Friday, December 30, 2011

The Greenhouse, part I

So, after months of gentle steering, I have convinced my man that he really wants to build a greenhouse. Or more correctly, an enclosed veggie garden. Hopefully monkey-proof :-)
I will attempt to document our progress via this blog.
We pulled down the jungle jim, since the boys had outgrown it without actually using it much. The only ones who made use of it were the monkeys, who loved to lounge around on the upper deck, and Jenny's cats - who used it to escape from Java and Chelsey.
The general idea is to create the greenhouse using the wood and shade-cloth from the JJ, and only have to buy monkey-wire to cover the frame.
We got started a couple of days ago, cleaning the old wood poles and slats.
Today Max was here to help, and we got the four corner poles into the ground.
We had hoped to have the house situated right up against the retaining embankment, (see photo below) but discovered - while digging the first hole - that the retaining stones actually extended quite far under the lawn. So we had to move everything about 40cm away from our original starting point.
Photo 1: Retaining embankment on left - we wanted to plant the "back wall" poles right at the foot of the embankment, just where the groundcover ended. We had to move about 40cm to the right to be able to dig deep enough.
Photo 2: James and Max removing an existing pole left from the old jungle jim. This was meant to be a doorpost, but because of having to move further away from the retaining embankment, this one also had to move.
Photo 3: Digging for the 4th corner post ... Our finished greenhouse will be roughly 2m x 3.8m, and really tall so we can have lots of shelves and trellises for climbing veg - reckon that should be big enough?
Photo 4: There's always something! While digging the last hole, Max hit a plastic pipe. No idea where it comes from or goes to. We tried flushing the outside loo, and poured water down the side drain to see if it was attached to either of those ... nothing. It could be builders rubble, for all we know! Anyway, we covered the hole (dark patch in the centre of the shadowed area) with a piece of plastic sheeting, and hoped for the best! Thankfully it didn't get in the way of our corner pole!
Just heard that Daryl has donated an old gate to use for my entrance door, so we don't have to build one - yippeee!So there you grow!
Hopefully we'll be done with the building in the next couple of weeks ... then I can start getting my seedlings going :-)
Watch this space :-)