The Greenhouse is finally operational!

K6 got the new posts & old gate installed and painted a few weeks ago.

The hole for this post is bigger than needed, and took longer to dig, because of the huge boulder sitting behind and to the right of the post.

After a very long & cold winter, the crew called Friday and said they would be here Saturday morning before 9:00 A.M. (they live an hour north) to finally "wrap" the plastic cover.

They arrived about 8:45 A.M. and the temperature was 32 degrees. The first layer of plastic goes on.

The crew was Tim, his brother Mike, and son Jesse, but they needed lots of hands to do it right.  It was kind of embarrassing at first, because every time we turned around, one or all of our boys had disappeared into the house for some frivolous reason or other, and we had to go get them twice. They finally got the message and stayed put - which really helped keep the work flowing.

Mike had help from K6 with the "slam" stapler on the back side.

Then the second layer went on. This time the plastic was strengthened with strips of wood and nailed into the frame for a solid hold.

Time to find the right fitting board for the shelving - a bit like doing a jig-saw puzzle, because each piece was just slightly different length.

The last outside job was cutting hole in the plastic wall for the air exhaust vent unit.

Why two layers? Because we have a blower (lower left side wall) which keeps a constant air barrier between the two layers for insulation.

Does it work? Ask "S", who immediately started stripping off her coat once inside the finished greenhouse, complaining it was too hot. We won't be needing the wood stove (behind her) until next Fall. It will take us a few days of experimenting to figure out how to best regulate the temperature inside.

Mike & Tim are getting ready to attach the shop light to the two pieces of rope hanging from the ceiling, and they were done. It took about two hours to complete the entire wrapping job. We had less than 15 minutes to get ready and listen to the first session of General Conference. Busy morning.

The greenhouse is the last piece of "S"'s garden. Well, maybe. She asked K8 to build her two more grow boxes. This year, she meticulously planned her garden, and drew a map of where every fruit & vegetable will go. She may want me to take down the walnut tree just to the right of her garden, but I hope not.

Her greenhouse and garden look great! The two boxes on the right and closest to the greenhouse have strawberry beds. 

The boys have already carried the pile of plastic pots on the right into the greenhouse along with two giant bags of potting soil, so she isn't wasting any time getting to work. She already has trays of seedlings started. You can see the chicken wire along the bottom of the fence which keeps even the littlest dogs out of the garden. Now I'm going to spread cedar chips and sulfur around the outside of the fence line to keep out other pests.