When we bought our house there was a little green house in the yard. We were so glad to have one, but after a couple years of using it we found some flaws. The glass panes were very thin. They did not insulate very well and some of them began to break. The benches were not supported correctly so with as much weight we were putting on them they were falling apart. And the size was smaller than what we needed. The height especially was a challenge because by the end of the growing season our pepper plants would hit the ceiling and then start to fall over.
So we decided to rebuild the greenhouse. We kept the foundation but widened it a little. There was already a raised bed in the back of the greenhouse and we also added one down the side that we widened. Eric used mostly wood that we already had or wood from the old green house. The glass we got for free after Eric search for a while on Craig's List. The sliding door is one we had lying around that Eric had gotten for free. For the smaller areas that needed to be closed in we had to buy some Plexiglas. We reused the benches and put in new supports. The rafters were built out of rebar which we have plenty of lying around. We did buy new roofing material because the old one had holes in it. All in all it did not cost that much money with all the reused materials. Eric did most of the work with some help from neighbor Brian.
It is amazing how much warmer the greenhouse is now. In the spring we did have grow lights and a heater that is on a thermostat to make sure none of the plants got too cold since it is a little colder in our yard, especially since there is so much shade. Usually I will start about 5 seeds per type of tomato plant and 3 will come up. This year all five came up. I had so many plants I didn't know what to do. I gave them away to people I knew. When I still had some left I put them out on the road with a sign that said free. I also ended up with so many more pepper plants. We kept most of them because we had the room in the greenhouse with it being so much bigger. It held about 100 pepper plants between the raised beds and large pots.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Dinner with the Roberts
Eric and I had the Roberts over for dinner at our house. Pat & Tanya had been to our house before, but this was a first time for Jack and Maryann. We had a great time showing them the garden and the plants that they had given us.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Long Beach
The family went to Long Beach again this year. We rented a different house that was closer to the beach so there wasn't as much walking time back and forth. It was a cool house with lots of room and tons of games. We won't be going back to that house though as the kitchen was up three huge flights of stairs. But we had a great time and liked being closer to the beach.
We were there during the kite festival again. The wind was not very strong so not many of the really big kites were out. But we did so a lot of the smaller kites.
We had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach when the weather cooperated. We also took a hike to North Head light house. It is not a very long hike, but it is a neat light house to look at. We also went to one of the beaches near by and hung out for a little while. There was a ton of driftwood at this beach including some driftwood structures.
It was a great trip again this year.
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