Anne Cummings

Anybody else have greenhouse issues that they would like to warn future greenhouse builders about?


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I have a "greenhouse".   The most inexpensive ever:  I bet pie on it:  100% passive heat   I put an 8' x 4' piece of glass in a flat ceiling in a room slightly larger which already had over size windows and window door entrance.
Lugging heavy glass up on the roof wasn't easy, but worth it right?  


September, I started Mesclun lettuce in five gallon buckets.  They came up quickly and before you know it, I harvested every 5 or 6 days into December.  WoW


then, bc they got so much sun, and heat, even in late December?  This lettuce, the kind I like so very much, perfect and delightful in my salads, bolted:   My lettuce dream ended.

I lost every single plant.

Silly me thinking it would go year round inside!

@Kate Downham Thank you all for your feedback.  For stretch goals, I can afford to budget a lump sum (the 250 euro mentioned above)

Kate, did I get mixed up?  You need this in Spanish and am going with AI?

I am likely "confused" of the post you already made:  Did I ask already if the market is Spain Spanish or Mexico Spanish?


Working with native Mexico speakers directly, it is possible to get very close to that payment and the people will happy to do the work and will do a great job.


At least that is what I experience when I pay to have two projects, books, including a complex one.

Best wishes of your project.  It is certain to work out fine!!

from Jay Angler   One of my non-portable shelters has a old plastic barrel beside it that grew lettuce this spring, and had a baby Mulberry that's now at least a meter tall -

I am so very jealous!!  you mean it was a volunteer???  That is good living!!!

you have a pond right?  for the ducks?  Do you get enough rain to keep the level up?

I am just putting in a pond now.  We had the hurricane (Hilary) but I lost all the water to a very deep gopher "trench"-  more like an underground system which flooded my neighbor!!  haha.  But I am trying again.

I am so fortunate this year with many volunteers especially varieties of tomatoes & chillies from years past.

Best wishes with your mulberry.  I hope it works out for you!!  I will think of you in the space where mine should be growing right now!!

So I have some chicken at the minute:  This thread asks, OP, I have a free range chicken area AND want to grow this inside there too.

Do I have that?  In a 400M area of pines and such, where 11 chicken live....   (the problem arises)  OP wishes to plant things the chicken are NOT welcome to consume.

And-  to make certain, I am not in the majority, most replies indicate similar concerns.


Please everyone skip this part -

Free Range Chicken are that:  Free.  to consume where they live.  They don't care about "your stuff" even if it is intended for them later!

Chicken are curious and eat everything-  If you sell the eggs, that is what you represent:  Free Range, if no sales, well, okay.  Talk to your "boss" and explain things.

Consider even for 11 birds, you can bring in potted "cover crops" for them to feast on and MAYBE not completely destroy.  You can rotate these in containers.  Find ones that work.


Compost-  IF you use shredded paper and your preferred poop (caca?) possibly with your native ground soil-  Lots and lots of grubs come to feast.  Exactly the grubs that your girls will be excited about.   Pull in some compost bins (or your way) and let the girls at the grubs.  It is really amazing how many and how fast grubs will reproduce- certainly enough for a tiny flock to "dine out" a couple times a week.

LOL-  I know I must sound rude.  Maybe I am:  Yet, no one seems to say "hey, this is a problem I created"-  but it is right?  You made an area for the chicken?  Then you want reserve part of it for yourself?

Am I bad???  jajajaja

Reply to Kate:

do you have some interest in Spanish language assistance?

I am willing to help more, but not so very keen on public posts like this:  The other posts seem so confident, so convinced of how things are.


Let me know if you wish to discuss Spanish more...

hey, so this came up as a link this morning:  Good ideas Rosemary!


Here are my best ideas:

I do container garden, mostly because the gophers infest my property and eat entire plants.   That is "infest" not invest.  If only they were doing something good.

Per Tomato plant, I use a 5 gallon bucket:  But that is alot of soil-

So I make my own soil:  30% compost, 20% river sand, balance regular average soil from my yard (or neighbors or the like)

Compost:  Free       Everyone can do this:  Mine tends to be slightly acidic (coffee grounds)- perfect for tomatoes.
River Sand:  Free -  fill up buckets from the ocean beach or river bank close by
Regular soil:  Free   Wherever you find it

I want life in my soil, not sterile or baked dry.

Tomato and Chilli seeds were started back in January so I just moved into 1 gallons-  Some have little flower pistols already....

This year, I got my water tested:  Dammit!!-  Too much Salt.  Too much TDS.  

So it is rainwater collect for me:  I have about 200g atm:  about 1.5g used per day.

Better water.

For many years, I believed in "indeterminate" tomato varieties:  From all I read?  Oh, yeah.  And all the vids on vining and trellis and all that?   It seems most people go with this.

However, this year, for the first time:  I am going with DETERMINATE:  I will try for two "seasons"-  Harvest prior to "June Gloom" and a second in Indian Summer.   Wish me luck on that!

Every thing else is in containers, too:

I have beets (for greens) Spring onions, and cabbage:  These work for me from re-planting store bought:  Save the roots just like in the videos.
Even the cabbage:  Instead of throwing away the last part?  I just planted and watered.

Fertilizer:  Banana peels, ground egg shells, coffee grounds, soaked in a bucket overnight-  It is "free" IF you have or buy these items...

My eggs come from my chicken.

I only have two, but they are laying already.  I grew them from chicks that were like $1 each.

The first couple weeks, I kept them in a pet cage with a light on:  It happens I have a red light which calms them down at night for me to sleep.

Now, they eat mostly scraps and yard plants:  Oh, and beans and pasta:  (cheaper and more protein than commercial feed.

Mine are so fat and pretty heavy.  They are very curious and are always underfoot.

Well, there you have my best ideas:  

I do "pay" for stuff, such as rain barrels (well, I would if I didn't salvage) and I pay to get my river sand picked up and such things:

But ongoing expense?  Like water and soil and chicken feed?  I try "free" first.

I don't have a great deal of variety:  But I feel everything I do can be duplicated.

For a bigger project, I grow "invasive" species:  A flowering type of "mini-tree"  (great for chicken or other livestock food) and a ground cover, both needing little water after they are established with a tap root that goes straight down:
Do all "tap roots" go straight down.

Though I haven't tested, I believe these may "de- desertify" tracts of land, both large and small.

Best wishes!!

Aldo Caine wrote:Honestly, I have been following along on rocket mass heaters ... I still don't feel like there is a go-to, one stop, this is how you build one, type of article.

...if someone posted a step by step this is how you build it the easiest way with home depot parts, I would likely do it.

God bless cob and everything, but meet me halfway with conventional building materials and get me hooked with a basic functional model and steps to build it

Cob.  every post with "cob" relishes in it, lusts for it, enters a special place with cob at their side.    Clay and Straw.  Apparently found in abundance on certain "homesteads".   hehehe.

  Cob replacement:  Concrete?  if you were contracted to build a RMH at an apartment, it wouldn't be with cob.  

Venting materials (18 foot inside the "bench") appear to be aluminum venting, available at home depot or similar store.

The feeder and firebox apparently or at least possibly are made from salvaged materials.   Most often by person who either know how to weld or have friends.  This is how they say "no cost".   It sure as (pardon my French) represents 'cost' to me.  (I found this so I'll pop that right off with my angle grinder, then my cutter thingy and spot weld this into place here after applying more cob-  No cost at all!)  Serious faces.  I get it, but good gracious.

for me, about what I can do is connect galvanized threaded pipe-  UN likely to salvage any where!!  But I can use concrete (not Fire Blocks?  lol)  to fashion a burn up the gas return and allow for a feeder system.

Last year, I just froze on some days...so time to light up!!

I do have plenty of firewood from some modest trees I cut two years ago.  They might be dry by now...

Hehehe.  Hope you do what you can Aldo!!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Which pattern in the you tubes? I have seen a number of configurations.

This is the improved design:  

This woman is just fabulous.  How could you not love to watch her and hear her voice?

I cut the brick just like she did.  She uses sticks (just everyday sticks and pine needles) and uses it every day, for her lunch.

She is all into the pressure cooker but I am not there yet.

So far, I can't make it work.

She lives in Tennessee, USA.  So the air is about the same.

Mike Barkley wrote:Perhaps you could try a different type of wood? Or cut it into smaller pieces first?

Hey, Mike:  Thank you for your kind interest:

The three attempts so far included a group effort where we tried numerous combinations of wood fuel:  We did get a fire going, using "sticks" like in the vids, really small diameter 'sticks' like one would find and use.
Just seemed to smother itself and not continue and loads of smoke that made the neighbors room full of smoke.  Not a success.

At my house, I dried a bunch of wood, I cut from a particular tree that grows locally.  Same parameters:  little dry sticks.  

I cemented the blocks (made according to the pattern in the YouTube Videos) to give it a robust intake.  I must be doing something fundamentally wrong.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and helping out:  Lets get the whole world on board!


You write:


There are two variations of the rocket stove: The L tube or the J tube. Both shouldn't require eternal air to keep them drafting. One good blow into the fire should be all it takes to get the flames travelling in the right direction.


Res:  Then I must be doing something wrong.

I set up three versions:  All were smoky, required constant "more air" and generally had poor cooking.

The version I use is the one on the YouTube showing a small number of concrete blocks.

Generally those are so common, anyone can find 4 or 5 just walking around.

Results were nowhere near the fiery blazes shown online.

Thanks!!