WINNER in the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards in Home and Garden!! FINALIST in the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards in Green Living!! If you have ever dreamed of growing your own vegetables and flowers year-round in a passive solar greenhouse, this is a book you will be interested in. The greenhouse described in this book provides the owners, neighbors, friends, and family with an amazing abundance of vegetables in all four seasons. Ted's Greenhouse describes the process of building this 484 square foot passive solar polycarbonate greenhouse from the foundation to the finish. Included are chapters on passive solar design, siting the building, permits for the building, cost considerations, materials, and greenhouse coverings, with a special emphasis on the polycarbonate that is used to sheathe this building. A complete set of building plans is included, along with a description of the building process, step by step. While the book does describe one specific design, the plans could be adjusted to fit various budgets and situations. Also covered is information on how to use the greenhouse for plants. Chapters on soil, experiences with a variety of plants, pests and diseases, and how to heat and cool the greenhouse are included. The addendum adds reviews of various products that have been tried in this greenhouse, and resources that are available to the greenhouse grower. There is a materials list and a cost breakdown. Ted's Greenhouse is an elegant, functional building that will add joy to your life and beauty to your property.
When Peggy and Ted moved to the high desert of Taos New Mexico in 2009, they tried to have a vegetable garden, just as they had always had in Maine, where they had lived for 35 years. The effort was a disaster. The sun was too hot, the wind was too strong, there was never enough rain, and the soil was an alkaline mixture of rocks and clay. Any plants that survived all of this were eaten by gophers. It soon occurred to them that all of these problems could be solved with a greenhouse. They searched books and the internet for greenhouse plans that would meet their needs, and were unable to find anything close. So, they decided to design their own. Ted, an artist and university art professor by trade, loves to design and build buildings. While not an architect, he has a wonderful sense of space and style. He knows how to build. He has designed and built two homes, a cottage, two sheds, and now this greenhouse. Ted designed a 484 square foot passive-solar greenhouse, redwood framed, and sheathed with polycarbonate. In the summer of 2013, he built his design. Peggy, now retired, worked as an RN all of her career, mostly in Home Health and Hospice. She has always loved all plants, and always raised organic fruits and vegetables to feed her family and friends. Once Ted finished building the greenhouse, she set to work learning the art of gardening year round in a greenhouse. Ted's Greenhouse has astonished all who see it, both for its elegance and beauty, as well as its amazing capacity to grow plants all year long. Peggy and Ted were so surprised with the results of their greenhouse experiment that they decided to write this book to share the success of their venture with other builders and gardeners.
