Marie Gen

That’s a really nice project, I’m hoping to do something similar so I can’t wait to read through your experience!

From my research so far I’ve gathered that a transitional recipient is something to consider as an opportunity to filter out lint and hair and because you might not need that much water all at once in your growing bed. I like passive filtering systems like the water going through a bed of sand and rocks and into a container under the garden bed and then fed through capilarity to the soil above. There’s lots of info on permies, I’ve been reading like crazy. I’ve also seen people choosing to send the water directly through the soil from the machine in places with desert like conditions or just overall great drainage.

Can’t wait to see all the responses.

Glenn Herbert wrote:Supporting local small producers is important, but nothing beats being able to step outside and pick greens for your salad ten minutes before you eat. Swiss chard was alive and pickable into January outdoors in central New York this winter.

Absolutely! I will for sure have some greens growing year long. I’m in a small city apartment now and make sprouts for my daily dose of fresh green. Can’t wait to have fresh herbs, maybe sticking them in the straw bales? I’m sure I’ll end up trying to grow lots in the greenhouse but probably not outside since all the fields have been left unkept for over 20 years. Maybe if my compost heating turns out well and I do it every year I could build heaps for a proper garden.  

It’s amazing to get input from you Glenn and all these passionate people. Many thanks.

Marla Cowden wrote:Straw bales work. I spent years 5-18 growing up in an uninsulated house in central Wisconsin.  Every fall my father and brothers would put fresh tar paper around the base of the house to the height of 3 bales.  Then stack the bales against the house.  We were always cold so I thought it was stupid.
One year my father got sick for several months in the fall and didn't get to it until after Christmas.  I was never so cold in my life.  We children fought to stand next to the space heaters.  When my father recovered and the bales got placed, I nearly kissed every bale.  (I did kiss my dad repeatedly.)
Never again did this wise butt ever question the efficacy of those bales.  Also they were great in the garden after year of rotting next to it.  Composting? The word was not in usage back then.
Good luck with greenhouse house.  Sounds dreamy.

Thanks Marla! I hope you have warm and dry winters now!

Glenn Herbert wrote:If you want to insulate the north side of the greenhouse for the winter, you could just stack hay bales along the wall. Maybe posts every several feet would help to stabilize the stack without impeding access to place the bales or use the space in other seasons. The bales would surely be useful after winter for mulch and enriching garden soil.

For that matter, as long as the structure is rot-resistant, you could stack bales or something similar along the north wall with a support wall/frame, and similarly stack something insulative outside which would be supported by the bales inside. Don't try to use the greenhouse frame as a retaining wall, just bury it in a north-facing mound. I bet if the inside was sloped like a hugelculture mound, you could grow lots of food on it for a long season.

I think that's the best option so far! I asked the manufacturer about piling up snow on the outside to insulate a bit and he says i can leave a 2' wide by 4' tall bank leaning on the structure from the outside, which sounds pretty good. And then inside build up a wall structure, self-supporting cage-like and stuff it with straw bales. Being surrounded by farmland, straw shouldn't be that hard to come by, unless we get an atrociously dry summer like we did a few years ago...
I looked up hugelkultur and that is so cool! I'm not sure what and if i'll be growing things myself, there are lots of small producers around so i thought maybe i could exchange my compost for veggies instead of growing.

J A Snow wrote:Bonjour from a fellow who also happens to be a Quebecer.
I thought Jay's suggestion about wire cages was a good one. Alternatively, rather than leaves, which may be abundant, yet time-consuming to collect, you might want to consider an ancient Roman idea; the Gabion wall.
Essentially a wire cage, filled with a natural resource that is in great abundance on the Canadian Shield: ROCKS!
You would have the benefit of a strong windbreak as well as the added benefit of a thermal mass.
Anyway, it's an idea.
Bonne chance.

Merci!

Yeah, i think once i dig out the area under the greenhouse i might have a lot of rocks to reuse as mass. Good thing too because i love rocks! Filling the wire cages with rocks would also mean less maintenance because any organic material like leaves or straw would have to be replaced every year.

J Hillman wrote:

I completely understand your reasoning for wanting to go with a kit.  But if you are good at scrounging and able to do physical labor you could build a earth shelter passive solar greenhouse for around $3000.

You could build the north, east and west walls & the roof using this method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzPwTBQfPkg&t=69s

Check out how this greenhouse was built.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAWBnGDss8k&t=11s
He is from Canada and it appears to work for him.  You wouldn't necessary need to go as big.

Thanks J.

Turns out i had already watched both of these videos and although i do think they are great ideas, i'm pretty sure i couldn't get a permit to build either. I'm handy and good at finding reusable materials but building those is on another level, just thinking about the equipment i'd need would send the prices soaring. I looked up white oak out of curiosity and it doesn't grow here. I could have it built but that would drive the costs also. And these are permanent and i couldn't easily disassemble them easily. I love all the creativity out there and people sharing it, i'm just very aware of my limitations and don't want to be overly optimistic about what i can achieve.

Glenn Herbert wrote:Maybe you could make a solid north wall for the greenhouse and heap the compost pile against that. You would get some warmth from it and also eliminate heat loss from that section of wall. The heating circuit would be as short as it can possibly be.

Thanks Glenn,

I'm leaning more and more towards building a semi-permanent north wall but inside the greenhouse, something like a wooden wall structure with hay bales stacked up on the warm side. If i had the possibility of building a passive solar greenhouse i would but i've looked at costs and it's just not doable. The compost pile and the pipes circulating water inside the slab would be covered with hay bales to insulate it but also let air through.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I wasn't sure what you meant with Harnois green house so I went here:
https://www.harnois.com/
Essentially, it is a conventional green house, with metal frame and plastic cover. Are you planning insulation, at least up the vertical walls? Theirs looked really big, so you would have to add a lot of compost to warm it, wouldn't you? Or are you planning a smaller structure?
I also looked at the heat with compost method "Jean Pain". That's pretty good too.

If you want to make a house, though, you will have to lose some light by adding some kind of insulation? I assume you have looked at the RMH method for heating?
It sure is a big project, so good luck and keep telling us about it.

Thank you Cécile for your answer.

Yes the greenhouse i'm looking at is a 25' by 50' polycarbonate covered structure. The living quarters will be a separate structure, like a tiny house, built inside the greenhouse and fully insulated. The rest of the space would serve as a workshop and to grow some veggies/fruits/plants and just to have a place to be that's not directly in the elements. I'm looking to keep it above freezing with an insulated earth slab heated with the compost method. The RMH build would be to provide enough heat to be able to work there during the day but i don't need to get it as warm as the living space.

J Hillman wrote:A large compost pile inside your greenhouse to heat it will produce CO2 and methane.  Depending on how fast it breaks down and how vented your greenhouse is it could produce the gas quick enough to be dangerous,

Thanks J.!

That’s what I gathered from my further readings. Plus I think the pile would take too much space.

Glenn Herbert wrote:An alternative to making 13' long reflective/insulated panels that get relocated for summer would be to put fixed panels from the floor to 5-6' high, then movable ones above that. Shorter movable panels could pivot from the peak of the roof without hitting the ground. Having the north wall solid with reflective surface would still allow plenty of summer sunlight for growing. If you want more summer reflective shading, that could be done with very light flexible material.

That's a good idea, thank you again!