Our solar greenhouse redesign
When Ashley launched Bend Urban Gardens, she knew that having the ability to provide local gardeners with short season veggie varieties, hardened off (acclimated to our climate) in Central Oregon, would be essential to setting gardeners up for success. The priority was to build a greenhouse for this endeavor that wouldn’t need supplemental heat to stay above freezing and could effectively stay (mostly) below 90 degrees in the summer. After reading The Year Round Solar Greenhouse, plans were purchased for the GAHT (Ground to Air Heat Transfer) system, or, climate battery, from Ceres Greenhouse Solutions. Then, Branch Bros. Construction built a 12x22’ solar greenhouse for BUG in the fall of 2020. Next were decisions about the interior design and finding a balance between having enough space for seedlings while also space to demonstrate the possibilities in extending our short growing season for year-round harvesting.
All went well for a few growing seasons, with the expected issues typical of greenhouse environments (aphids, fungus gnats, spider mites), but then, in 2024, city rats (no, not pack rats, but city rats!) discovered the greenhouse’s feasting opportunities. At first, they disguised themselves as mystery eaters, leaving no droppings, but just mowing down seedlings and snatching ripe tomatoes and cukes. After finally setting up a camera, we uncovered their identity! Deciding to opt out of using bait stations because of the risk of causing harm to natural predators and pets, we took labor intensive measures to exclude them from the space (and are working on minimizing habitat interest for them in our surrounding areas outside of the greenhouse, along with working with Think Wild to attract natural predators).
Good thing demo-ing old garden beds and building new gardens is what we do professionally! First, was the removal of the raised bed soil and deconstruction of the beds. Then came the removal of the gravel pathway material, and, finally lining the entire interior with 1/4” hardware cloth (clearly kicking ourselves for not installing it to begin with at construction). At that point, we called in our friends at Your Garden Companion for help in re-installing the gravel flooring and compacting it for durable pathways.
Although incredibly daunting and discouraging at first, we took the situation as an opportunity to redesign the interior of the space to better fit our evolving needs. We reduced the size of the raised bed to fit more spacious shelving for plant starts. After having the greenhouse for multiple seasons, we also realized just how much shade the north side gets and how rotating flats to prevent legginess in our plants can be very time consuming. We decided to invest in grow lights.
Initially, back in 2020, we installed trellises with mobile shelving as a multifunctional element for both utilizing vertical space to grow plants to maturity while also being home to precious shelving for flats of seedling trays. Ultimately, our timing never seemed to align well and we found ourselves making tricky decisions about whether to prioritize the harvest that was coming, or to encroach on our plants’ growing space with seedling trays. We also tended to overtake our walkway space, as we needed more real estate for plant starts at critical moments in the season.
We’re so looking forward to our remodeled greenhouse and growing even healthier and happier plants!
Looking for more ideas on constructing your own greenhouse or designing the interior? Schedule an on-site consultation with us or a series of garden lessons to get help! We can guide you in getting set up with prevention strategies and troubleshooting pest issues as they arise.
