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Greenhouse progress


Our greenhouse: It’s been a learning experience, and I’m confident that we’ll need to keep making adjustments, but our greenhouse is up and operational. The modest size of 20’X12’ seems hard to fill with seedlings, but should be easy to fill with tomatoes and some fall greens. For now, it also makes a nice picnic area on cold windy days.
here's some pictures of our serious workers, Irene, Steve, and Nate:


Thanks to Larry for the use of the metal hoops, to the folks at Story city building for helping me make plans, and for all the helpers on assembling. My little sister Irene was here from Illinois, and neighbor Steve also put in a lot of time on this project.
Some things I learned:
1. There are many different kinds of plastic. The plastic to use is 6mil greenhouse-grade plastic, which has UV protection and should last 4-5 years. While this is impossible to find at your local hardware or farm store, it is easy to find from numerous greenhouse supply companies. We ended up buying most of our stuff from Farmtek in Dyersville Iowa. They make this plastic in any huge size you want.
2. Attra has great informative literature on any topic a small farmer would like to know about
3. It gets really hot, really fast in a greenhouse.
4. The plastic is easy to cut or puncture, but hard to tear. So far the wind hasn’t done any damage, but we have done some.
click for more PICTURES

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