Howdy. Colombia street is behind me.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Breaking Ground
Howdy. Colombia street is behind me.
Greenhouse
There are many books and youtube videos that teach how to construct a greenhouse. Combining all of them into one, I set forth with a design that was simple and practical. Reflecting that I already had a blog that my mother was following gave me the confidence to go right into it, but now with more consciousness not to prattle about lack of money. Using 2x2s from Home Despot, I spent 70 something on wood, and used shipping pallets for the rest. As usual the Depot wood was warped and had cracks in it that I did not see in the store. After I had knocked in nails to keep the thing standing, my neighbor, Evan, lent me some screws to keep the joints tight. It's 3 feet high from the ground to the bottom of the roof. It's then about 8 feet high at the peak, 5 feet wide, and 8 feet long. There are little (1 foot) legs coming off of the bottom so that the horizontal supports lowest to the ground do not touch the ground. The roof is thus steep enough to shleff-off snow. Some photos would explain it for me, and I'll work on getting those up soon.
The structure loitered in the lot on its legs for a few weeks. Passers by would ask what I was building, to which I would respond that I was constructing a greenhouse, and from their brief frowns evoked by the defeating of their own instincts to say that it was a bad idea, I intuited a subtle approval. If the frowns were evinced by their matching the word "greenhouse" with what they saw, I judged these reactions as signs that I was making progress by at least appeasing the public conception of greenhouse, unless of course they didn't know what a greenhouse was and were just trying not too appear ignorant. I sometimes think that people must not know what greenhouses are since they are somewhat rare even in neighborhoods with plenty of north/south facing lots.
Every day after work I would have enough sunlight to screw one more support for the roof. After the 6th slanting piece was cut and placed, secured, etc., Filio took me to the Home Despot again for plastic and Noah and I wrapped the frame in 6 mil clear painter's plastic, stapling the plastic to the wood with a staple gun.
It now looked like a greenhouse, but one wandering, maleducated and untethered. In order to seal it from the elements, and keep it warm, a foundation needed to be set. Brent's tip-off to the cinderblock haven proved fruitful, Adam and I got 12 cinderblocks from the woods of "the most dangerous neighborhood in the northside", in the style of burly easter-egg hunting. They would line the inside of a hole that I dug, and the greenhouse, would fit on top. with vertical legs from the frame fitting into the holes in the cinderblocks. Michelle Bangarang helped dig with me one day. According to the soil test, the soil is good for growing but is still littered with bricks, rocks, and decomposed house-parts. I dug out a rock as big as a holiday ham. A few days later, Sam Schwander came over, for which I was fortunate since he is a friend, but also because as an aspiring civil engineer, he has worked on bulldozer-scale construction projects, and considers soil dynamics a possible avenue for specialization.
Using a level tied to string, we dug and filled until the blocks could be set and measured in relation to the frame. We then placed the frame on top, lowering the legs into the holes, sawing them since they were too long, and finally dropping it in place. The legs in the holes will be part of an achoring mechanism when the holes are filled with quickcrete.
Luke Strzelec is in Montreal making his own cheese. Rennet and citric acid. Mozerella, I think. While this endeavor may deserve it's own blog, I might be able to keep you up to date with how that's going with the Montroyella, or possibly create a new kind of cheese myself and title it Burghouda, Pittsboursoin, or Burghonzola, or Cheddur, - the list is infinite at this point.
Today after work I will stop by Filio's to get some quickcrete that his landlord was going to throw away(?), and then find a way to mix it. Probably in a bucket. I will first pour as much concrete as I can, and then fill the rest with dirt to seal the cracks between cinderblocks. At the bus stop this morning, I noticed the roof was wrinkly, so I'll smooth perhaps by adding a few more supports to the roof diagonally, and a few more staples.
Some doubt as to the heat of the thing is constantly given by friends and my own inner monologue, to which I should remind them all that spinach and lettuces can grow below freezing, so long as they are shielded from wind/snow, although it is good to start them in somewhat warm conditions so that they get going. Lettuce adapts by constricting its water holds to the extremities of the leaf causing a novice-disconsearning droop, thusly avoiding damage to the leaf. Spinache is just weird and I cannot explain its ability to survive the cold. The cold actually keeps these greens fresher for longer. I should hope that a quick hydroponics system will do the trick, so long as the water doesn't freeze, and I should have, at most, 32 weeks-worth of spring mix started growing by November, fashionably late amongst gardeners. Potatoes in tires in the basement? Change Pittsburgh city laws on keeping livestock? I'm getting ahead of myself.
The structure loitered in the lot on its legs for a few weeks. Passers by would ask what I was building, to which I would respond that I was constructing a greenhouse, and from their brief frowns evoked by the defeating of their own instincts to say that it was a bad idea, I intuited a subtle approval. If the frowns were evinced by their matching the word "greenhouse" with what they saw, I judged these reactions as signs that I was making progress by at least appeasing the public conception of greenhouse, unless of course they didn't know what a greenhouse was and were just trying not too appear ignorant. I sometimes think that people must not know what greenhouses are since they are somewhat rare even in neighborhoods with plenty of north/south facing lots.
Every day after work I would have enough sunlight to screw one more support for the roof. After the 6th slanting piece was cut and placed, secured, etc., Filio took me to the Home Despot again for plastic and Noah and I wrapped the frame in 6 mil clear painter's plastic, stapling the plastic to the wood with a staple gun.
It now looked like a greenhouse, but one wandering, maleducated and untethered. In order to seal it from the elements, and keep it warm, a foundation needed to be set. Brent's tip-off to the cinderblock haven proved fruitful, Adam and I got 12 cinderblocks from the woods of "the most dangerous neighborhood in the northside", in the style of burly easter-egg hunting. They would line the inside of a hole that I dug, and the greenhouse, would fit on top. with vertical legs from the frame fitting into the holes in the cinderblocks. Michelle Bangarang helped dig with me one day. According to the soil test, the soil is good for growing but is still littered with bricks, rocks, and decomposed house-parts. I dug out a rock as big as a holiday ham. A few days later, Sam Schwander came over, for which I was fortunate since he is a friend, but also because as an aspiring civil engineer, he has worked on bulldozer-scale construction projects, and considers soil dynamics a possible avenue for specialization.
Using a level tied to string, we dug and filled until the blocks could be set and measured in relation to the frame. We then placed the frame on top, lowering the legs into the holes, sawing them since they were too long, and finally dropping it in place. The legs in the holes will be part of an achoring mechanism when the holes are filled with quickcrete.
Luke Strzelec is in Montreal making his own cheese. Rennet and citric acid. Mozerella, I think. While this endeavor may deserve it's own blog, I might be able to keep you up to date with how that's going with the Montroyella, or possibly create a new kind of cheese myself and title it Burghouda, Pittsboursoin, or Burghonzola, or Cheddur, - the list is infinite at this point.
Today after work I will stop by Filio's to get some quickcrete that his landlord was going to throw away(?), and then find a way to mix it. Probably in a bucket. I will first pour as much concrete as I can, and then fill the rest with dirt to seal the cracks between cinderblocks. At the bus stop this morning, I noticed the roof was wrinkly, so I'll smooth perhaps by adding a few more supports to the roof diagonally, and a few more staples.
Some doubt as to the heat of the thing is constantly given by friends and my own inner monologue, to which I should remind them all that spinach and lettuces can grow below freezing, so long as they are shielded from wind/snow, although it is good to start them in somewhat warm conditions so that they get going. Lettuce adapts by constricting its water holds to the extremities of the leaf causing a novice-disconsearning droop, thusly avoiding damage to the leaf. Spinache is just weird and I cannot explain its ability to survive the cold. The cold actually keeps these greens fresher for longer. I should hope that a quick hydroponics system will do the trick, so long as the water doesn't freeze, and I should have, at most, 32 weeks-worth of spring mix started growing by November, fashionably late amongst gardeners. Potatoes in tires in the basement? Change Pittsburgh city laws on keeping livestock? I'm getting ahead of myself.
Monday, October 4, 2010
First Entry
Hi,
My trusted friend and personal photographer, Ben Filio, thought up this blog while talking with Elana Shlenker, a denizen of NYC whose interest got totally peked by rumors of a "garden oasis" in PGH. Since a bit of an audience can sometimes motivate, and since blogging is free and easy, this is a brainstorm and report covering the progress I hope to make on the Brighton garden project (aka: the Family Sorrel) located at Brighton and Colombia Rd in Pittsburgh, PA 15212. I asked Darwin if I could use the space about 2 months ago. With his permission, I had a ton of woodchips dumped on it thanks to Duquesne Light Co. Tree cutters. So far I've made one 8 x 25 ft. bed and a shanty of an unfinished greenhouse. Laura Winter of the Northside children's garden lent me some tools (shovel, rake) and a composter. Evan and Ben lent me power screw drivers, and mitre saw, though the majority was cut by hand. Neighbors have offered me rocks, a demolished building across the street granted me bricks, and RiverView Valley Stables gave me a trucks worth of manure that I picked up in Andrea's Ford. Jonathan, a local dancer, has thrown his right hand in, and Brent from the coffee shop let me in on a cinder block reservoire in California-Kirkbride.
It gets close to the winter months, and I've decided to allay my impatience by building a greenhouse to grow lettuce and spinach in. It will also be useful in the spring to protect seedlings. My hope now is to get the plastic covering secured, and finish the roof.
Next on my list will be getting a 55 gallon barrel or two for rain collection and getting them set up. I will tell you how that works.
Then I will finish the greenhouse exterior and attempt to install a hydroponic system that will use a solar-powered water pump, that will hopefully withstand the winter.
Then I wait for my woodchip-manure mix to decompose in the bed so that I can plant in the spring.
Winter's in Pittsburgh are known for being randy, so I'm stoking my metaphorical fire as we speak.
All should be off the grid (free) and whether or not there is a yield, it will be a good time.
Come check it out. Thanks to all above, and Elana for the readership.
-Ben
My trusted friend and personal photographer, Ben Filio, thought up this blog while talking with Elana Shlenker, a denizen of NYC whose interest got totally peked by rumors of a "garden oasis" in PGH. Since a bit of an audience can sometimes motivate, and since blogging is free and easy, this is a brainstorm and report covering the progress I hope to make on the Brighton garden project (aka: the Family Sorrel) located at Brighton and Colombia Rd in Pittsburgh, PA 15212. I asked Darwin if I could use the space about 2 months ago. With his permission, I had a ton of woodchips dumped on it thanks to Duquesne Light Co. Tree cutters. So far I've made one 8 x 25 ft. bed and a shanty of an unfinished greenhouse. Laura Winter of the Northside children's garden lent me some tools (shovel, rake) and a composter. Evan and Ben lent me power screw drivers, and mitre saw, though the majority was cut by hand. Neighbors have offered me rocks, a demolished building across the street granted me bricks, and RiverView Valley Stables gave me a trucks worth of manure that I picked up in Andrea's Ford. Jonathan, a local dancer, has thrown his right hand in, and Brent from the coffee shop let me in on a cinder block reservoire in California-Kirkbride.
It gets close to the winter months, and I've decided to allay my impatience by building a greenhouse to grow lettuce and spinach in. It will also be useful in the spring to protect seedlings. My hope now is to get the plastic covering secured, and finish the roof.
Next on my list will be getting a 55 gallon barrel or two for rain collection and getting them set up. I will tell you how that works.
Then I will finish the greenhouse exterior and attempt to install a hydroponic system that will use a solar-powered water pump, that will hopefully withstand the winter.
Then I wait for my woodchip-manure mix to decompose in the bed so that I can plant in the spring.
Winter's in Pittsburgh are known for being randy, so I'm stoking my metaphorical fire as we speak.
All should be off the grid (free) and whether or not there is a yield, it will be a good time.
Come check it out. Thanks to all above, and Elana for the readership.
-Ben
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