March 28, 2020
The ongoing crisis brought about by the Coronavirus points out the need for preparedness.
For years, seers have been advocating the need to prepare for hard times. The bright side of this epidemic is that has forced the masses to confront the issue before something worse comes up. Many never thought that they would be confronted with empty store shelves, closed restaurants, and virtual lockdown in their homes.
The Community Greenhouse (GH) was conceived as a response to the need to be prepared for natural and man-made disasters that could disrupt the supply lines for food and other necessities.
Although the GH is not big enough to supply the needs of a community of our size, it serves as a seed focus and a model of what individual members can do to provide for food self-sufficiency. Combined with a food forest and community garden, it can potentially fulfill much of the communities’ needs during times of crisis. The GH can provide annual and perennial seedlings for a food forest and community garden as well as full-grown vegetables to supplement food storage items.
Much has been accomplished since the last update on the GH. We have taken advantage of winter downtime to complete projects that cannot be doing during the growing season. Thanks to the efforts of Paul Ranttalo, Tim Dillard and Gilberto Jimenez and generous donors, considerable progress has been made toward finishing the GH.
Many cracks have been filled which allowed cold air to infiltrate the GH. In this fairly mild winter, as far as below zero temperatures, several varieties of vegetables overwintered successfully: brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, parsley, celery, onions, and garlic. Despite the wind blowing out four of our window vents, the lowest recorded temperature was 15 degrees F.
The inside temperature inside the GH stays at least 15 to 20 degrees above the outside temperature.
Paul has ordered new stronger vent brackets to replace those damaged by the high winds.
Tim has built a partial second floor in the GH to better take advantage of the extremely high ceiling. He has built a very sturdy stairway to the second floor and railings to prevent anyone from falling off the loft.
Also, Tim is making good progress in building a second raised bed to be ready for the oncoming season. The bed will be about four feet by forty feet and will greatly expand our growing area.
Thanks to Tim and Paul, the ceiling and walls are now covered with paneling which greatly enhances the aesthetics and insulation in the GH.
Below are projects that need to be completed as finances allow:
- A third raised bed
- An enclosed room below the loft to start seedlings in early spring and to protect frost-sensitive plants
such as cucumbers and tomatoes in the fall. This would allow the heating of a small room versus the
entire space of the GH. - A cistern combined with gutters and downspouts to collect chlorine-free water for watering plants.
- Water well to augment water from the cistern
- Solar panels and accessories to provide energy to power fans and lighting.
- Storage shed
- Landscaping and food forest
- Fans
- Screen doors
Elsewhere on this website are suggestions for donations to help finish the GH.
Assuming that the Coronavirus has dissipated by early July, we will have our second annual Renaissance festival to raise funds to help finish the GH.
Thanks for your continuing support and may God bless and sustain you through the current crisis!