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School Greenhouse Project
anna.kasperT_R_-P_s
Posts: 8
in Plants
Hi everyone! We are a group of high school seniors working on our school project that is related to greenhouses and water conservation. If you have any previous knowledge or experience with greenhouses, we would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to complete this survey so that we can collect as much data as possible. Thank you!! 
https://%20docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEXG4b8P_z8zEUSj_aqDRKAZWNRvO1jNa5f_9kvhdaK1o-6g/viewform?usp=sf_link
https://%20docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEXG4b8P_z8zEUSj_aqDRKAZWNRvO1jNa5f_9kvhdaK1o-6g/viewform?usp=sf_link
0
Posts
https://forms.gle/g3Jr3ZEDhjst892w9
Thank you!!
https://forms.gle/g3Jr3ZEDhjst892w9
Best of luck anyway
And so to what has become the modern equivalent of the greenhouse in the minds of many. Before venturing into the realms of design, be it for greenhouse or tunnel, few stop to consider exactly why they need one. Hence the number one sees that are used as sheds with bales of peat, bundles of canes, piles of flower pots and watering cans utilising the space for which the facility was bought. Even if kept relatively clear, the design of most on the market is sadly unfit for purpose.
So, why do we need one? What should it do, and what should it look like to make that happen? Need, as such, is a perception, insofar as life has always gone on, and can still do, without either, but our reason for investing in them is an attempt to guard against the rigours of nature, and to encourage growth outside the normal season. The salient factor affecting design is that more than one type of plant will be cultivated, and each will grow to its own prescribed height. For guidance we need to examine how the first greenhouses were constructed.
In earlier times the aristocracy, with hordes of gardeners at their bidding, would strive to bring back exotic flowers and fruit from their travels, if only to impress other estates. The British climate was unsuitable for the production of such things as pineapples and oranges so, with money no object, they set out to create artificial climates in which they’d grow.Their answer was to select the south facing wall of an outbuilding to get most sun, paint it white to reflect as much heat as possible and, most important, create a structure of a LEAN TO type so that the plants could be arranged in ascending order by height to ensure all received sun as it travelled its southern arc. With this logical format, crops like lettuces and peppers would occupy the low southern side, followed by taller crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and a few early runner beans, and even culminating in a grape vine running along a wire just below the roof. Tools and other paraphernalia would be kept inside the outbuilding itself to leave maximum growing space in the greenhouse.
The sense of aligning any such building on an east-west direction can’t be denied but, now that the ordinary citizen can aspire to owning his or her own facility, we’re faced with a range of designs with central ridges, the north side of which will inevitably be in the shade of taller plants in the middle. The growing area, as already mentioned, is often cluttered up with other items and, whilst anything is better than nothing, so much can be achieved with a little thought
The answer, but only for the DIY enthusiast, is to create a greenhouse-type building of traditional pitched roof style, but with the ridge positioned off centre at two thirds to three quarters of the width from the south side. With a dividing wall, ideally of reflective plastic, the remaining northern space can then accommodate a water tank and other impedimenta, leaving the majority for crops.
I hope this helps?