17.3.14

Greenhouse treat part 1

We've treated ourselves to something we've coveted ever since we started growing tomatoes in a plastic closet in the garden: a proper greenhouse.
Dr Livingstone's physical therapist had a second hand one installed in his garden, we got the address of the people who built it and got in touch with them.
They specialize in de-assembling old professional greenhouses, refurbish them and then rebuild them from scratch.
So we're doing our bit for the environment: cutting back on our ecological footprint by growing our own veggies, not using any pesticides while growing them AND using second hand material at the same time.

But before it could be build on our chosen spot, the ground had to be prepared. When we went round to the greenhouse people to order the thing they said it'd take about 4-6 weeks before they could come and deliver the thing.

But they gave us a buzz just three weeks later telling us "We'll be there tomorrow".

Alas, the ground wasn't ready to put it on just yet.
We still had to get rid of a huge amount of sand and get some fresh dark earth in to grow veggies on.

Luckily we found a guy who's cheap, fast, punctual and effective. He got rid of the excess sand, flattened the ground and supplied us with some truckloads of  great dirt.

This is the Chosen Spot.


It's bordering on Crazy Neighbour's™ plot.
An early start for me, as the digger showed up at 6.45 a.m.
The first step was scraping off about 30 cms of excess sand. In the background you can see the stables. I repainted a part of the front in a lighter colour last season, I still need to finish it by repainting all the hinges and metal stuff on the doors. It's a lot lighter and nicer to look at, a real transformation (for the better).


Then the dumpster truck replenished the area with new, good, normal ground so we can have lovely yummie veggies in a couple of months.


We also had another 5000 liter water tank fitted because the meadow which will be used for grazing needs to be drained of excess water. We're going to channel the water through a slowed water system. Is there should be some kind of mayor rainfall, it will help to get rid of too much water without dumping it immediately into the stream behind the stables. So it will function as a sort of buffer. We're one up on the newest environmental steps the government is willing to take to manage some future problems relating to the environment such as global warming.


The groundwater level is fairly high here, and if there is lots of rain, it tends to take days, sometimes weeks for the water to seep into the ground. There's some kind of impenetrable layer under ground and it has a funny green/blue-ish colour.


Also the water tank will provide us with water to -er- water the plants in summer so we do not have to use tap water. We filled it with water from Crazy Neighbour's™ pond to stop it from coming up because of the pressure from the ground water.









No comments: