So, my Mom kept pestering me to post pictures of the greenhouse I had put around my vegetable garden. And now it’s down due to high winds we are having here. 🙁 I don’t think I got any pictures of it at all.

The Weather:

We are having a 2 day wind storm (rain too, but predominantly wind.) started out with sustained wind of 20 mph with gusts to 40mph. We are supposed to be getting sustained winds of 40-50mph and gusts over 60mph. That is like being in the middle of a huge thunderstorm! I just checked to see how high it was now and it’s only at 26mph sustained and it is hard to walk, branches are down out of trees and it is miserable to drive. Other than a bad thinderstorm I really cannot remember wind like this over such a long time. I guess we are in a super low pressure right now. The lowest air pressure ever recorded for the state.

What the Greenhouse Was:

In short, it had 3 ribs of 1″ PVC pipe which were made up of 3 10-foot pipes with connectors. With 2 shepherd hooks (for hanging baskets) supporting the middle of 2 of the pipes.  Then a sheet over the top and front. I had to keep reinforcing the packing tape that I put on and finally found that if I taped the PVC pipes to my garden fence, weighed the sides with several bricks, and closed the back side with a separate sheet of plastic it was pretty sturdy.

I contacted the University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension service and research facility to talk with them about my structure and they said that sounded good to them. 🙂 They build stuff with PVC all the time.

Things to do differently next time:

• Trim the large bush on one side of the garden so I can get a tighter fit between the backing and the main sheet of plastic.
• Get more bricks for the sides.
• Tape the pipes and the plastic along the pipes better.
• Get thicker PVC. (The 1″ ones actually bent over in the wind this morning.)
• Get at least one more hanging basket shepherd hook to support the 3rd pipe.
• Do not attach it to the trellis (this also was crashed down from the wind this morning. This may require a 4th pipe to place flush with the back wall – which is the side of my garage.)

That’s about all. It was working out pretty nicely. It was about 12 degrees higher than air temperature on colder nights, and at least 20 degrees warmer than air temp on warm days and in the sun. I did get a lot more produce because of it. The neighbor ripped out her garden over 2 weeks ago because of 2 frosts we had. I still had green beans, tomatoes, and summer squash coming in.

Plan for the Greenhouse Going Forward:

I think it’s going to snow here tonight which means that there really wouldn’t be a point to putting the greenhouse back up this season. I might get out there in March or February depending on how much snow we have at that time to try to extend the season on the front side as well.

If I find any pictures I will post them. 🙂 Wish us luck with all this wind, hoping the damage in the morning isn’t too bad. It is Tuesday afternoon and it’s just supposed to get worse until Wednesday night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sara