It has been one month since i covered my hazelnut wood arches in cling film to create a green house and was feeling pretty confident about it lasting the whole winter until we had our first real test a few days ago with two days of extremely intense wind.
That test was failed.
Quite provocatively.
In truth, the only plant in here which seems unhappy about its new environment is the broccoli.
I started to feel better as the sun came up and contemplated trying to repair it.
But I could tell as I tried to get my head around it, this was not the way forward.
Instead I carefully rolled up a section of the undamaged plastic in order that I could easily gain access to the greenhouse zone again. I did this because I had not yet finished installing the second magnetised electroculture cable which was rather awkwardly running though the middle.
It was extremely difficult digging a 10cm trench in there without standing on plants.
But with access from both sides it was much easier to complete the job at a high standard.
Blessing in disguise
After further contemplation I have decided we don't actually need this huge greenhouse. In fact a little one will do just fine for my Spring seedlings. And so, this is actually a great opportunity to remove the entire hazelnut wood structure from its current position and re-design the garden around the magnetised cables to optimise productivity for the Summer.
I have ordered circular magnets with holes and I know 'the honey man' in our village who can provide me with bees wax. Aside from the galvanised steel cable (and a compass!) these are the two main things you need to electrify your land with magnetic energy. So over the next few weeks I will be installing more cables and completely re-designing this garden around them, which would not have happened till much later in the year had the greenhouse stayed intact.
What would I have done different?
The answer I believe is a simple one. Gaffer tape. Had I applied ten long strips of tape all the way over the top of the structure (from the ground on one side all the way over to the ground on the other side) this would have held the numerous strips of cling film together.
I know this because I used gaffer tape in one small section and this tape was completely unaffected by the high wind, still holding its ends together perfectly.
In addition I made the mistake of not covering the entrance hole during the storm.
The wind was therefore able to get inside the structure and push through it, rather than glide over the exterior as intended.
This hole will now be used as a pyramid zone which means I will be filling it with the tin cans & random metal I've been collecting for the last month before building a wooden pyramid structure over the top (as recommended by Les Brown in his book The Pyramid).
As I said, every 'disaster' can be turned into opportunity and failure is just a silly word we use to describe the most effective way to learn.
The copper pyramid is blowing around like crazy now and isn't much use here.
This is actually perfect because I need it for an experiment I am doing to measure the effectiveness of pyramid-charged water at keeping cut flowers alive.
I wanted to keep this one brief to simply share with you what happened to the greenhouse and how these problems could have been prevented.
And that is what I have done.
Love & Light everyone 🌱
mmm... my first thought was to use something stronger than kitchen clingfilm - like, shrinkwrap rolls or pallet wraps.
and... someone has done it!
lol
not sure if clingfilm is really any cheaper, given the area needed, but being so thin I'd use 2 layers.
BTW greenhouses here are used to keep plants...cooler. lmao. yeah, with aircon.
The stuff I bought was advertised as being pallet wrap but my structure wasn't solid enough and created some technical problems by bending inwards the more I wrapped. Better to make the structure with solid cut wood like the guy has done in the video you linked. This way one can secure the film with extra pieces of wood screwed into the frame.
I love what he is doing with the mirrors and thermal mass heater. Very clever putting the mirrors behind the structure, heating up the north side. Though I guess one will spend a lot of time during the day adjusting the mirrors for maximum effect!
Greenhouses used to keep plants cooler??? Where do you live?
lol. yeah, tropical heat here. commercial greenhouses are not glass, but white sheeting, so for shade and cool eg hydroponics or delicate veggies that would wilt in the heat. I've seen ones with aircon for tomatoes and bell peppers.
I go the opposite route and try to find European plants that grow (almost) happily here - the rocket has been the biggest success - and is very expensive in supermarkets.
Sounds like you have all angles covered - as you say, maybe was just poor geometry of the structure.