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Our greenhouse started out as a longing for an old fashioned flower
pit, somewhere to overwinter my ferns and a few choice plants. Basically,
a flower pit is a rectangular pit dug into the earth, then covered with
recycled windows or fiberglass greenhouse panels. After the pit was
excavated, the flower pit idea slowly evolved into a much more elaborate
and aesthetically pleasing
structure.
Kevin, reinforced the clay walls of the pit with
plywood, and then built trusses to support glass panels.
We placed the panels in the awaiting supports and caulked around them
with a silicone material to seal them. Kevin had strips of copper
fabricated to place over the seams both to camouflage and further
weatherproof them. Later, we bought two windows and a small 4 pane glass door
from an architectural salvage yard and Kevin framed out
the ends to accommodate them.
We have the greenhouse situated under a deciduous
tree, so in the wintertime it receives sun, but is shady and cooler in the
summer when the tree's leaves have emerged. We used some salvaged bridge timbers
to build a retaining wall and some wide steps leading down to the gravel
entry. I told him I wanted the steps deep and wide enough to accommodate
my walker when I grew old. Kevin dug a deeper trench in the floor and put in extra gravel
(this is known as a dry well) so
that the greenhouse entry would drain well during periods of heavy rain.
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