Monday, February 2, 2009

February 09 - Rain damage

Oi, oi, oi.
Talk about lessons learned....
Pay attention to your materials!


I bought all the PVC for this greenhouse at a recycled place and did not noticed that one on the PVC tubes was of a thiner gauge than the rest. This caused it to bend with the heat of the summer which caused a dent on the hoop allowing it to collect rain water. The weight from the rain water was so much that basically collapsed the entire structure. And this is what we were left with.







We had to clean out the mess. So much for my trying to be green using recycled PVC, now I was left with a pile of bent and unusable PVC.


Lesson learned: sometimes we can be greener by picking an appropriate material that will last longer rather than a refurbished material.












Rob swept the roof of the adjacent building and we used those pine needles as added mulch for the greenhouse area.

























Got to love a strong man not afraid of hello kitty tattoos
And he said he had a zome idea in mind to replace the greenhouse.....



This is the sketch up model





This is the scale model





We also built a key hole planter.
A keyhole planter offers as its main advantage the ability to tend your beds from the one position. You literally work from within the bed and rotate to access every inch of it. Plus, the bed is raised so you don't need to get on your knees when conducting your gardening tasks.







Keyhole gardens are named such because in their most simple design they are round with one path leading from the perimeter to a slightly enlarged open center. The major goal of this layout is to minimize walking areas and maximize growing areas, and the keyhole name alludes to the fact that from above this design looks like the metal keyhole plate on a door. The access trail typically enters from the south so as to admit sunlight and good ventilation for the plants.








Keyhole gardens are more appealing to gardeners and visitors, because on top of their functionality the also provide little hideaways for sitting with a tranquil heart used for mediation and reflection.

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