We built a passive solar GREENHOUSE | Here’s what happened
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- We replaced our old polytunnel with a passive solar greenhouse and then spent the first growing season monitoring how the new conditions impacted on plants and crops. Our organic garden is on a steep hillside in the Upper Severn Valley near Llanidloes in Mid Wales in the UK where we enjoy a temperate climate.
Watch our greenhouse irrigation video: • IRRIGATION set up in o...
Watch our Year 2 greenhouse update video: • Passive solar GREENHOU...
Watch our video Making a passive solar greenhouse - beginning to end - extra footage: • Making a passive solar...
0.00 Intro
0.30 Planning the greenhouse
2.26 Building the greenhouse
4.44 March
5.36 April
6.39 May
7.27 June
8.20 July
9.06 August
9.53 September
10.31 October
10.56 November
11.16 December
11.53 Temperatures
13.12 Ventilation
14.12 Irrigation
14.47 Pests
15.20 Conclusion
Tunes
Siege of Delhi - Graham Brand on cittern
Harvest Home - Jackie Newey on tin whistle
My Twitter | / jacnewey
My Facebook | / jac.newey.9
What a brilliant piece of work, in terms of designing, planting, filming month by month and assessing the outcomes of this huge but clearly successful project. Thank you so much for sharing! 💚❤💚
Thank you for watching Pam and for your lovely comment! 😀👍
@@TheTenterhookTimes The video is very nice and with many great info but the birds drive me crazy, I do love birds but please not when someone is talking and explaining important things!
@@TheTenterhookTimesIf you are unaware, Wasps kill Bees 🐝
It is definitely a brilliant piece of work! Exceptionally Well Thought Out Video! 🦋🌿
@@eveadame1059 Thank you! 😀
It's pretty cool how you just left the wasps to do their thing and weren't bothered by them!
We weren't bothered by them and they left us well alone. It helped they were high up I think. Be interesting to see if wasps return this year and build another nest. Thanks for the comment 😀👍
While I’m scared of wasps, I can imagine it’s like having scary free employees in the greenhouse and the garden
Wasp eat pest too
People get so riled up about all sorts of insects like wasps and ants without understanding why they show up or what their function is in the ecosystem and if they're even harmful. I see it in gardening groups all the time.
Thank you for sharing the highs and the lows of your new greenhouse, it is so fun to see a full year in the life of your plants and greenhouse too!
Mainly highs so far - such a wonderful space to spend time in! 🌞🌱Thanks for watching and commenting 😀👍
What abundance! Such an inspiration for someone who lives in the city and dreams of growing such a variety of fresh food
Hi Phoebe, thanks and really glad you enjoyed watching. I hope you can find someplace in your city to grow fresh food - I don't know where you live but in the UK there are some opportunities (though never enough) to grow on urban allotments for example 🌱💚
Came for the greenhouse and stayed for the birds. A well done video!
Thank you - we love the birds too, they're all busy building nests at the moment, the garden is full of birdsong!🎶🎶 ❤
Wow! You did such a wonderful job documenting your beautiful greenhouse. The photography and the simple explanations were a delight to experience. We live in a similar climate, also on a hillside and you have me dreaming of the possibilities! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! We thought from the start that it would be a great project to document, not just for ourselves but so that we could share what we had learnt with others who might be interested too. We have really appreciated learning from other greenhouse growers on UA-cam. Appreciate the comment and wish you all the best for turning your dreams into a reality! 😀
Y’all are so amazing!
Thank you for taking us along in your journey
Hiya, thanks, yes the journey continues with growing season no 3 well underway already! 🍅🥒🥬🍇😃
Wow! I'm still dreaming of my greenhouse and am "collecting" ideas from other people's plans - thank you for showing yours!
We did the same for ages before taking the plunge. It's great seeing what other people do - very inspirational - so we enjoy being able to share our ideas too 😃
what a fab youtube video, superb balance of speed, detail and editing, well done both,,, and the greenhouse is awesome too!
Thank you! 😀 Really appreciate the video feedback! And glad you liked the greenhouse too! 👍
Thank you so much for taking us along the journey of the first year of your greenhouse. There is lots to learn here, and I will be applying it to my greenhouse build this year. 😊
Thanks - so pleased you found it useful! Good luck with your own greenhouse build! 👍
You did amazing work there. Joyful!
Thank you so much! 😀
Super effort!
Thank you! 🙌
very neat and organized garden I've ever seen!
Great video! So much information jam packed under 30 minutes.
Questions:
1. How much did it cost to make the new greenhouse?
2. Could painting the cement brick back wall black help retain even more heat?
3. How long did this project take to finish?
4. How did you regulate the water distribution when you were away for such a while?
5. How on earth did you manage to eat all of that food?
6. With the tomatoes and fig issues, how would have constructed a more efficient way to manage them better?
7. If you can do it all again, what are a few things that you would do differently?
8. How many acres of land were you planning on?
9. In what way were you able to keep records of the temperature inside the greenhouse?
10. What happened with the wasps?
11. How you thought about writing a book about your experience?… to note all of the many tips, tricks & strategies you’ve learned?
Thank you so much for your time and patience in answering these questions.
Hi Maige - wow, that's a lot of questions! Glad you enjoyed the video - some answers you will find in response to other comments that people have made. So... we'll just pick a few of your questions to reply to if that's OK 😂
4. The type of water irrigation we use comes on automatically every day for a set period so it's easy to go away for short periods - we look at the weather forecast and see how hot it will be and decide how long it should be on for each day.
5. We've been eating fresh organic fruit and veg for months - it's wonderful. We still have a Turks Turban squash in our pantry even now, they store superbly and are highly recommended!
6. With the tomato issues I think we will just plant less this year and use the spare space for other lower growing crops.
10. The wasps lived their life cycle and then died for the season as happens (except for the queen who will have hibernated somewhere for the winter) - we're hoping a new generation of wasps will come and live in the greenhouse this summer 🤞
11. No time to write a book - but we do plan to post further video updates about our garden including the greenhouse - so watch this space! 🌱😀
Excellent Job!
Thanks! 🙌
This is EXCELLENT! Watching from Jamaica 🇯🇲 😌 😍
Hi to you both! Wishing you happy gardening in Jamaica! 🌿🌱☺
Fantastic! Thx for the inspiration and for sharing your project ❤❤❤
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment 😍
Decades ago I built a passive solar pit greenhouse. It still functions. Just a few years ago, I had a contractor build me a smallish passive solar home in a moderate climate. Not warm and not particularly cold. It is remarkably efficient and cheap to operate. It was not cheap to build though.
Hi Jim, thanks for the comment, it's great to hear about other people's experiences. I love watching videos about greenhouses and passive solar homes too - all the best with your place - it must be great to have such a home 💚
The cost of energy has only going up. I'm sure it will be well worth it over the lifetime of the building.
You two are geniuses. It's so well designed. A nice mix of practical and artful. So many ideas I want in my own greenhouse, someday.
Ah, thank you for such a lovely comment 😍
A couple of quick tips with very little cost:
Paint your back wall with a flat black paint. This will help absorb sunlight during the day and radiate heat back during the night acting like a solar thermal battery.
On the outside, build up the soil at the wall to within 15cm (to prevent moisture migration to water sensitive materials) of the wood construction. This will take advantage of the earth's natural tendency to stay around 10C throughout the winter. A form of earth thermal power source.
6 mill poly sheets under the roof and on the walls to create a thermal insulation air barrier.
A costlier addition:
install a series of culverts below the frost line behind the wall. use low CFM air circulating fan (solar powered) to exchange air from the below earth culverts and inside the greenhouse.
Thanks for your tips which do make good sense for some climates and situations. We're going to monitor growing and harvests for a couple of years before we make any modifications to the greenhouse as we feel what we have does suit our needs. We just want to enjoy our gardening for a little while now!
@@TheTenterhookTimes Enjoy your gardening as much as you can!
Really interesting! Great job!
Thank you! 🙌
Your channel just popped up and the way you've presented the video is brilliant, full of info and I've subscribed. Will look forward to watching your videos. Hello from across the water in Ireland 🤗
Hello Sinead - thanks for your lovely comment and welcome! 👍Glad you enjoyed the video! 😀
Excellent, thank you.
Thanks for watching 🙌
Wonderful, helpful video, thank you. Great idea with cutting the hoops for extended window openers👍 The birdsong hit the exact frequency where it turned the sound down and activated sub titles (a minor irritation). Thanks again for your efforts and time taken to edit and share this 👌👏
The recycled hoops are working brilliantly as extended window openers - love to recycle stuff where we can 👍
One of the best commentary I have ever heard on YT. It was a pleasure watching the entire video. It was a ton of work and can't wait to watch more!!
Hi Todd, thanks - it was a ton of work (though very enjoyable) and now we need to plan some more!! 😂 Glad you enjoyed it! 👍
Lovely vibes, enjoyed watching it!
Thank you! 🙌
Thanks for sharing your greenhouse build and first growing season. I listened with earbuds & love the birdsong in my ears 😊
Ah, thanks for appreciating the bird song! We love our native birds 🐦☺
An idea: You could paint the back wall white so more light is reflected onto the plants! I don't think it will affect the temperature storage capacity as heat is taken up again through the room temperature. Now that the 2nd season is almost done, are there things you would do differently if you built such an amazing greenhouse again? Thanks for the great video :)
I've seen people line a wall with jugs of water designed to absorb heat... and they paint them black.
What a wonderful set up and what abundance! You must be very proud of your garden, it's absolutely beautiful
We do love gardening here - it's a very special place for us! 💚 Thank you for your lovely comment 😀
I really enjoyed watching. Thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed the video - it was fun to capture the build and first harvest!
You are amazing! Thank you!
Thanks for watching! 🙌
Great video! Thank you!
Thank you! 😀
I love it! Great job! Did you ever think of adding a wood stove to help heat the green house too? You may have to add a fan to help circulate the air flow but that could help more plants for the winter maybe! ❤ it guys great job!!
Thanks - appreciate the comment. We've seen wood burners in other greenhouses in cold climates, but that's a step too far for us. We like to use the natural heat produced by the sun if possible and save our logs for heating the house in the winter 🌞👍
Beautifully filmed. Very informative. Keep growing and posting. Thanks.
Thank you! Definitely planning to keep growing and posting - we'll feature some other areas of our garden too 👍🌱🌼🌿
Love your design!
Thanks - it's working well so far! 👍
Friggen awesome I want one
Great and very useful information. However, here is a piece of advice for future videos. The music from the banjo is quite disturbing when you have both birds chirping and someone talking at the same time. For those with impaired hearing, it is almost impossible to distinguish words from all other sounds. Other than that, the video was really worth watching.
Loved ur greenhouse. I can’t work knowing the wasps were there. Very nice I’m jealous. Hi fm CA.
Hi Gloria, thanks - the wasps never came anywhere near us whilst we were working in the greenhouse - too busy with their own endeavours! Is CA Canada or California perhaps...? Thanks for watching 😀
Fantastic greenhouse design and highly useful video production!!
Thank you so much! We're really enjoying our greenhouse and sharing our experiences to a wider audience 😊
Thank you for this fantastic video, one of the best vids on passive solar greenhouse design and performance I've seen in years. We are building a smaller version, very similar to yours in design. Love your ingenuity. Cheers from your friends in Canada. 🥰
Hello Canadian friends - we watched a lot of videos about Canadian greenhouses when we were doing our research. There are some amazing greenhouses there! Wishing you all the best with your greenhouse project! 👍😀
Your garden is so beautiful❤
Thank you! 😀
If you paint the backwall black it will collect and hold more warmth.
Hi Erwin, we may do this at some point in the future, it certainly is a good suggestion and I've seen it mentioned elsewhere (including on this Comments page) so we'll see. For now we're just enjoying the gardening!
Absolutely loved watching the process of your greenhouse and how abundant they can be 🥰 x
Ah what a lovely comment! Thank you so much 😊
What a beautiful and satisfying video. It looks like all your design plans worked out perfectly.
Thank you, yes, we're very pleased and enjoying sowing our seed this Spring 2023! 🌱😀
I love your straightforward, down to earth approach! This makes me more confident I too can build a passive greenhouse! So many channels make this such a complicated, scientific endeavour that it becomes quite frightening and overwhelming!
I’ll just come back here for a bit of ‘ahhh, that’s better!’ 😂
Ah, that's lovely, thank you! We too find some of the channels a bit overwhelming - we wanted to just keep it simple and see if it worked for us, which it has pretty much so far! We're having fun anyway on our greenhouse journey! 😄
great work!
Thank you! 🙌
Lovely video, thank you
Thank you for watching! 👍
Fantastic! So glad you showed up in my youtube feed! Wonderful garden, so inspiring. 😊
Ah thank you 😀 Really appreciate your comments on our videos! 👍
Excellent summary! My solar greenhouse in North Carolina is doing fantastically as well
Hi David, thanks for watching in North Carolina and later on we'll be over to check on your solar greenhouse! We love seeing how others grow their own fruit and veg 😀
It is so nice I love the greenhouse and y great job guys
Thank you! 🙌
Amazing
Thanks! 🙌
Thank you for sharing the trip, it was very inspiring, will build a similar one during the summer, towards the long side of the barn😃
Hi Fred, thanks, glad you found it inspiring and we wish you all the best with your project 👍
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for watching & commenting! 😀
Well done to the both of you 😊 Your temperature moderation is very impressive indeed 👍
I must add; if you paint the back wall black it will much improve it’s performance as a heat sink.
Thank-you! It's pretty hot in there already at this time of year but I suppose a black wall would improve heat retention during cooler months. We shall have to think about it! 👍
@@TheTenterhookTimesI wonder if you could use black paint & hang a white cover of some sort in the hotter months? (Perhaps just cheap drop cloths?)
@@TheTenterhookTimes Along with painting the wall black you might add dirt behind the wall the wall's upper portion so the heat has somewhere to go other than inside during the hottest part of the day. Then at night - when it cools down - the heat stored in the earth will seep back into the space keeping it warmer at night and at the beginning and end of the season.
Amazing video and project!
Thanks for not attacking the wasps ❤
Thanks! 😀 We were intrigued by the wasps. I want to try and find out more about them. They have made nests in our garden sheds before but nothing as massive as this nest!
I live in zone 5b, and have been wanting to grow figs in a windy rural area. This is wonderful; I was just given a pallet of bricks that I intend to use to do this along the front of my property line over an illegally placed sidewalk that shall now act as a pathway. My city was given 1 foot leeway into my yard for a sidewalk and they placed it ten feet into my yard when it was laid decades ago, so I'm claiming ownership. 😎😁 The kicker? They infringed on my property for the sake of a young tree... that destroyed part of the sidewalk. 😆
Beautiful 🤩
Thank you! 😊
Brilliant, well done on all your hard work 💚
Ah thank you - it's been a bit of a project but we've really enjoyed it! 😀
Great segment 🙌🏾🫶🏾🙏🏾🍉💛
thanks! 🙌
Wonderful account of your endeavours and success. Well done!
Thanks Richard, Jackie deserves most of the credit!
Ah, thank you! It's been a team effort in fact!! Appreciate the comment 😀
I don’t have a garden but I LOVED watching this endeavor
Hi Carol, ah thank you! 💚
Very interesting, thank you an good luck to you both. Michael
Glad you enjoyed our greenhouse video 👍
My wife and I really enjoyed the content! Very professional jon on the editing too.
Thank you both, really glad you enjoyed it! 😀
My left ear really learned something
Please release a version of this video without the birdsong at such decibels. Though remarkable, it’s near impossible to hear your voices.
😂
I'm thinking the same, it's a lovely story and I do love bird song. But I find it difficult to understand about 70 % of their conversations.
Also the mic quality is killing the message by this speed level. It could have been easily 30 minutes video.
Glad that its not a 30 min video i would never have watched it ha ha. But the bird sound is to loud.
I used the closed captions! ❤
That was incredible. Congratulations not only on the work that you've done but the amazing way that you've documented it. Visually it is stunning. So funny, here in Sydney, where it's been hovering between 35-40c I'm jealous of your cooler weather. Wow, those tomato plants sure know how to party!
Lovely to hear from Australia! 👍 It's actually snowing here today!! ❄❄😂 Maybe a bit too cool for an Aussie! We have fond memories of Wwoofing just outside Sydney many years ago. Thanks for a fab comment 😊
This was a well put together video. My only complaint is that his voice was often drowned out by the bird song.
Also, the only wasp I've heard of that will kill aphids is the parasitic wasp which is only about 1/10 inch long, very tiny. I've heard people say that common wasps kill aphids, I just haven't seen anything from a University that says that.
Good work and I'm glad the new greenhouse got things all sorted out.
Thanks for the info about the wasps. We'll have to read up about that. Either way we like the wasps. They started two nests this year but unfortunately they didn't progress much at all before being abandoned, so we miss them. Hopefully they have a good nest somewhere else! 🤞
I like wasps. I let them be if the nests aren't close to the house. I have recently watched a video where a regular brown wasp was eating a tomato horn worm, so that's good news. I like the idea of IPM, but you have to get everything just right or you're losing crop which doesn't work for a small garden you're trying to feed yourself from. I've also never seen any IPM source discuss mosquitos and I am a magnet so I still have to spray the yard and use deet and BT bits.
Wow. Beautiful work and Very well done video.
Ahh, thank you, much appreciated! 😃
Thxs for the beautifil video and best of luck for the upcoming growing season
Hi Doris, thank you - this year's young plants are coming up already! 🌱👍
Wow. A wonderful greenhouse, built with so much love. Wishing you lots of success for the new season! 🌱💚
Thanks for your lovely comment 😊 Yes - the new growing season is definitely underway! We've had a cold spring so far in the UK this year, but the greenhouse is filling up nicely! 🌱👍
Haha not having the heart to cut back the tomatoes sounds exactly like what we are like! What an amazing greenhouse! It's really amazing!
Your comment made us smile! This past season we didn't plant as many but those that grew still turned into monsters! 🍅😂
Beautiful
Pro tip: you can rise temperature by piling compost against the wall
I just love this! looks amazing! it would be so cool to have a heated greenhouse! my greenhouse had frost on the inside this morning! LOL
Our greenhouse is heated only by the sun! ☀All the best for your allotment gardening - we love allotments! 👍
Thank you #SaveSoil #Consciousplanet
This is a great video!
Wow
This is my issue freezing nights in June and even late August!!
Exactly, can be a real issue! Where are you gardening?
A great use for the old polytunnel frame is to screen in the entire thing for protected outdoor growing. We live where summer rains are often an unpredictable, so have a poly roof with screened sides so we could control watering. We also set the frame on 4 foot high pony walls to raise the tradionally low ceiling. We also pull a large shade cloth over it during the hottest summer months, creating a huge temp drop when you enter. Lastly, raised beds inside have made gardening a joy. We haven't seen a caterpillar for 5 years!
Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Beautiful green house. I just saw a video about the Chinese green houses that stay warm all year round and can grow food in the middle of the winter.
We watched videos about the Chinese green houses too - they're absolutely amazing and made us realise that we could try a new approach to a traditional greenhouse in our own garden to help extend the season here. Thanks for the comment 😃
That's an impressive upgrade. Did you know pinching every second cucumber flower extends the productive life of the plant? You could start a compost heap outside at the back and pipe in the heat, or just leave it keeping the back wall warmer than otherwise.
Amazing! ❤
Innovative gardening....phenomenal stages and wonderful progress!
Thank you! 😀
Thank you! 😀
Great stuff guys. I am a little further down the river, and am also in a bit of a frost pocket. I have a central path in my greenhouse with supports for tomatoes on either side. I ha e overwinter stuff on the path this year by wrapping fleece around the supports and putting bubble wrap over the top..
Living by the river is wonderful and we wouldn't swop for anything, but frost pockets can be a real pain for growing! Good luck with your greenhouse - we use a lot of fleece too, inside our old polytunnel regularly and outside too.
The best content I've found in some time! Absolutely amazing. All my questions were answered regarding greenhouse climate information in GB. Very nicely presented and a pleasure to watch. Instantly subscribed!
Glad you enjoyed it and found it useful too. We're slowly making more videos about our greenhouse and garden so I hope you'll enjoy those too👍
LOVED!!!!
Hi Shannon, thank you! 😀
This is a great video. Thank you for the inspiration 😊
Thank you and glad you enjoyed the video 😀
So cool!!!!
Glad you like it! 😄
what a pleasant video to watch!
Hi in the Philippines - so pleased you enjoyed our greenhouse video! 😀🌱
Is a good referance for me to built a Green house,👍😇 Tkanks for your efforts, Regards from Turkey 🙋♂️
Hi, lovely to have a viewer in Turkey, glad you found it useful and thanks for your comment, much appreciated! 👍
What a great video. Very well built greenhouse. Great location. Very informative thoughts. You are an inspiration!
Ahh, thank you! So glad you enjoyed the video - and we certainly feel very lucky to live in this beautiful part of Wales ☺
You need a big fan in there.
Indeed, we would like one. We need to do some more research!
oh my! I absolutely love your garden. I have dreamed of this level of success. I've been gardening for sometime on a low budget. However, my dream will forever remain to create a beautiful garden such as this.
Hi Jamie, we gardened in a teeny tiny back yard at the back of a small terraced house in Llanidloes for 5 years. It was so rewarding - most of the plants were gifted by family and friends and we did all the work ourselves and started learning about plants. As we gardened we dreamed, and now, many many years later, we are enjoying the garden of our dreams. We wish you all the best with your gardening ventures! 😊
This was an absolute pleasure to watch. Informative, entertaining and to the point. Thank you for respecting your viewers tine.
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙌
Oh my gosh I absolutely love your greenhouse.
Thank you! 🌱😊
Narration is great !
Thanks! 🙌
That is a beautiful green house. One day i will make the investment in one just like yours. Also your sorry telling is amazing. Kept me engaged the whole video 📸
That's great, thanks for the comment! 👍 Wishing you all the best with your gardening channel - will check it out later 🌱😀
Cool Projekt. Use 2 ibc 1000l inside. So you can save energy inside the greenhouse.
Thank you for sharing your garden experiments. Now it’s the begging season in Canada, I can’t wait to start planting mon potager and few flowers. We live in the city and we have only a small garden and a shady front yard. But growing greens make the season way more fun than the hot concrete.
Wishing you all the best for your gardening in Canada 🌱
A lovely relaxing and informative video... thank you. I would be interested to know the difference between the poly tunnel and the new structure on max / min temperatures if you have it? Thank you.
Hi, we never took detailed temperature records whilst we had the polytunnel but it was obvious that when hit by late Spring frosts the temperature dropped dramatically in the polytunnel and stunted growth of young plants. Tomato seedlings, for example, could be knocked back by a couple of weeks after a cold spell and sometimes never really recovered. The greenhouse, meanwhile, retains heat much better overnight particularly in late Spring.