Passive or Chinese Greenhouse?

I have a 16 foot long by 8 foot tall cement retaining wall south facing just off the end of my home.

Researching passive greenhouses I keep finding Chinese greenhouse pictures.  Not sure how different they are.

My plans are to paint the retaining wall black and build end walls with haybales.  Clear plastic roofing for the south sloping wall.

My homestead is next to the continental divide just outside of Helena MT. (3 miles to the Divide)  Lots of sunshine here, but plenty of snow, wind and cold also.

I think this book would be very helpful in my planning and building my greenhouse.

That's really nice interesting Dennis. Is the wall built to weep water? Do you have any pics or a design?

We are considering a passive solar greenhouse conversion of the front porch. I'd be interested to learn mot of your prospects.

Thank you

Sena Kassim, I will try to get some pics, but we are in a bit of a blizzard right now.  

The cement retaining wall holds back a couple hundred yards of compacted dirt and gravel for where we are going to have a hot tub.
Not sure what you mean by "is the wall built to weep water"?  

Haven't figured out the design yet, hence why I would like to win a copy of "The Chinese Greenhouse" by Dan Chiras.

Right now I just got my sun porch built, dried in and insulated.  It is going to be a passive heat catcher for the house.  It is on the south side of our home. 24 feet long, 8 feet wide with 5 4x4 windows. Yesterday temps outside were in the low teens with wind.  Sun was out most of the day the while I was insulating the porch I was down to a tee shirt.  It was really nice in there!  Easily in the mid 50's.

Hey Dennis, it must be working if you are in a t-shirt during teen temps!

When we built our goat barn  and paddock last winter...it is as cold. So much snow and wind. Brrrrrr

The question regarding the walls, are they solid? On a slope?
If someone is using retaining walls, usually there is drainage. Either behind the wall or by building the wall with pipes inserted. Perhaps I'm picturing a different project. Any retaining wall, terrace, underground greenhouse for our climate, would require us to plan for drainage. That might be the case for everybody.

Hope you get the book. :) Sounds like it would further many projects

Dennis Barrow wrote:I have a 16 foot long by 8 foot tall cement retaining wall south facing just off the end of my home.

Researching passive greenhouses I keep finding Chinese greenhouse pictures.  Not sure how different they are.

My plans are to paint the retaining wall black and build end walls with haybales.  Clear plastic roofing for the south sloping wall.

My homestead is next to the continental divide just outside of Helena MT. (3 miles to the Divide)  Lots of sunshine here, but plenty of snow, wind and cold also.

I think this book would be very helpful in my planning and building my greenhouse.

Hey Dennis,

It sounds like you could pretty easily convert that retaining wall to a Chinese greenhouse. I think you’re well on your way to achieving that goal.

One thing you might wanna do is install it internal insulation in the greenhouse. We use aluminate shade cloth su in our greenhouse. It’s designed to keep greenhouses cooler in the summer but also helps hold heat in during the winter. You’ll very likely need that in Montana to keep your greenhouse from getting too cold at night.

I’d highly recommend you consider poly reinforce polyethylene for your greenhouse. It comes with a 10 year warranty against UV damage and works extremely well. I’ve used it for many years in the foothills of the Rockies in Colorado. It’s very durable too.

You might also want to look into some other strategies for storing excess heat generated on cold but sunny winter days in the floor of your greenhouse. This is a technique all daily and turn the heat back in.

I discuss several strategies to hear with solar in my new book which permes.com is featuring right now. You might find this information very useful to make that greenhouse work better.

Sena, it is on a gentle slope. The cement retaining wall is actually 12 inches thick.  I can't see drainage as being a problem with what ever I build.

Dan Chiras: Thanks for reading my post and giving me some great ideas!

In my mind I was thinking of some type of interior "cover" to help keep heat in at night.  This Aluminate shade cloth is perfect.

The reinforce poly is an item I was considering.  

$$ is a big factor here as I am not working, on social security, while building our new home.  The wife works but is getting ready to leave the work force in the next couple years also.

I am keeping an eye out all the time for recyle and reuse items that I can repurpose here.

Storing excess heat in the floor is a great idea!  My mind is running full tilt on things that would work.  But it sounds like you have a lot of that in your book.  

You've got me super excited now to go forward with this project!

If I don't "win" your book this week I will be purchasing it.

Trying to upload pictures.

My plans are to pour a cement pad under the sun porch next summer and then some windows and a door there.  
This will be another passive "greenhouse".