glazing on it. This friends told me about the grow-hole concept.

This is a techwhere there is a need to temporarily shelter long rows of crops. the loose earth wouldn ' t of its own stand in vertical walls, it push both the post and pier into the structure a bit, house projects the smaller, white garbage pail liners might sufthe other which is on the surface. A reasonable guess is tbat it 4. Similarly, a grow hole traps, utilizes and stores much then notch girders into them for floor joists and rafters. 21 sun when it was low in the sky and in the morning and evevolved soaking or otherwise impregnating stovepipe creosote themselves. Polyethylene comes in rolls of various sizes. We excavation to tbe north wall, but now it became a heat sink in its own right. [t was I did not repeat my grow hole experiment the next year. ground for tbe earth garden soil. There were other tricks like making tea from and mentors they smi led ruefully and shook their heads. H sbould add a final two plusses, bringing the score to -1 /+ I0 vs. .\ cases we think the better move is to berm earth out there, Like how about the problem of chilling the plants when would find yourself cramped by the low glazing there. You'd come up with -162 heat units. cious time blowing and shaking and washing off as mucb as I version - had just dug the grow-hole so we can add another plus unit there. Then dried strawbeny leaves. These brew into a beverage so COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE: +116 HEAT UNlTS slipped the post down over the rebar via a 'I.-inch lar you can lose up to 95% of the rays. (This is not a prob1980's. (In fact [ was put to work in that greenhouse when the ple slices. string beans, corn, pickled beets, peppers and, of course, the be able to report my roaring success, but, alas, that is not the plants. That way I would have headroom. And with a grow Sboring would solve the #@%$&! gopher earth dumpThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 41 grow bed was 3'x8' for 24 sq. ft. The floor of the cold-sink Note: The earth-sheltered, cold-sink greenhouse calcusince, for the glazing to have a reasonable pitcb, it would have must stretch beyond the string to acco=odate the shovel hanfair and objective here, and to try to head off protests by advobe braced from the inside of the structure. This is a hassle -32 r did and it worked. I put the potatoes in sacks or in area. Clearly, I was going to have to shore everything up. and no longer were willing to use that poison The pier method bas a built-in flaw whicb + 164 and -76 heat units. That's 88 heat units to the plus.

We call it ing the plants as tbey bing". Wind scrubbing is what causes the "chill factor" - say if you wanted to leave some of the seedlings in the pit the glass was horizontal to the ground, much of the sun's heat which has been absorbed near the surface during the day. thought to be salting with ascorbic acid the samples be not a million-dollar researcb study, but it would seem to me a In the case of the grow hole the ratio is reversed. The warmed by the sun all day and radiated the heat back into the polyethylene. We use five bags as a rule, but put them on one This greenhouse had the additional benefit of the earth case: It was only moderately successful at best, maybe even had pulled up months before and hung upside down by its winter - but once is enough. The plants need only freeze once them lip on concrete piers that we had previously Correct tamping is an acquired skill and the most misunis 318 heat units to the better compared to a similar aboveProlog to a happy discovery ;~ tunnel with no care whatsoever about where it went, because it earth behind the wall pushes in hard enough to opening the hole to work on them? If you were to avoid that, above-ground walls each had 8 sq. ft of glazing for a -16. garbage bag system" - not an intriguing tiChapter 2 greenhouses four-season successes. The cold-sink concept is strong in natural vitamin C tbat autbor Ewell Gibbons was from the excavation which we piled behind the north wall. COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE pay to solve some of the other problems at the same time? in humans and animals on cold, windy days. It is what about five surfaces - add another two plus units. And, finally, me on to beef and venison jerky, and gave me home dried apthe second person standing back and sighting down a plumb place by the roots of the grass surrounding the pit. It sounded bedded longer, perhaps for the season. So that was my first sun was shining and the air reeked of the polyethylene disintethe earth. It radiates up, warming both the soil around CHAPTER 3 our disappointment we were never able to not sink the posts into tbe earth at all, but to set made indoor starts practical, it was a real boon to the gardener. haps 6 to 8 inch depth then compacted to perhaps half that bemilled trees, the easiest way we ' ve found to check plumb is by Above ground Earth-sheltered ing. Wouldn't that bum the plants? What I finally decided was to dig a trencb along the When the sun goes down, the five surfaces rearing above where the earth has lost a lot less heat than tbat on the surface 10 mil. thick - excepting when we use multiple garbage bags can make a day with a thirty-degree temperature seem

improve upon it? That I' ll take you through my thought process, fumbles, di scoverA grow-hole is far more efficient at keeping the seedlings methods of post preservation. improvement. the lumber siding (shoring) from the damp of the earth with a the above-ground system. to rest on tbe highest part of the mound to the north. That ground will be losing heat while the growing surface below "hinging". This is when the pressure from the -6/+ 1. 20 fice. We have taken care before charring to make sure to cut when wrapped with clear polyethylene glazing. Let's say that Tbis is not to knock the hoop system. There are a few why weren't any of the other plants shaking? Earthquake? hole as a dumping Now I'm not a mathematician or a scientist, and this is CHAPTERS One supposed old-time method we were told about ingood in theory. But the end result was the gophers discovered ,I bage bags, usually the full-sized black ones, though for greenThe Ean h-Shcltercd Solnr Greenhouse Book 45 in the other, inverting it and tamping with the handle. the proved upon. One was the pitch of tbe glazing. If you are losthe trench where it is warmed by the earth behind the walls. dles. pond liner. a three-foot hole withderstood part of post setting. The earth to be backfilled and this from two directions, say the north and east. When the guy method of fence post preservation. Charfor a greenhouse catastrophe. Now despite the fact that the adBut where were the fresb winter greens? A pretty was going to invest such time and resources, then wouldn't it 32 -242 units -91 units by the low pitch of the sun blocked by depth of the south wall. taller and that you hole traps, utilizes and stores the heat generated by the west walls of the growing bed were each 2 ' x3 ' or a + 12 for season a couple of weeks at best. Many hours of consciengreens fresh from the garden nine or ten or even twelve less than that. I did not repeat the experiment a second year. losing growing space against both of those walls. glazed by simply laying a window down on the ground spanheadache and requested another assignment.) And there is reinforced with chicken wire and Y. inch rebar plants which were I) can have even more grati fying successes in the future.

like ten degrees. What that wind does to you it does to sky towards summer, there would still be no sun there during 36 The first cold sink greenhouse the posts at all and tbey, of course, rotted out and had to be pea plants, waist high in a row of similar plants in my garden, you'd be taking up prime growing space. That way you'd be Here's the story of what I fmally achieved near the Cainto wood. We were told it was a common practice among of the cold-sink was a door and was a -10. 27 ate a situation in which a grower might want to put a single ..:i!.t The first cold-sink greenhouse than a century. A grow-hole consists of a pit two to three feet the hoop and plastic method. But wait. We have forgotten the ":...-----nique that had been used by farmers in cold country for more ground greenhouses, and [ saw this used in a greenhouse at a hole drilled in the post bottom. This is the method advantages which we will mention soon that the hoop metbod pared to our own one square foot example above. This is betime. Other problems, design problems, began presenting pare it to that of a typical above-ground greenhouse of simiThose were problems due to lack of materials and poured concrete footings. , vs. hoop and plastic method we gave a -I unit for the five surI discovered the winter pleasure of borne canned peas, The grow-hole concept Among several other advantages, this eliminates the need for this, and it is this simple: The coldest air, which would sink pened, of course. Their leaves were coated with dust and mud Post and beam itself is simple. You set posts that have brought in for testing - till the lab technicians went out and hippy days. Cold this be an acid flashback? Had I suddenly A grow-hole allows you to plant garden plants a month was 2'x8' or an additional 16 sq. ft for a total of 40 horizonthen, this first earth-sheltered greenhouse had a score of insulate it, cover the insulation with polyethylene and the achieved without any energy other than my labor, the warmth 44 P/S!P construction and the earth. Though the hoop system is generally used to Almost immediately I had gopher problems. This was to kind of a trapped bubble that could pop the poly when the wild winter cress. And you can count on wild dandelion A second problem quickly manifested itself: the sides would be, in fact, a greenhouse. My quest to extend the growing season began when Polyethylene is the stuff your plastic garbage bags are the danger of frost has passed. [t can thus extend the growing from their tunnels. I 33

the months when it would be most beneficial. model. It would be a super deluxe grow-bole. And if a guy for reason of comparison factors we have to add +41 more season a month or more. Before electricity and central heat "Gophers," they said. raI se your young. utility on factory farms, where tractors do the cultivating and be the first of decades of struggle with those #@%$&! demons. 42 as described in The $50 & Up Underground House Book. mature did not produce and, in fact, did not survive. The for+40 the principle upon which this book is based. house over the loss ofa still-air night. Ne'er-do-wells, oil comtions. When the concrete set, we removed the And there was a -2 for that vent we mentioned. All together, angles to each other so that they form four sides and a top 17 prove the pitch this way. Vague memory recalls that tbe secfaces combined, or an additional minus 20% for each of the roots probably reached the manure. I think those were some of camping at first), and a grow-hole made a lot of sense as a way correct it, or at least developed when we built my original $50 underground house, structure in an excavation and, before backfilling, you protect find it. tle perhaps, but a descriptive one for a sysall right as far as it goes, but, trouble is, it does not go very far. bing. now, is what could be called the "Chari lar floor space. I can ' t remember the exact measurements of edges which may rip the polyethylene. We have previously factored in. The first is that the earth in our eartb-sheltered the protected growing surface beneath is also one square foot. replaced after ten or twelve years. In the $500 Underground down. Poorly-set fence posts rays tended to glance off like a rock skipping over water. I ies and successes one by one. And I'll tell you how you (and off any sharp edges or protruding limb stubs that could tear the the north and slanted on the east and west sides and that, since not all of these are root cellar material. add another negative unit to that method, making it -6/+ 1. -91 units. The fmal math then reads like this: rate times during the post-setting process. If large amounts of TRADITIONAL ABOVE GROUND mile-per-hour wind for any length of time on a 25-degree night farmers for their fence posts, and they only stopped when poly with several inches of earth. That could tum those began using the growout of most of the wind avoids most of the wind scrub(l0'x I2 ') $50 Underground House - we soaked the posts in a Not only did it eliminate any wind scrubbing against that

phenomenon till I saw that the plant was beginning to sink into plants. This shocked the seedlings on cold days. No way to us of the outside boundary. That is, our posts will be set inside None of the others were quaking . I stood and pondered this We have progressed througb a number of methods for ond year I actually got a new bole dug and the earth piled to The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 37 plant, say a tomato start, under protection. Let's say he inserts one square foot example above the ratio was 2/3 or 40/60. If The grow-hole was not a success for me that year. I tion. One holds the post while the other sees ifit is plumb and you'd have to work the plants from inside the structure. would also give more wind. face. They could instead just shove it horizontally out their things about the concept that looked like they could be imstove pipe for the next pouring. The concrete was at a time, pulling the surplus to the sides, then wrapping it ground builders was not going to faU back in. The result was [ was daily unAnd we have forgotten that the horse manure is adding beat to themselves. One was that the depth of the walls shaded the growing bed at all. 46 P(SfP construction More problems: We still have the shade factor caused would be soon in my first killer cold, then finding that I was only extending tbe hole, doing much of the gopher's work for them. would move the glazing a foot or two away from the grow crobes included, want to eat creosote-laced charcoal. miserably folks have failed to appreciate earth sheltering . able to drastically cut down loss from predators. This was all The fi rst cold sink greenhouse The seedlings were taking a beating each time this hapCompare the two systems in their relationship to the air make my land payments to weed and water properly; that the l"![ two house roof layers, however, we are now beginning to use and on a slant on the ceiving too much shade from the walls. The latter had many through the course of a night or cold spell, and we're talking If we call each heat-losing square foot a minus one unit and Which means it would no longer be a grow-hole now but worked against the north wall where there was head room, to start a garden early. So of course I made one. backfilling and tamping, but stopping to check every so often Here warm and it is important to understand why, for it illustrates Let's go back to our beat unit method to calculate the Sun low in the sky presented another problem: since planted seedlings were spindly, and that the plants I left in to traditional

the dormant winter season - a nine-month growing season earth are dumped at once, it will not tamp solid all the way 43 grow-hole. boxes or bins up off the ground and the carrots in pails of It would be nice after that big build-up for grow-boles to /.:r-greenhouse by night. the ground. I stood there, mouth agape. I began to question " fore the next course is scraped or shoveled in. On a post sunk to the otherwise lowest spot, the growing bed, now spills into astounded me by making coleslaw from garden cabbage she But again there are two more considerations that must be ers and farmers straddle the plants with hoops stuck in the clude that a grow-hole is up to eight times more effective than adding heat. Since there is only one unit losing heat, it is a required either longer and wider glazing or smaller grow space to grow after transplanting. Or if you were late in transplantll last most all winter." since there is five times more surface area receiving and stor- blocking at least half of the sun - and I was spending precould, and neitber the plants nor I were happy. Only the #@% j theless. holes must be large enough to accommodate shovel handles all 24 The grow-hole concept 5. By storing heat in the surrounding earth, a grow-hole began (a) immediately crumbling into the grow area and (b) poured in greased 6-inch or 8-inch stove pipe secthe strings and will just barely touch them. The holes, then, filled with fresh horse manure, the middle is a layer of growThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book +40 units. The nortb wall of the heat sink was 3'x8' for a nadian border in a North Idaho mountain valley. For less position himself to work on the plants. If you utilized the neighbors, to cover tbe tomato plants at nigbt in dread of the So that's what I built. 1 didn' t realize at the time that I'd ...,.", . was pretty new to gardening; that I was too busy working to The long rows do cut down proportionately on some of the total plus of 32 more units to the earth-sheltered greenNo doubt many of the old-time farmers used storm windows -11+5 unit situation. begin to shake when none others were. Was it the wind? Then +24, while its west wall was 2'x5' for a + 10. The east wall to keep squeezing the air out of the bags so not to have any -202 units +1 16 units or so early for subsequent transplanting into the garden when And there is the wind scrubbing factor. This is a toughie (x2) Then we wrap the cooled, charred ends in plastic gar-

organic greens for pennies, and need not reinvent the wheel, the four sides and top each have an area of one square foot and stumbled upon the "cold-sink" concept which was to make my can 't remember all the details, but I do recall that my transthose early years (all right, I didn't have a place at all - I was beautifully. Otbers were having success keeping beets, parslated here has glazing on the east and west walls, totaling The rest of the minus units? Well, there was the south was 5' high x8' wide, giving us an additional +40 heat units, of surface area on the two sides and top, or a 2/60 ratio. Ln our doing the reading is satisfied with the plumb, he begins the I had met the enemy and he was #%$&! gophers. plants by just reaching. I would never have to get up in the ground greenhouse. Post/ShoringfPolyetbylene, or P/SfP, is the method we 34 40 The first cold sink greenhouse A person would not be far off, probably, were he to confor the above-ground greenhouse. Our earth-sheltered greenmy sanity. I was just a couple of years up from my California incomplete combustion of wood. Not many critters, miefficiency of tbis earth-sheltered, solar greenhouse and commoist sand. Radishes, too, I discovered, would keep in moist The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 23 the plants. That may have been the year that I saw one of my greens in the spring before you can even think of working Coleman has had good effect using them inside his above The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 31 ends into heat sinks and give a + 16 instead of a -16 for a warmer throughout the night and during cold days than is that of house gets an additional -15 wind scrubbing units for a total of The coldest air is removed from the plants passively, 26 use it on both the walls and roof of our houses. For one of the the end of the post that is to go into the been protected from the earth in some way into the ground, hold it with one hand while scraping in the earth with a shovel 25 of most of the bob string visually aligned with the edge of the post. We do cates of the above-ground systems. We gave you that one ous about such glazing in northern climates. In many ditional -20% is probably quite small, we are going to use it ning. Score one for the hoop and plastic method. campfire till they have an eighth to a quarscore to a win of + 350. house, raising its score to + 148 and the comparison final The Eanh-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 39 call "wind scrubstaked out the site with batter boards, and run string to inform ing problem, too. But it would no longer be the economy tending the growing season .

cause in a 20' hoop row there is only one square foot of abovecould be up to l4 times more effective in sheltering plants than bas over the grow-hole. The hoops have tbeir place. Elliott grating from the ultraviolet rays. Within a half hour 1 had a This was back in the early ' 70s, now, and memory dims, but P/S/P construction H to go two to two-and-a-half feet into the whicb extended four inches out the top. We there is the fact that since the grow-hole is sunken it is down House - whicb was an addition whicb tripled the original tiny and what we are using on our structures 22 The grow-hole concept months of tbe year instead of one to three months? I was anyway, and the top foot of earthen walls would be held in could easily double the heat loss from an above-ground greenwith boards and earth, but cold air was seeping through noneand it is warmed passively by the heat of the earth . This thick. In our construction we generally use material that is 6 to greenhouse, being below ground level, is going to be appreciably lem with the hoop method - score another.) with either posthole diggers or shovels and set the posts. The getting tired of seeing my hard work go up in frost. Several Let's compare for a minute grow holes with the hoop of the sun and the warmth of the earth. How I pondered and increased till the entire plant disappeared into the earth! I was Though tbis problem would lessen as the sun elevated in the but still edible and organically grown. I learned that if a guy .,' ning across the bole and packing loose dirt around the edges. nips turnips, onions, garlic, squash, and pumpkins, tbougb " Setting these posts is pretty much a two-person operathan four hundred dollars I was able to permanently triple my this has you confused, skip over it. We're merely trying to be protecting tbe posts where they are in contact with the earth. sand. Apples, if they are "keeper apples", will over-winter tamped around the post must go in small increments, of perbad built the economy made of, only garbage bags are usually just 1.2 millimeter we had one that was 5'x8 ' with 6' walls witb a one-foot rise to tem that has worked well for us so far. It's will be radiating heat from the earth's depths plus the suo's sides then resting the ing soil, and the top foot is growing space for plants. It is decomposition of the fresh horse manure. ~ What we came up with in the end, Gophers and my poor results aside, there were a couple of The Eanh-Shellcred Solar Greenhouse Book 29 Subtract a +40 for the heat arising from tbe earthen floor, and we trapped on sunny days.

mile-per-hour wind is rare and might only happen once in a was supposedly related in one of the Foxflfe books, but to branch of Scotland's famed Findhom community in the early negative units on the hoop method, incidentally, when combed just three foot across, soutb to north, I could work all the Where these are not available, a guy could -42 other additional -40 units to the -202 for a total of -242 then 28 The grow.hole in practice and not always feasible, so we continued to search for other ground. We use small trees right off the GREENHOUSE: - 202 HEAT UNlTS keeps it from stacking back up and covering the plants again. anyway, thereby squashing the hysteria of critics. We add an18 might wish to keep out siding it off with anything - figuring that the lower portion minus 16 units. We'll see in Chapter 16 that we are dubito guesstimate. During the discussion before of the grow-hole mer was doubtless the result of being buried often and also retal square feet. That's 40 square feet of horizontal surface ;1----',- , say 6x6s, he might be able to tape two levels to the post and with a twelve-month fresh harvest. Simultaneously I was the advantages of FINAL SCORE and plastic system, a common method today of protecting No, they weren't eatmethod, we did some experimenting. One was to seedlings and sometimes mature plants. This is when gardenThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 19 Tne Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 35 own creosote, for creosote, we are told, is the product of the When I described this phenomenon later to my friends units, making it now +207 minus -76. should be as simple as later read that if the degree is great enough from perpendicusituation. And there was thc problem of just where a guy was to square foot example only to stun you into realization of how minus 2 for a vent. That would be 38, then. The east and was going to be filled up with horse manure and growing soil ground over which they stretch polyethylene. This system is land for the posts and peel them first. 'L_--;,: moderates somewhat the effect of excessive heat I didn't have either electricity or a place with central heat on? I watched with alarmed fascination as the rate of descent 2. There is little picked their own leaves to test. use three 2x6's nailed or screwed together a two-step process. The first step is to char

My second improvement came wben it became obvious storm window used as glazing. I patched as best as I could ter-inch of charcoal over all the area that is ing the sun's warmtb at any given moment of sunsbine, we gan a personal quest to find a passive, low-cost way of ex2' to)' in the ground, earth might be added six to twelve sepaground. This is another old-time farmer the way around because we usually tamp with shovel handles effect of wind scrubbing on the hoop unit so we can probably ing significant growth rays because of the pitch, then why not will add 25 per cent more heat per square foot than the other. So In the original $50 Underground House we hadn't protected pany executives and other rascals may protest that a lengthy 2030 The grow.ho]e in practice growing space for we used on the hillside greenhouse. concept is a tale in itself. So that you may have year ' round stumbled into the earth-sheltered greenhouse and cold-sink 38 The fi rst co ld sink greenhouse when backfilling. A number of other implements may be used the roots of the plants reached the fresh horse manure below are ring hardens the wood. [t also creates its deep in which the bottom six to twelve inches has been backguy migbt speculate reasonably that the sunken grow-hole for this. They' d be taking them off the house in the spring would be considerably larger. It would be a "structure". It we anticipated from the start. growing season. I was also able to harvest some greens in here is what I recall: for tamping of course - as long as they do not have sharp of the heat from the sun 's rays. donnant January garden a volunteer crop of green and edible The concept is simple: you construct a post and beam years in a row I'd scurried along, same as my gardening as in the illustration. To avoid this, the post must But wouldn't it be nice to have home-grown, organic Finally, you had to open the grow-hole to work on the How would a conventional 40 sq. ft greenhouse score? If The grow-hole in practice earth is pressed against it during backfill. Then we dig holes after the charring. We char them over a they no longer had to shove the earth uphill and out on the surgone through the looking glass with Alice? What was going WINS BY 318 HEAT UNITS wonders of cucumbers turned into diU pickles. Friends tuned pitcb tbe roof, we would get 202' of exposed surface for a -202. the factors, but think also the #%@&! gophers finally found +40 units +207 units causes, I think: the fact that I don 't have a green thumb; that I around the post. We tape them in several places and take care

cover long rows of plants, for the sake of illustration let's creeach heat-adding a plus one unit, we see we have a -5/+ I unit tious gardening work deserved more reward than that. [belayer of polyethylene. anyway. roots in her family's root cellar. Not prime stuff to be sure, young Seventb Day Adventist cook in my favorite restaurant buildings and above-ground greenhouses also. Being shaded area against the south wall - the logical place - you they were no longer heating with wood. This information penta and diesel oil solution. When we came to our senses .. the two. The soutb wall, the cold- sink wall, was 5' x8' for a to see if the plumb is off. If a person is using milled lumber, of what underadding heat or +40 energy units. The back, or north, wall I. It is down out growing surface adding heat is joined by the four walls also stunned. two hoops into the ground a little more than a foot high at right this first experiment, but these will be close enough: the have to work lying down or sitting bent forward. But if you A grow hole looks like this: ground surface area on each end proportionate to the 60 sq. ft that J would need to shore up a grow-bole if I was going to im$&1 gophers were happy. covering my seedlings and throwing the earth out of the grow, EPDM, the artificial rubber swimming pool and containment the roots and the trapped air in the space above.A grow did begin to crumble and they began leaving gaps around the begins the backfilling. Because of the irregular surface of unsouth wall in the shaded area to stand in while working on the five -I units. That is probably quite low. Seems to me a 20That means that this simple, earth-sheltered greenhouse Then there was the problem of what would happen if CHAPTER 4 3. A grow-bole utilizes the heat stored in the depths of garden. Instead, they was lucky and the snow melts, he can sometimes find in his piling tbe dirt from the face, wbich was a glazed 8'x6' for a -48 . The east and west