Hello , I am glad to see your cattle panel greenhouses survived ! We dodged the bullet here in West Pa. in regards to snow. Indeed its been a bizarre winter !! I am still wanting to buy some plants from you :))
I can't believe you still have rosemary!!! Mine is dead and it's in the garage. I'd heard that high tunnels wouldn't last here in the north but you've shown it can. The snow adds to the heat I'm betting because it makes that barrier of protection around it. I think you've talked me into building a greenhouse this spring. The weather has been CRAZY hasn't it?! We're used to the snow, but the warmth and then cold tied with the fact that we're finally getting a winters worth of snow in one day has made things interesting. I can't WAIT until spring planting season.
Yeah, spring is feeling more and more needed now! Soon enough I guess. For now I'm going to dig the snow away from comfrey and other patches so they can thaw out so I can dig the up and start shipping! I'm weeks behind now! Yikes! Ah nature!
I had always thought that these cattle panel greenhouses weren't for me, but after watching this, heck it, I'm building some. The only thing I don't like is that it relies solely on plastic.
Soley on plastic for the covering you mean? I'm not sure how to get around that. If you invest in the UV stabilized 6mil stuff, at least it lasts a bunch of years before being used in smaller sections for small low tunnels and then finally as covers for cold frames, then finally used to wrap road kill in the chest freezer, which you can wash over and over again and use for years... Thats what we do! :)
Thats great. . Just know that spring shipping is possibly over now, we're past March 15th... But if orders come in real soon I may be able to sneak them in...
Good call to do it. It's worth reinforcing whatever you build on this front, but so far its nice to share that if you don't have it you can expect things to hold up. You putting in more effort and elements I can't imagine being a waste of time, so its good to hear you're doing it...
They are really strong. You could always use stouter staves to sharpen and hammer into the ground, and pound them in in larger numbers and deeper. If you design them to be in areas not exposed to incredible direct winds they should stand up to a pretty massive amount over all. Especially if you design deep raised beds all around them, burying the plastic nice and deep. The other videos talk about it in detail if thats helpful. I have a greenhouse playlist you may want to check out?
just the weight of 4 cattle panels,plus the wood and plastic, makes for a very heavy structure ..at least a few hundred pounds. Hard to imagine a wind picking that up, esp with staking it down
+Nick Thomas - Also keep in mind that this isn't a structure solely on is own. The sides are raised beds, seriously packed with soil and then with plants, so it really won't want to lift in this scenario. It's not a high tunnel in a broad open field on its own. Its tucked in, with weight and stacked utility, really locked into its place....
I see we in Vermont weren't the only one slammed by Stella. Getting so much snow this time of year is just plain crazy. But the farmers and gardeners need the moisture it puts into the ground. love the greenhouses. where did you get the cattle panels? We are going to make a greenhouse and I am looking into different options.
I get them from the local Tractor Supply. I'm not psyched on them as a company but the panels are there in huge piles for $22 a piece (16' long x 50" tall)... Incredible price. I also use 14ga wire which I pick up by the 1/4 or 1/2 mile from there. Other than that, I make the rest from local black locust. I have a video I link to on that in this video that explains the process. Really worthwhile, and I believe scalable for more or less panels. I'd try more! :)
You guys got hit hard with this past storm. We got some snow but not as much as you guys. Would you ever do a rocket mass heater in a greenhouse? I'm curios why or why not? What your thought process on that one?
I would. I think I'd need to hvae a much larger space to want to do that. Much longer and definitely much wider since it would take up a lot of space. But someday I dream of having a 24' x 96' or something like that and will experiment like mad with all sorts of season extension!
+Madera Verde Garden - Check out the other greenhouse videos I put up to get a better idea of how this is built. I encourage you to explore what you have available to you to make it the best fit for your needs and resources. Thanks a bunch for watching!
I really appreciate your philosophy and enjoy your vids, so thanks for making and sharing them. :) Just watched your original build and already have some ideas brewing.
Just curious how you would go about creating sterile soil for starting seeds? Would you spread it out on the ground and tarp it under hot conditions for a month and then protect it from other weed seeds?
I'm not sure, as I think you can tell from the video! Probably should have been a hotter compost and turned more to kill more of the seeds. I normally am not a huge fan of putting tarps over soil since it seems to tend to cook it a bit, but that could be a solution for you.
clear plastic over it in full sun will cook all the weed seeds. Will probably also cook off micro organisms, but they'll repopulate if you let it sit for a while after solarizing
![Greenhouses in the Snow [ How to Maintain You Greenhouse When it Snows!]](/img/1.gif)
Hello , I am glad to see your cattle panel greenhouses survived ! We dodged the bullet here in West Pa. in regards to snow. Indeed its been a bizarre winter !! I am still wanting to buy some plants from you :))
I can't believe you still have rosemary!!! Mine is dead and it's in the garage. I'd heard that high tunnels wouldn't last here in the north but you've shown it can. The snow adds to the heat I'm betting because it makes that barrier of protection around it. I think you've talked me into building a greenhouse this spring. The weather has been CRAZY hasn't it?! We're used to the snow, but the warmth and then cold tied with the fact that we're finally getting a winters worth of snow in one day has made things interesting. I can't WAIT until spring planting season.
Yeah, spring is feeling more and more needed now! Soon enough I guess. For now I'm going to dig the snow away from comfrey and other patches so they can thaw out so I can dig the up and start shipping! I'm weeks behind now! Yikes! Ah nature!
Awesome, thanks for the encouragement to try this for myself at the community garden next year!
I'm glad its helping you think about whats possible...
EdibleAcres .
I had always thought that these cattle panel greenhouses weren't for me, but after watching this, heck it, I'm building some. The only thing I don't like is that it relies solely on plastic.
Soley on plastic for the covering you mean? I'm not sure how to get around that. If you invest in the UV stabilized 6mil stuff, at least it lasts a bunch of years before being used in smaller sections for small low tunnels and then finally as covers for cold frames, then finally used to wrap road kill in the chest freezer, which you can wash over and over again and use for years... Thats what we do! :)
its highly likely that the Project Farm im working on will order comfrey from you. will keep in touch.
what is comfrey used for?
Thats great. . Just know that spring shipping is possibly over now, we're past March 15th... But if orders come in real soon I may be able to sneak them in...
Search online, it's pretty amazing how many good uses this plant offers!
I put a removable 17' long 2x4 ridge beam on mine for this reason. good to know it should hold up w/o it though.
Good call to do it. It's worth reinforcing whatever you build on this front, but so far its nice to share that if you don't have it you can expect things to hold up. You putting in more effort and elements I can't imagine being a waste of time, so its good to hear you're doing it...
Seems like a great design! I am so afraid those would get blown apart by the winds we get here. But I assume they are a lot stronger than they look.
They are really strong. You could always use stouter staves to sharpen and hammer into the ground, and pound them in in larger numbers and deeper. If you design them to be in areas not exposed to incredible direct winds they should stand up to a pretty massive amount over all. Especially if you design deep raised beds all around them, burying the plastic nice and deep. The other videos talk about it in detail if thats helpful. I have a greenhouse playlist you may want to check out?
just the weight of 4 cattle panels,plus the wood and plastic, makes for a very heavy structure ..at least a few hundred pounds. Hard to imagine a wind picking that up, esp with staking it down
+Nick Thomas - Also keep in mind that this isn't a structure solely on is own. The sides are raised beds, seriously packed with soil and then with plants, so it really won't want to lift in this scenario. It's not a high tunnel in a broad open field on its own. Its tucked in, with weight and stacked utility, really locked into its place....
I see we in Vermont weren't the only one slammed by Stella. Getting so much snow this time of year is just plain crazy. But the farmers and gardeners need the moisture it puts into the ground. love the greenhouses. where did you get the cattle panels? We are going to make a greenhouse and I am looking into different options.
I get them from the local Tractor Supply. I'm not psyched on them as a company but the panels are there in huge piles for $22 a piece (16' long x 50" tall)... Incredible price. I also use 14ga wire which I pick up by the 1/4 or 1/2 mile from there. Other than that, I make the rest from local black locust. I have a video I link to on that in this video that explains the process. Really worthwhile, and I believe scalable for more or less panels. I'd try more! :)
Thank you.
You guys got hit hard with this past storm. We got some snow but not as much as you guys.
Would you ever do a rocket mass heater in a greenhouse? I'm curios why or why not? What your thought process on that one?
I would. I think I'd need to hvae a much larger space to want to do that. Much longer and definitely much wider since it would take up a lot of space. But someday I dream of having a 24' x 96' or something like that and will experiment like mad with all sorts of season extension!
You may have shared this in your original video, so I'll check that out again tonight, but how did you secure the panels to the ground? Thanks!
+Madera Verde Garden - Check out the other greenhouse videos I put up to get a better idea of how this is built. I encourage you to explore what you have available to you to make it the best fit for your needs and resources. Thanks a bunch for watching!
I really appreciate your philosophy and enjoy your vids, so thanks for making and sharing them. :) Just watched your original build and already have some ideas brewing.
Mine buckled a bit
Just curious how you would go about creating sterile soil for starting seeds? Would you spread it out on the ground and tarp it under hot conditions for a month and then protect it from other weed seeds?
I'm not sure, as I think you can tell from the video! Probably should have been a hotter compost and turned more to kill more of the seeds. I normally am not a huge fan of putting tarps over soil since it seems to tend to cook it a bit, but that could be a solution for you.
clear plastic over it in full sun will cook all the weed seeds. Will probably also cook off micro organisms, but they'll repopulate if you let it sit for a while after solarizing