Wine Bottle Edged Greenhouse & More

From In the Garden

After the greenhouse was set up work was still not done. In fact, I'd hesitate to guess it had only just begun judging by how long it took me to seal and reinforce the greenhouse. I also added a nice edging to the eastern side of the greenhouse.

I already talked of how I had to order more (40) clips to be sure the panels were firmly in place. This helped a bit but the top and bottom of the panels rested on the aluminum members with no way to hold the panels steady. I opted to insert some screws through the panels and to caulk the entire panel to the aluminum frame. I'm happy to say the panels are now firmly set in place and don't appear to be leaking. There are still some air holes that need some attention though. The spots on the roof where the vents are located are not well sealed. I will look at them later because it is vitally important (IMHO) that a greenhouse be well sealed in order to heat it during cold nights. Fortunately it is spring and I suspect the greenhouse will stay warm enough for the few things I have already located to it. Most of my plants were wintered over in the garage where the temperature dropped to a low of 40 degrees. Forty to fifty degrees is my benchmark for keeping the greenhouse warm. I hope passive heating methods and seedling heat pads will help keep the greenhouse above the target temperature during the winter but I'll have to trial it and see what will work best for me.

One other thing I did with my greenhouse is I oriented the opening to the south. The long sides get both the eastern and western sunshine, albeit this sunshine is a bit low in the winter when the sun is in the southern hemisphere. For my garden purposes this orientation worked best. I think most greenhouses are oriented with the long sides facing south though I'm not sure. I insulated the northern side of my greenhouse with very thick polystyrene panels that are lined with foil. The foil faces in toward the heated part. The sun will never hit this side of the greenhouse and I wanted to cut down on the cold north wind coming to the greenhouse on this side so the insulation serves that purpose and gives me a 'static' wall.

Now changing the subject to my greenhouse edging, Skeeter had been saving wine bottles for me for a l-o-n-g time. I knew I wanted a bottle edged garden at some point and figured it would take a lot of bottles. I had no idea how many bottles I had until I began cleaning my garage and found box after bag after wagon full of wine bottles. It is nice to have them out of the garage!

When the greenhouse came along I came up with a better idea to line one side of this greenhouse instead of creating a new garden with bottles for edging. The bottles are on the eastern side of the greenhouse and since this garden is not in a high traffic area of my yard I think these bottles will be safe from breakage. The greenhouse protects them on one side and there are tons of plants on the other side. I alternated between the clear and green bottles and am rather pleased with the striped effect. It wasn't difficult planting these bottles....

in the garden....

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In the Garden