Author: rglass17

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We are on the edge of Hurricane Harvey!

Steve hasn’t slowed down a minute this summer… making great progress on the greenhouse and seedling building! …until Hurricane Harvey hit this week (category 4, Houston is in big trouble), lots of rain! Harvey has not “huffed and puffed” enough to blow anything down, but it sure is wet!

In the meantime, we now have scaffolding!  Picked up scaffolding in Dallas, now we can get up high! The seed building roof is next and when completed will be followed by continued work on the greenhouse!  Thank you Lindsey, Dale, Pete and Hilary for your help!

We visited the local Farmer’s Market in the Seton Hospital front parking lot last Saturday (before Harvey)!  Vendors from all over.  Many vendors alternate attendance at this farmer’s market with several different farmers markets in the Central Texas area.

— Rachel Glass

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Seedling Building #1

The “seedling” building is underway.  8-ft x 20-ft. This building will be used to germinate seedlings for greenhouse #1. Later, another building will be built out next to the greenhouses. For now, this one will be close at hand and used for refining the process. Last weekend we measured out the space and determined the exact building location and placement. This weekend we went into town, picked up lumber and supplies and built the floor framework. We are painting as we go! A small elevation will allow water to run down the hill underneath the building and keep it dry!

In this building,  we will germinate the seeds of different kinds of leafy greens. Once germinated, seedling trays (2-ft by 4-ft) will be transferred to greenhouse #1 to grow for 6 weeks. Each tray, beginning at the front of the greenhouse will move down a trough of water each week. By the end of six weeks, each tray will reach the back of the greenhouse. Leafy greens will be harvested and go to market.

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Form for bending the hoops

Each greenhouse hoop is comprised of 3, steel pipes. Each is carefully placed on a form, bent to create a continuous curve when attached to the other 2 pipes… It seems that it takes two people bending pipe from each end, at the same time to get the curve just right.

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Hoop-style greenhouse

In the process of building our first hoop-style greenhouse. Drilled holes 3-ft deep on each side for anchor poles that support/hold up each hoop.  Large drill bits, sledge hammers and a little water (water-hose) help “slide” the hoop pole down each 3-ft hole.