Since Fall 2015, our garden has been undergoing some redesign and renovation. Prompted by gopher invasion and destructive wind, we took the opportunity to reassess the layout for our garden and the structure of our greenhouse.
We decided that we needed to be more responsible with our water usage in this on-going California Drought and redesign for more durability.
Greenhouse
After we successfully rebuilding our greenhouse doors, the strong winds bringing in the El Niño season tore up the walls. Since our original design was for an affordable, simple greenhouse, we decided that poly-carbonate or glass panels were not a realistic option. Clearly the 6 mil polyethylene plastic sheeting was not strong enough, and we knew simple shade cloth would not hold in enough heat.
After some research, we found reinforced poly film. This is basically the same thing, but has flame-retardant cord in between the layers for extra durability. Bare hands can’t forcefully tear it apart, so the only threat is the scissors we use to cut the pieces we need! This prevented tearing for anywhere we have to nail, screw, or staple our new sheets to the PVC & wood parts of our frame.
We were challenged by the spring winds too, however – it is remarkably difficult to neatly lay out the covering when it is windy! Now that the winds have mellowed down, our Worm Wranglers were finally able to complete our new greenhouse. Great job!
