The "bubble greenhouse"

Hi Deb,

We've been operating the "bubble greenhouse" described in City Farmer (and several other publications) without any soap buildup. We've had almost minus 30C (which for the Americans on the list is about minus 20F) over the past couple of nights, and although I have to admit I fired up the woodstove after the first night when the low-temperature alarm went off at 3 a.m. (1 degree above freezing), and I killed all the tomatoes and peppers with a touch of frost two weeks ago when I was laying on the couch watching a movie when I should have been going out and turning on the bubbles (gotta automate them soon!), I am always continually amazed just what a wonderful system Richard Nelson's concept is when I switch on that pump. I know that the wood stove wouldn't even budge the thermometer out there without the bubbles in place, as anyone with a typical R-2 double-plastic 1500 SF greenhouse would know if you've experienced Ontario mid-winter temperatures, but with the bubbles in there we stay about 8C (47F) all night long, even after the fire goes out. I'm just really impressed with the way it's working so far, and will iron out the last of the bugs when spring rolls around, we're committed for the long term. Meanwhile we eat fresh salads every night and Kat sells organic local greens at the weekend market.

I used rainwater for my solution, which is continually recycled, so no mineral buildup on the plastic. Think about whether you really want to burn large quantities of used oil (still creates greenhouse gas emissions) or cords and cords of hardwood (sure it's renewable and carbon-neutral, but do you really want to cut, split, pile & haul that much?) when you can easily insulate it to R-30 whenever the sun goes down and save 80% of your energy costs. By the way, it also works in the summer to shade and cool... but enough raving about the solaroof system, you can check out the website (www.solaroofgarden.com) under People & Projects for more on the 'Lively Up' Winter Harvest greenhouse.

I'm planning a pond for the spring and look forward to reading more from everyone on the list, pardon me for just lurking so far but I don't have much to contribute to the discussion, don't even know the questions I want to ask yet!

Ross