cheap greenhouses. In other words there’s finally a way to use your cheap greenhouse in the summer when it’s too hot!
How It Works
They’re cold frames built with natural convection to provide airflow. Heat and air flow make dehydrators work. Since greenhouses trap heat faster than it escapes, add a little airflow to bleed of excess moisture and you now have a dehydrator, a great long-term food storage solution.
I’ll try and keep you guys updated from time to time on the progress of the new “Cheap Greenhouse Dehydrator.”
Grow’em big,
Damon
It helps to map things out. There’s a lot the information needed to build a greenhouse. It can be overwhelming. Be decisive. Move forward. Deadlines help get things moving. Thus:
Step Four: Make a Timetable
Since cheap greenhouses are meant for cold weather, let the first frost date be your end point, back up from there to get your starting point. The rest of the project fills-in from there.
Mind Maps
I like using mind maps to help plan most anything. Imagine organizing your thoughts much like the root system of a tree. It’s organic, graphic and helps you prioritize in a way that a simple list could ever do. Here’s an example:
Grow’em big,
Damon
NOTE: As a reminder here are the Nine Steps to Planning a Greenhouse, Part I.
Feed the Need