Greenhouses...

One of my garden goals is to have a greenhouse...that isn't "gone with the wind"...

We are on our third greenhouse due to the weather in OK. We got our first greenhouse at Sam's Club several years ago. I really liked that greenhouse. It had a table and a bin for potting mix. To the right is a picture of the greenhouse during construction.

Below are pictures of what happened to it after a tornado came through our property.

The greenhouse was located in the backyard where our traditional garden used to be, but after the tornado, it ended up all around the yard. Part of one wall ended up in the front yard. Another piece was "javelin thrown" into the side of our house. Crazy!!!

So...Larry set out to build another greenhouse. He built a floor for it and then put up a hoop house. It was green pvc pipe with a plastic cover over it. It worked great until we had a strong sustained wind for a few days. We tried to salvage the plastic with duct tape, but that did not work very well.

 Here is the same greenhouse floor and another attempt at a greenhouse. The greenhouse is situated on the south side of the house by the pool. We hoped that putting it here would block some of the wind, but it hasn't worked so far. We figure that this will be another temporary attempt to have a greenhouse until we are able to build a stronger one to endure the winds in Oklahoma.



One thing that we do like about this greenhouse is the discovery of Snap Clamps. With a few pieces of pvc pipe, some plastic and Snap Clamps, you can have a functioning greenhouse. If you don't have strong winds, it will work great. It's the windy parts of the country that need industrial strength greenhouses.

 The next four pictures are on my Garden Anywhere pinterest board. These are ideas for future sustainable greenhouses.

The first one seems like the most sturdy. Part of it is underground which is what is needed in windy places. It looks like it would be a lot of work, but maybe with an experienced backhoe person, it would not be too bad. The top would still be tricky, but we'd figure it out. There's always plastic, but there are other options, too. There is a clear corrugated plastic that might work. We have it on one of our storage buildings. It lets in the light. That would be great for the top of the inground greenhouse.

Here is another idea that I really like.  It is an old school bus that has been turned into a greenhouse.  I'd like to find an old bus that does not run anymore and convert it into a greenhouse. That should be able to take the OK winds...except maybe a tornado...

This bus just happens to on wheels and still running. We've looked into getting a bus for our business. This is something that we would love to do someday...

“Garden Anywhere Bus”

We would travel around to schools and teach children how easy it is to have a garden with no weeds.

Another idea is to turn a room of your house into a greenhouse. We have two spots that are perfect for adding onto our home. I think we all need to rethink what we can do when it comes to gardening. What CAN you do to be able to 1.) grow your own food and 2.) garden year 'round? Look at your property and see what you can do to make this happen.

The picture below is not really a greenhouse, but it's on my list of Dream Gardens...This is an enclosed garden free from pests...but also free from bees...I'll have to figure out how to let the bees enter and keep out the pests.

UPDATE -October 2014:  I decided that I should update this post to show our most recent greenhouse.

Larry took the parts from the other two hoop houses and made a new one. This time he attached it to the house. Hopefully, this one will be sheltered from the winds and being anchored to the house will give it stability. 

Starting the greenhouse. PVC Pipe.

The frame is going up!

Plastic on and some plants moved in. 

More plants...and cats. They like the heater. 

Soup, Cornbread and Spice...

I made some Hamburger Soup today, although I should call it Deer-burger soup since I used some deer meat that my neighbor gave me. It was really good, but it was missing some cornbread. I got out my trusty recipe for Homesteader Cornbread.  I like to divide the cornbread batter into two glass pie plates so that I can make one plain for the kids and one spicy for Larry and me.

I wanted to use some peppers that we grew this past summer to spice up "my" cornbread. I tried to grind a batch of  dehydrated peppers into powder. I put them into my food processer. That was a fail. They did not grind at all. They just got dizzy.

I decided to try my Blendtec. It is advertised to take on golf balls (not recommended by the normal layperson...lol). I figured it could handle some peppers...and it did. Brilliantly! The first pic is of the peppers. The second pic is how they looked after the food processor. The third pic is the powder that I hoped for.

I love growing my own peppers. I can't wait until next year. I have several varieties that I want to try. Chocolate Habanero, Carribbean Red and the hottest pepper recorded, the "Carolina Reaper". Check out Pepper Joe's to see his assortment of HOT peppers. Even if you just grow them to dry them and smell them...it's worth it!

Water and Other Important Storage Items...

How many of you have been housebound for the last few days? How long could you survive without going to the store?

I've been pondering on the thought of "what if..." for the last few days. I feel pretty good about what we have stored, but realize that I definitely don't have enough "fun" food stored.

I need to work on that.

What do you consider essential storage items?



Another thing that I've been thinking about is water storage. We have blue barrels of water stored in case of an emergency. We have two rain barrels hooked up to the house and hooked up to our watering system which help us to water the boxes and use less water. That is a plus. We also have barrels that we use to store water in case of an emergency.

I've been reading (conspiracy theories...lol) about the state of our water supply. I don't know what to believe. Is our government really selling water to Nestle so that they can bottle it and sell it back to us? Are barges full of water being shipped to China? In some states it is illegal to collect rainwater that falls from the sky onto your property. How long before that will be nation-wide? 

One article that I read stated that to control a population such as the United States, one would only need to control the essential elements for survival...food, water and shelter.

Monsanto is doing a pretty good job of trying to control our food supply. That's why it is so important to start NOW to plan how to grow at least some of your own food. 

Another article (coincidentally on the same website as the above article, but I've seen it on other sites) states that under The Clean Water Restoration Act, the EPA is in control of all
navigable waters."  

On the surface, the term, "navigable waters" would seem to provide some measure of protection to the public from invasive EPA enforcement by placing some reasonable limitations on the EPA's regulatory power. Alas, this is proving not to be the case. 

The Clean Water Restoration Act goes far beyoud the original intent of the law which was the protection of waterfowl and the conservation of wetlands. The proverbial fly in the ointment has its roots in the recent movement of the term "navigable waters".

Under the new guidelines, if you use well water, the EPA has jurisdiction over your property and can even forcibly evict you and your family. If it rained overnight, or if you had runoff from a recent snowfall, and there are any resulting puddles on your property, this can result in the loss of the free use of your property. You are subject to eviction from your land if your property resides above an underground aquifer." 

THIS IS SCARY!!! 

Because I have not been directly affected by this, it's easy to rationalize and think that this could not really happen. People (with guns) would not show up on my doorstep and evict me from my property...would they? It is up to each of us to be aware and do what we can, while we can, to get out houses in order. Conspiracy theory or not, we need to be prepared for whatever the future may bring.