St. Patricks Day - Part 9

I finally installed one layer of covering over the greenhouse on March 17th, 2011. It was a quiet windless morning when I began, but before I finished three hours later, the wind had kicked up a little. The plastic cover is secured to the greenhouse frame using 8 foot lengths of aluminum channel and wiggle wire. Working as quickly as possible as the wind increased, I worked the wiggle wire into the channels around the base and over the curved ends of he greenhouse.

The snow is still melting as winter draws to a close and there is mud everywhere as my fingers attest! Blackbirds and robins began arriving a day before I covered the greenhouse and their songs filled the air as I worked. I put the cover on by myself and it wasn't too hard. I tied a rope to each corner of the plastic, threw the rope over the hoop frame, and went on the other side and pulled! Not too hard. It would have been easier and faster if there had been two or four people but with so much mud, I didn't want to bother others. The channels were all installed and the weather seemed acceptable so it was kind of a spur of the moment decision to attempt to cover it before I had to go to work in the afternoon. It went surprisingly well.


Inside, I still have gates that I used as scaffolding and the soil still needs to thaw in places. I cut a top opening in one of the barrels that connect to the underground pipe maze and discovered that it is filled with water! That's not good. I began siphoning the water out this afternoon but may have to invest in a sump pump, but it appears that my whole entire underground maze is water logged! At least it isn't frozen.


The temperature in the greenhouse was around 80 degrees when the sun was shinning, but dropped into the 70's when it was overcast. Right now, the temperature is 25 degrees, the same as it is outside. There are a lot of open holes around the base where the dirt has settled and the north wall is only covered in light plywood with lots of cracks.

I bought a cheap $15 indoor/outdoor thermometer and put the outdoor sensing unit in the greenhouse and the display is sitting on my desk. It records the high/low temperatures for the day which I wanted but resets at midnight which I didn't want. I had hoped I would be able to scroll back through days past to check that information but not so. I'll have to remember to write down the temperature extremes in the evening before midnight or they'll be lost.

I couldn't believe how bright it was inside. Even though the plastic isn't clear, I found it necessary to ware sunglasses while working in the greenhouse. The plastic is SunMaster and rated at 92% light transmission and I think I got a very, very, lite sunburn this afternoon.

Now with the greenhouse covered, I will begin to fill in the cracks and holes around the base and finish covering and insulating the north wall. The second thing is to get the water logged heat storage area dried up at least to the point that air can begin circulating through it. After siphoning this afternoon, the water level is down to where the underground tubes begin but is still about 4 feet deep!