Saturday, April 21, 2012

Disaster!

Just before I left for school early  this afternoon, to help out with supper for the kids in the mass band concert, I checked on the greenhouse, as I was going to be gone all afternoon and into the evening.

Growing plants in a greenhouse isn't a simple case of put them in there, turn a heater on at night if it gets cold and leave it at that.

Plants that have been grown indoors under lights can't deal with full sun for the first little while and so need to be shaded. Not a problem on a cloudy day but the minute the sun comes out you've got to be out there putting the shade cover up. Of course you could just leave the shade cover on all the time, but it robs the plants of the opportunity to acclimatize.

Then there's ventilation.

That's a biggie.

You would hardly believe how fast a smaller greenhouse can heat up on a sunny day, even when the temperatures are still on the low side.

 Ventilation is the answer.

So you open windows. And vents. Often the door is propped open. Perhaps you turn on a fan.

Then the clouds roll in.

And you rush out to close the windows, doors and vents. And you turn off the fan.

Then the sky clears.

And you rush out to open things again.

It's an intricate dance.

Wind adds a little excitement to that dance.

A bit of a breeze is welcomed, keeping the air moving around the plants and sturdying up the stems as well as cooling an overheated heated greenhouse.
A strong wind on the other hand, sets open doors banging , tosses shade cloths around the yard and causes window vent flaps to slide right out of place.

So, getting ready to leave the greenhouse alone, I secured things as best I could, preparing for any type of weather (this is Alberta after all!), watched the dark clouds rolling in and headed off to school,.

I got home just after seven and Henry greeted me at the back gate.

"Why do you have one of my temperature sensors in you hand??"

"There's been a bit of a disaster while you were gone. . ."

"What?!"


"It's not a total disaster, thankfully I came home at lunch and was able to save your greenhouse from flying down the back alley. . . I bent back the one pole as best I could. . ."

"Arghhhh. . ."


Remember the new portable greenhouse Jesse put up?

He was supposed to screw the poles down to the plywood floor but the battery on the drill was dead,  so we plugged it in to charge and I told him I would do it myself.

And then I forgot!


Sigh. . .


Thankfully there were no plants in it yet and Henry figures he can straighten it out a bit more tomorrow.

After we turn the whole thing a bit so the wind doesn't hit it straight on.


And bolt it to the floor!


There's never a dull moment at my house.

And for those of you wondering what happened to the pictures. . .

I thought a cup of tea would cheer me up a bit so I put the water on , sat in my chair to wait for it to boil and woke up nearly three hours later. (don't worry, Henry turned the kettle off.)

I'll have to wait for the sun to come up tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure I won't be leaving the house much for the next little while. . .


3 comments:

Loretta B said...

Oh Rosa!!! I am so thankful that you didn't have any plants in there! I also had no idea it was that windy yesterday.

Rosa said...

Neither did I ! lol

Nancy-Mom said...

Like you say, never a dull moment !!!

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