COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE bad built the economy haps 6 to 8 inch depth then compacted to perhaps half that betious

gardening work deserved more reward than that. [benips turnips, onions, garlic, squash, and pumpkins, tbougb shaded area against the south wall - the logical place - you 20 this has you confused, skip over it. We're merely trying to be for the above-ground greenhouse. Our earth-sheltered greenBut wouldn't it be nice to have home-grown, organic from the excavation which we piled behind the north wall. organic greens for pennies, and need not reinvent the wheel, garden soil. There were other tricks like making tea from Where these are not available, a guy could " west walls of the growing bed were each 2 ' x3 ' or a + 12 for -242 units -91 units TRADITIONAL ABOVE GROUND methods of post preservation. cover long rows of plants, for the sake of illustration let's creBut where were the fresb winter greens? A pretty roots in her family's root cellar. Not prime stuff to be sure, CHAPTER 3 increased till the entire plant disappeared into the earth! I was for a greenhouse catastrophe. Now despite the fact that the adstorm window used as glazing. I patched as best as I could the above-ground system. was 5' high x8' wide, giving us an additional +40 heat units, r did and it worked. I put the potatoes in sacks or in faces combined, or an additional minus 20% for each of the for this. They' d be taking them off the house in the spring House - whicb was an addition whicb tripled the original tiny "Gophers," they said. the north and slanted on the east and west sides and that, since 17 house over the loss ofa still-air night. Ne'er-do-wells, oil comfor reason of comparison factors we have to add +41 more can 't remember all the details, but I do recall that my transwas 2'x8' or an additional 16 sq. ft for a total of 40 horizoners and farmers straddle the plants with hoops stuck in the Compare the two systems in their relationship to the air two house roof layers, however, we are now beginning to use me on to beef and venison jerky, and gave me home dried apI. It is down out anyway, and the top foot of earthen walls would be held in and the earth. Though the hoop system is generally used to gan a personal quest to find a passive, low-cost way of exsides then resting the doing the reading is satisfied with the plumb, he begins the warmed by the sun all day and radiated the heat back into the + 164 and -76 heat units. That's 88 heat units to the plus. Like how about the problem of chilling the plants when

ing significant growth rays because of the pitch, then why not -32 bage bags, usually the full-sized black ones, though for greenfair and objective here, and to try to head off protests by advoof what underwith a twelve-month fresh harvest. Simultaneously I was theless. warmer throughout the night and during cold days than is that of mature did not produce and, in fact, did not survive. The forangles to each other so that they form four sides and a top -202 units +1 16 units opening the hole to work on them? If you were to avoid that, to guesstimate. During the discussion before of the grow-hole worked against the north wall where there was head room, - say if you wanted to leave some of the seedlings in the pit ple slices. grating from the ultraviolet rays. Within a half hour 1 had a since there is five times more surface area receiving and storAlmost immediately I had gopher problems. This was to can make a day with a thirty-degree temperature seem (l0'x I2 ') $50 Underground House - we soaked the posts in a bedded longer, perhaps for the season. So that was my first Not only did it eliminate any wind scrubbing against that minus 2 for a vent. That would be 38, then. The east and face, wbich was a glazed 8'x6' for a -48 . The east and west one square foot example above the ratio was 2/3 or 40/60. If headache and requested another assignment.) And there is .. My second improvement came wben it became obvious correct it, or at least sun when it was low in the sky and in the morning and evethemselves. One was that the depth of the walls shaded the astounded me by making coleslaw from garden cabbage she ground over which they stretch polyethylene. This system is The rest of the minus units? Well, there was the south beautifully. Otbers were having success keeping beets, parsadding heat. Since there is only one unit losing heat, it is a tal square feet. That's 40 square feet of horizontal surface anyway, thereby squashing the hysteria of critics. We add ana two-step process. The first step is to char was supposedly related in one of the Foxflfe books, but to each heat-adding a plus one unit, we see we have a -5/+ I unit they were no longer heating with wood. This information young Seventb Day Adventist cook in my favorite restaurant l"![ dles. own creosote, for creosote, we are told, is the product of the lar floor space. I can ' t remember the exact measurements of ..:i!.t +40 the advantages of out siding it off with anything - figuring that the lower portion

greenhouse by night. earth is pressed against it during backfill. Then we dig holes stumbled upon the "cold-sink" concept which was to make my planted seedlings were spindly, and that the plants I left in to will be radiating heat from the earth's depths plus the suo's cases we think the better move is to berm earth out there, of most of the (x2) prove the pitch this way. Vague memory recalls that tbe secmust stretch beyond the string to acco=odate the shovel hanachieved without any energy other than my labor, the warmth We call it off any sharp edges or protruding limb stubs that could tear the the loose earth wouldn ' t of its own stand in vertical walls, it , winter - but once is enough. The plants need only freeze once The long rows do cut down proportionately on some of the backfilling and tamping, but stopping to check every so often proved upon. One was the pitch of tbe glazing. If you are losbegins the backfilling. Because of the irregular surface of unwhy weren't any of the other plants shaking? Earthquake? hold it with one hand while scraping in the earth with a shovel will add 25 per cent more heat per square foot than the other. So here is what I recall: situation. A grow-hole allows you to plant garden plants a month could be up to l4 times more effective in sheltering plants than not sink the posts into tbe earth at all, but to set been protected from the earth in some way into the ground, had pulled up months before and hung upside down by its growing surface adding heat is joined by the four walls also donnant January garden a volunteer crop of green and edible phenomenon till I saw that the plant was beginning to sink into raI se your young. utility on factory farms, where tractors do the cultivating and tending the growing season . P/S/P construction pared to our own one square foot example above. This is besince, for the glazing to have a reasonable pitcb, it would have , The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 19 Then we wrap the cooled, charred ends in plastic garabove-ground walls each had 8 sq. ft of glazing for a -16. kind of a trapped bubble that could pop the poly when the fice. We have taken care before charring to make sure to cut them lip on concrete piers that we had previously down. Poorly-set fence posts Which means it would no longer be a grow-hole now but piling tbe dirt from the effect of wind scrubbing on the hoop unit so we can probably ;1----',- , for tamping of course - as long as they do not have sharp

4. Similarly, a grow hole traps, utilizes and stores much to the otherwise lowest spot, the growing bed, now spills into In the original $50 Underground House we hadn't protected was going to be filled up with horse manure and growing soil house projects the smaller, white garbage pail liners might sufpoured in greased 6-inch or 8-inch stove pipe secuse it on both the walls and roof of our houses. For one of the whicb extended four inches out the top. We my sanity. I was just a couple of years up from my California made indoor starts practical, it was a real boon to the gardener. More problems: We still have the shade factor caused the principle upon which this book is based. months of tbe year instead of one to three months? I was now, is what could be called the "Chari The concept is simple: you construct a post and beam ing soil, and the top foot is growing space for plants. It is insulate it, cover the insulation with polyethylene and the was not going to faU back in. The result was [ was daily unadding heat or +40 energy units. The back, or north, wall would be considerably larger. It would be a "structure". It ing the plants as tbey in humans and animals on cold, windy days. It is what Let's compare for a minute grow holes with the hoop The seedlings were taking a beating each time this hapPost and beam itself is simple. You set posts that have Prolog to a happy discovery mile-per-hour wind for any length of time on a 25-degree night What I finally decided was to dig a trencb along the we anticipated from the start. Coleman has had good effect using them inside his above the hoop and plastic method. But wait. We have forgotten the be braced from the inside of the structure. This is a hassle pea plants, waist high in a row of similar plants in my garden, did begin to crumble and they began leaving gaps around the pany executives and other rascals may protest that a lengthy 20ous about such glazing in northern climates. In many pond liner. penta and diesel oil solution. When we came to our senses stunned. would be, in fact, a greenhouse. you'd be taking up prime growing space. That way you'd be tions. When the concrete set, we removed the poly with several inches of earth. That could tum those 28 The grow.hole in practice j picked their own leaves to test. miserably folks have failed to appreciate earth sheltering . The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 31 the posts at all and tbey, of course, rotted out and had to be ing. Wouldn't that bum the plants? plant, say a tomato start, under protection. Let's say he inserts A person would not be far off, probably, were he to con-

poured concrete footings. getting tired of seeing my hard work go up in frost. Several growing space for This greenhouse had the additional benefit of the earth the months when it would be most beneficial. ground greenhouse. made of, only garbage bags are usually just 1.2 millimeter the plants. That may have been the year that I saw one of my pened, of course. Their leaves were coated with dust and mud 2' to)' in the ground, earth might be added six to twelve sepaarea. Clearly, I was going to have to shore everything up. there is the fact that since the grow-hole is sunken it is down fore the next course is scraped or shoveled in. On a post sunk be able to report my roaring success, but, alas, that is not the sand. Apples, if they are "keeper apples", will over-winter In the case of the grow hole the ratio is reversed. The 2. There is little case: It was only moderately successful at best, maybe even but still edible and organically grown. I learned that if a guy 34 24 The grow-hole concept ground greenhouses, and [ saw this used in a greenhouse at a ...,.", . reinforced with chicken wire and Y. inch rebar The grow-hole concept 5. By storing heat in the surrounding earth, a grow-hole plants. This shocked the seedlings on cold days. No way to heat which has been absorbed near the surface during the day. When the sun goes down, the five surfaces rearing above ond year I actually got a new bole dug and the earth piled to A grow hole looks like this: A second problem quickly manifested itself: the sides would also give more ;~ COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE: +116 HEAT UNlTS house, raising its score to + 148 and the comparison final GREENHOUSE: - 202 HEAT UNlTS Setting these posts is pretty much a two-person operaThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 23 the grow-hole so we can add another plus unit there. Then camping at first), and a grow-hole made a lot of sense as a way able to drastically cut down loss from predators. This was all might wish to keep later read that if the degree is great enough from perpendicuimprove upon it? That When I described this phenomenon later to my friends the earth. It radiates up, warming both the soil around ies and successes one by one. And I'll tell you how you (and was pretty new to gardening; that I was too busy working to come up with -162 heat units. Subtract a +40 for the heat arising from tbe earthen floor, and we rate times during the post-setting process. If large amounts of

hole, doing much of the gopher's work for them. sbould add a final two plusses, bringing the score to -1 /+ I0 vs. If we call each heat-losing square foot a minus one unit and to rest on tbe highest part of the mound to the north. That 22 The grow-hole concept in the other, inverting it and tamping with the handle. you'd have to work the plants from inside the structure. string beans, corn, pickled beets, peppers and, of course, the model. It would be a super deluxe grow-bole. And if a guy incomplete combustion of wood. Not many critters, misouth wall in the shaded area to stand in while working on the 42 plants which were roots probably reached the manure. I think those were some of plants by just reaching. I would never have to get up in the the roots and the trapped air in the space above.A grow method, we did some experimenting. One was to began (a) immediately crumbling into the grow area and (b) after the charring. We char them over a score to a win of + 350. units, making it now +207 minus -76. ~ The grow-hole in practice That means that this simple, earth-sheltered greenhouse position himself to work on the plants. If you utilized the greenhouses four-season successes. The cold-sink concept is 21 tem that has worked well for us so far. It's the other which is on the surface. A reasonable guess is tbat it was going to invest such time and resources, then wouldn't it 1980's. (In fact [ was put to work in that greenhouse when the Tbis is not to knock the hoop system. There are a few strong in natural vitamin C tbat autbor Ewell Gibbons was the ground. I stood there, mouth agape. I began to question they no longer had to shove the earth uphill and out on the surnegative units on the hoop method, incidentally, when comminus 16 units. We'll see in Chapter 16 that we are dubi36 The first cold sink greenhouse The pier method bas a built-in flaw whicb ing problem, too. But it would no longer be the economy moderates somewhat the effect of excessive heat those early years (all right, I didn't have a place at all - I was No, they weren't eat33 other additional -40 units to the -202 for a total of -242 then then, this first earth-sheltered greenhouse had a score of rays tended to glance off like a rock skipping over water. I "hinging". This is when the pressure from the nique that had been used by farmers in cold country for more to see if the plumb is off. If a person is using milled lumber, ground surface area on each end proportionate to the 60 sq. ft causes, I think: the fact that I don 't have a green thumb; that I

face. They could instead just shove it horizontally out their from their tunnels. I greens in the spring before you can even think of working that J would need to shore up a grow-bole if I was going to imbed just three foot across, soutb to north, I could work all the and on a slant on the The Eanh-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 39 None of the others were quaking . I stood and pondered this the trench where it is warmed by the earth behind the walls. required either longer and wider glazing or smaller grow space bing. This was back in the early ' 70s, now, and memory dims, but +40 units +207 units lar you can lose up to 95% of the rays. (This is not a prob18 the factors, but think also the #%@&! gophers finally found Let's go back to our beat unit method to calculate the 46 P(SfP construction lated here has glazing on the east and west walls, totaling sky towards summer, there would still be no sun there during we had one that was 5'x8 ' with 6' walls witb a one-foot rise to call "wind scrubor so early for subsequent transplanting into the garden when push both the post and pier into the structure a bit, would be soon in my And there was thc problem of just where a guy was to 25 all right as far as it goes, but, trouble is, it does not go very far. ring hardens the wood. [t also creates its layer of polyethylene. taller and that you as in the illustration. To avoid this, the post must ground. This is another old-time farmer the end of the post that is to go into the The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 37 ground. We use small trees right off the version - had just dug EPDM, the artificial rubber swimming pool and containment volved soaking or otherwise impregnating stovepipe creosote .,' The first cold-sink greenhouse The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book ing the sun's warmtb at any given moment of sunsbine, we garbage bag system" - not an intriguing tifarmers for their fence posts, and they only stopped when buildings and above-ground greenhouses also. Being I had met the enemy and he was #%$&! gophers. A grow-hole is far more efficient at keeping the seedlings tle perhaps, but a descriptive one for a sysand what we are using on our structures the moist sand. Radishes, too, I discovered, would keep in moist

ground will be losing heat while the growing surface below as described in The $50 & Up Underground House Book. replaced after ten or twelve years. In the $500 Underground be the first of decades of struggle with those #@%$&! demons. to keep squeezing the air out of the bags so not to have any stumbled into the earth-sheltered greenhouse and cold-sink hippy days. Cold this be an acid flashback? Had I suddenly trapped on sunny days. use three 2x6's nailed or screwed together could easily double the heat loss from an above-ground greenthe protected growing surface beneath is also one square foot. seedlings and sometimes mature plants. This is when gardenground builders keeps it from stacking back up and covering the plants again. I discovered the winter pleasure of borne canned peas, - blocking at least half of the sun - and I was spending pre":...-----mile-per-hour wind is rare and might only happen once in a bas over the grow-hole. The hoops have tbeir place. Elliott land for the posts and peel them first. of the heat from the sun 's rays. -42 polyethylene. We use five bags as a rule, but put them on one this first experiment, but these will be close enough: the is 318 heat units to the better compared to a similar abovethis, and it is this simple: The coldest air, which would sink I' ll take you through my thought process, fumbles, di scoverimprovement. I did not repeat my grow hole experiment the next year. Here's the story of what I fmally achieved near the Cafriends told me about the grow-hole concept. This is a techgrowing bed at all. find it. the two. The soutb wall, the cold- sink wall, was 5' x8' for a tamped around the post must go in small increments, of perter-inch of charcoal over all the area that is the lumber siding (shoring) from the damp of the earth with a would find yourself cramped by the low glazing there. You'd What we came up with in the end, earth are dumped at once, it will not tamp solid all the way nadian border in a North Idaho mountain valley. For less pitcb tbe roof, we would get 202' of exposed surface for a -202. WINS BY 318 HEAT UNITS cause in a 20' hoop row there is only one square foot of aboveMy quest to extend the growing season began when structure in an excavation and, before backfilling, you protect are began using the growedges which may rip the polyethylene. We have previously to go two to two-and-a-half feet into the add another negative unit to that method, making it -6/+ 1. covering my seedlings and throwing the earth out of the grow-

ground for tbe earth stove pipe for the next pouring. The concrete was deep in which the bottom six to twelve inches has been back40 The first cold sink greenhouse ate a situation in which a grower might want to put a single with boards and earth, but cold air was seeping through noneSo that's what I built. 1 didn' t realize at the time that I'd 3. A grow-bole utilizes the heat stored in the depths of 10 mil. thick - excepting when we use multiple garbage bags And there is the wind scrubbing factor. This is a toughie by the low pitch of the sun blocked by depth of the south wall. neighbors, to cover tbe tomato plants at nigbt in dread of the Note: The earth-sheltered, cold-sink greenhouse calcu$&1 gophers were happy. filled with fresh horse manure, the middle is a layer of grow.\ of the sun and the warmth of the earth. How I pondered and thick. In our construction we generally use material that is 6 to I) can have even more grati fying successes in the future. advantages which we will mention soon that the hoop metbod 30 The grow.ho]e in practice Polyethylene is the stuff your plastic garbage bags are campfire till they have an eighth to a quarHere excavation to tbe north two hoops into the ground a little more than a foot high at right No doubt many of the old-time farmers used storm windows boxes or bins up off the ground and the carrots in pails of of surface area on the two sides and top, or a 2/60 ratio. Ln our ceiving too much shade from the walls. The latter had many and mentors they smi led ruefully and shook their heads. total plus of 32 more units to the earth-sheltered greenAmong several other advantages, this eliminates the need for say 6x6s, he might be able to tape two levels to the post and Sboring would solve the #@%$&! gopher earth dumpthe way around because we usually tamp with shovel handles ll last most all winter." less than that. I did not repeat the experiment a second year. where there is a need to temporarily shelter long rows of crops. method of fence post preservation. Charand no longer were willing to use that poison pare it to that of a typical above-ground greenhouse of simi-6/+ 1. would move the glazing a foot or two away from the grow 32 But again there are two more considerations that must be growing season. I was also able to harvest some greens in And we have forgotten that the horse manure is adding beat to crobes included, want to eat creosote-laced charcoal. 43 Correct tamping is an acquired skill and the most misun-

hole drilled in the post bottom. This is the method Sun low in the sky presented another problem: since 'L_--;,: Those were problems due to lack of materials and Above ground Earth-sheltered have to work lying down or sitting bent forward. But if you pay to solve some of the other problems at the same time? us of the outside boundary. That is, our posts will be set inside than a century. A grow-hole consists of a pit two to three feet about five surfaces - add another two plus units. And, finally, the second person standing back and sighting down a plumb mer was doubtless the result of being buried often and also re27 ends into heat sinks and give a + 16 instead of a -16 for a Gophers and my poor results aside, there were a couple of of the cold-sink was a door and was a -10. efficiency of tbis earth-sheltered, solar greenhouse and comI didn't have either electricity or a place with central heat staked out the site with batter boards, and run string to inform developed when we built my original $50 underground house, and it is warmed passively by the heat of the earth . This sun was shining and the air reeked of the polyethylene disinteTne Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 35 38 The fi rst co ld sink greenhouse the strings and will just barely touch them. The holes, then, greens fresh from the garden nine or ten or even twelve factored in. The first is that the earth in our eartb-sheltered The coldest air is removed from the plants passively, cates of the above-ground systems. We gave you that one time. Other problems, design problems, began presenting clude that a grow-hole is up to eight times more effective than losing growing space against both of those walls. tunnel with no care whatsoever about where it went, because it CHAPTERS H was lucky and the snow melts, he can sometimes find in his things about the concept that looked like they could be imfive -I units. That is probably quite low. Seems to me a 20hole as a dumping FINAL SCORE wonders of cucumbers turned into diU pickles. Friends tuned H make my land payments to weed and water properly; that the a three-foot hole withplace by the roots of the grass surrounding the pit. It sounded The Eanh-Shellcred Solar Greenhouse Book 29 ditional -20% is probably quite small, we are going to use it out of most of the wind avoids most of the wind scrubnot a million-dollar researcb study, but it would seem to me a /.:r-gone through the looking glass with Alice? What was going garden. Instead, they

bing". Wind scrubbing is what causes the "chill factor" tion. One holds the post while the other sees ifit is plumb and with either posthole diggers or shovels and set the posts. The could, and neitber the plants nor I were happy. Only the #@% to start a garden early. So of course I made one. Post/ShoringfPolyetbylene, or P/SfP, is the method we cious time blowing and shaking and washing off as mucb as I We have progressed througb a number of methods for slipped the post down over the rebar via a 'I.-inch not all of these are root cellar material. wild winter cress. And you can count on wild dandelion ning. Score one for the hoop and plastic method. themselves. Polyethylene comes in rolls of various sizes. We Then there was the problem of what would happen if first killer cold, then finding that I was only extending tbe holes must be large enough to accommodate shovel handles all ning across the bole and packing loose dirt around the edges. vs. hoop and plastic method we gave a -I unit for the five surbegin to shake when none others were. Was it the wind? Then glazed by simply laying a window down on the ground spantraditional Finally, you had to open the grow-hole to work on the -91 units. The fmal math then reads like this: greenhouse, being below ground level, is going to be appreciably the glass was horizontal to the ground, much of the sun's wind. around the post. We tape them in several places and take care branch of Scotland's famed Findhom community in the early dried strawbeny leaves. These brew into a beverage so on? I watched with alarmed fascination as the rate of descent plants. That way I would have headroom. And with a grow earth behind the wall pushes in hard enough to house gets an additional -15 wind scrubbing units for a total of How would a conventional 40 sq. ft greenhouse score? If the roots of the plants reached the fresh horse manure below CHAPTER 4 Though tbis problem would lessen as the sun elevated in the where the earth has lost a lot less heat than tbat on the surface we used on the hillside greenhouse. lem with the hoop method - score another.) warm and it is important to understand why, for it illustrates good in theory. But the end result was the gophers discovered to grow after transplanting. Or if you were late in transplantgrow-hole. +24, while its west wall was 2'x5' for a + 10. The east wall derstood part of post setting. The earth to be backfilled and Now I'm not a mathematician or a scientist, and this is brought in for testing - till the lab technicians went out and wall, but now it became a heat sink in its own right. [t was the four sides and top each have an area of one square foot and than four hundred dollars I was able to permanently triple my The Ean h-Shcltercd Solnr Greenhouse Book 45

It would be nice after that big build-up for grow-boles to Chapter 2 concept is a tale in itself. So that you may have year ' round bob string visually aligned with the edge of the post. We do square foot example only to stun you into realization of how 44 P/S!P construction when backfilling. A number of other implements may be used our disappointment we were never able to the danger of frost has passed. [t can thus extend the growing milled trees, the easiest way we ' ve found to check plumb is by the dormant winter season - a nine-month growing season season a month or more. Before electricity and central heat at a time, pulling the surplus to the sides, then wrapping it when wrapped with clear polyethylene glazing. Let's say that The fi rst cold sink greenhouse should be as simple as thought to be salting with ascorbic acid the samples be " ,I One supposed old-time method we were told about inand plastic system, a common method today of protecting decomposition of the fresh horse manure. The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 41 like ten degrees. What that wind does to you it does to +40 units. The nortb wall of the heat sink was 3'x8' for a -11+5 unit situation. into wood. We were told it was a common practice among 26 glazing on it. This and not always feasible, so we continued to search for other hole traps, utilizes and stores the heat generated by the through the course of a night or cold spell, and we're talking grow bed was 3'x8' for 24 sq. ft. The floor of the cold-sink then notch girders into them for floor joists and rafters. this from two directions, say the north and east. When the guy anyway. season a couple of weeks at best. Many hours of conscienThe grow-hole was not a success for me that year. I And there was a -2 for that vent we mentioned. All together, years in a row I'd scurried along, same as my gardening guy migbt speculate reasonably that the sunken grow-hole protecting tbe posts where they are in contact with the earth.