Alright all, this one threw me for a loop. Its a thought I have had many times when thinking about geothermal greenhouses, that require low cost to heat, however this one breaks all the rules! This thing is held together very cheaply, and almost looks like trash thrown together. Now most people would turn their nose up to such practices but it makes my heart race! Because as many know, the hurdle with low input greenhouses is up front cost. Digging cost, lumber, perhaps, tin, and polysheets and water barriers, glass or plastic panels, irrigation. In todays economy those are no small price! Chads Midgley has constructed greenhouses almost entirely out of compost (straw and woodchips) and ripped greenhouse plastic to build these greenhouses. I have often wondered if compost alone could be the way to make a greenhouse however my consistent concern has been spontaneous combustion. As we all know if composting hay gets hot enough it can explode. This is why in the past when such ideas drifted into my head I discarded them. The threat of fire in either straw or woodchips seems substantial.
Somehow he has resolved that. Perhaps the environment is wet enough, or perhaps enough of it is not exposed to oxygen directly. I'm hoping anyone can assist me in finding additional resources on greenhouse construction like this. Diagrams, rules of thumb, anything at all.
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