As we slip into September, I finished part of my current project: transforming the patios around the house into a kitchen garden. It’s still an open goal, but every part I do gets me closer to doing it in full by next spring. This graph drives it home for me every time I look at it:
Whatever we grow helps us buy less food and lower our carbon footprint. And as I have learned in the past 6.5 years running a small homestead, the shorter the walk, the more likely I am to keep at it. Yes, the big gardens below produce most of it, but there is something about just walking outside and picking—sitting down and enjoying a big handful of fresh peas while cooling off in the wind. When I have to go work down below, I am more likely to shrug it off.
It’s far too easy to know that I will be there for an hour or two if I go work down below. There’s always work to do: weeding, watering, dealing with chickens, etc.
However, the work on the patios around the house is small and easy to do, so I don’t get overwhelmed.
I wanted to add a small pop-up (portable) greenhouse to the patios for tucking plants into this fall and starting plants for the patio beds in early spring. Our goals include building a greenhouse here and providing shelter for our citrus plants. But we needed something now before the first frosts of November show up. Pop-up greenhouses move quickly, so I can shift them where they need to be quickly.
They are also affordable, not breaking the bank. Pop-up greenhouses range from $45 to $150 on average, and the end of summer is a great time to buy, as Amazon can offer steep discounts on them.
And with this, I can grow lettuce for a longer period this fall, as the lower patio gets sun nearly the whole day, along with the house and pavers radiating heat back at night.
This time, I saw an upgraded version of the classic style of pop-up greenhouses on Amazon. The Ohuhu one adds 2 shelves on the back wall, 3 windows for better ventilation, and clips to hold the shelves down (normally, I zip-tie the shelves on). It had all the features I expected. Plus the bonus new ones, so for a retail cost of $94.99 (I had a coupon offered on my purchase that took $4.75 off. It cost me $98.18 with tax, shipped free with Prime and I received it in 2 days.)
Alistaire assembled it quickly. He’s helped me with other ones in the past, but he also told me that building the frames is like building Legos. He had it put together in under 30 minutes.
Then we figured out where to put it.
As I have said before, the frame can handle a lot; the cover turns it into a kite. So weighing it down is very important.
I don’t like using guylines because of their tripping potential and the possibility of dogs hitting them, so I use large paver blocks instead.
Two on each side works well to weight down the “kite” part of the greenhouse.
I also added 2 12″ pavers inside and put them over the middle bar as weights. Over the years, I have done this and never had one lift-off in winter.
Now then, in the photo two up, you will see I don’t put them on the front. In storms or windy days you will want to seal the door’s zippers fully, and shut all windows. It is nice and tight and will usually shed the wind if the rest is held down.
The third paver is for one of the meyer lemon trees to sit on; I do this for better drainage.
In a few weeks, I will move the citrus in and any plants I want to winter over or extend their season (such as basil).
~Sarah