April 2023

We are active in many gardening and homesteading communities both in person and online.  We are constantly learning, and we enjoy contributing to others' endeavors.  People ask about and discuss greenhouse coverings all the time.  Hobbyists new to greenhouses have a lot to learn, and one of the most important decisions in purchasing a greenhouse is, what do I choose?  There is a lot more to a greenhouse than just the covering, but the covering is extremely important.  

The first greenhouse we built, we covered with 8 mm twin wall polycarbonate panels.  Then we build a greenhouse with 5 mm Solexx.  Being that we own and have installed BOTH, here is what we know about the differences in these materials:  Spoiler alert.  We love the Solexx material and aren't huge fans of the 8 mm polycarbonate material.  We are constantly discussing covering the polycarbonate material with Solexx (lets call it project #57...so it is a ways out on the list).  

Solexx is easier to install in every aspect.  Can be cut with a utility blade in 1 - 2 passes.  Polycarbonate requires a circular saw or jig saw to cut, and it better fit in the space you are trying to wrestle it into!    

Solexx requires no special connections, you simply overlap it and secure it with screws on the seams and ends.  Polycarbonate requires H-channel, F-Channel, End Covers - U channel (and special tape both top and bottom ends), and you get the idea.  Solexx for the win on installation in a big way! 

Solexx difusses light, which eliminates shadows in your greenhouse.  This increases yield by 25%!  All while protecting plants from the harmful rays that burn them.

The performance by the numbers: 

5mm Solexx Panels R = 2.30, U = 0.43

3.5mm Solexx Panels R= 2.10, U = 0.48

8mm Twin-Wall Polycarbonate R = 1.60, U = 0.63

R-Value - the measurement of 'insulating ability' of the material. The higher the R-Value number the greater the insulation value.

U-Value - the measurement of 'heat loss' through the material. The lower the U-Value the less heat is escaping.

*Independent testing, Solexx with caulked flutes. 

March 2023

It feels a bit like Ground Hog's Day with the Walipini construction and gardening...oh, and raising kids, jobs, and whatnot.   Sorry, had to do that;)  

Few pics below for attention, showing the latest progress, and more rambling words below the pics about the details!

Painting, foam removal, and finishing touches are complete on the Walipini.  FINALLY!   The spray foam and painting took a mind blowing amount of time and mental fortitude to get it accross the finish line.  Initially, we had drainage issues which were causing condensation to collect on the steel ceiling and walls preventing us from having the spray foam completed.  

After we fixed the drainage problems, we were unable to vent the greenhouse as we had to keep it locked up tight to keep the heat in with colder weather.  

Once the spray foam was in, we were unhappy with the look from the overspray on the trusses.  So we removed it all with disk grinders and wire wheels.  If we messaged Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, he would have loved this job!   Most of that was last month, but we haven't forgotten it yet!

I has been a battle, but it is finally all together.   It almost looks like construction is coming to an end on the inside, but the outside is a bit rough needing grass planted very soon and some finishing work here and there (mostly landscaping related).  

This is our space / corner of the world we are creating, so we are planning to plant alternative grasses that require less water and  maintenance.  We will have some news to report on what we do with the grass shortly.  We (admittedly, mostly Hajnal) are studying alternative lawn covers and will be planting in several phases starting in the next couple weeks as warmer weather shows up.

February 2023

It is almost spring and we continue to be busy with Walipini construction and garden planning...oh, and raising kids, jobs, and whatnot. Inside the sunroom we are starting seeds for spring and summer, and propagating what we must. 

I started to prune the apple trees and the roses are next. 

With the Walipini, we are making great progress and 98% completed with construction. The solar system is working great, lights, electricity, fans, blowers, and all are operational. We took these pictures on New Year's Eve, turning the lights on for the first time! 

We added sprayfoam to the North section of the roof and 2 feet below ground level on the walls for extra insulation. So far, it works great holding in the heat overnight. We anticipate it will help regulate heat in the summer as well.  One of the main reasons we selected Solexx for glazing the South wall, is it disperses light inside and we were able to cover only the south facing roof and insulate the north roof. 

Cleaning the spray foam from the cedar trusses was a tedious and demanding job, but it is finally complete.  

We painted the sprayfoam as it yellows over time, so we decided to paint it white. The plan was to use a spray gun, but that didn't work out, so it had to be done by hand. The spray foam company was messy in their execution, so had to do a lot of clean up of overspray. It was a lot of extra work added to our plan, but it will look amazing when complete. 

Dec 2022

Hi Everybody! We are checking in! 

Fall is almost gone and wow, what a busy year! Everything is growing around us, which is amazing to be part of. The Walipini is almost done, check out our dedicated page for it HERE. 

The high level summary:

• We are building a geothermal greenhouse that uses the earth and sun to super charge our growing season. Jeremy and Larry engineered and researched the design and created the build plans. 

• We broke ground on Memorial Day 2022, and worked for 8 weeks straight every chance, and then picked it back up in the fall after a break to finish the structure. (By we, I mean, Jeremy, Chad, Mark, Larry and a few other helpers that were cool enough to lend us a hand, which we appreciate very much!)

• While we are still unsure exactly we will do with this space, we look forward to growing our food and offering classes in person and online. In terms of growing inside: we will give our house plants some well deserved space and setup a several different types of garden beds (regular, hydroponic, hugelkulture) with the goal to grow more of our food. The hugelkulture style will be new to us, but it makes absolute sense and we look forward experimenting with these new beds soon! 

Checking back from our quarterly goals, we did have our first ever plant sale, but we didn't yet offer a full blown class at our place. The plant sale was a success, we learned a lot, collected some new plants (YAY!), and rehomed a few of our plants as well.  We still have more plants than we had before the sale, so look out for the next sale!!!  

Goals for the quarter ahead:

• Finish Wali and have an opening party

• Start classes

• Grow 10% of our food throughout the seasons at home 

2022-12-05

Aug 2022

We had a crazy summer this year. Lots of infrastructure work and changes. Jeremy is building the Walipini, our in ground, geothermal, off grid green house. He also installed drip irrigation systems pretty much everywhere. He also added extra netting for the garden and flags to ty to keep the deer away, as well as extra weed barriers everywhere around the garden to keep the grass down.

I have been chasing the kids all summer and have been  trying to keep up with weeding, seeding and harvesting. The garden looks pretty great, but  we had a very difficult time with the deer, squirrel, racoon.  In our summer garden we are growing tomatoes, bok choi, egg plants, basil, berries, fig, pepper, stevia, bee and lemon balm, sage, rosemary, oregano, cantaloupe, carrots, luffa, okra, cucumber, sunchokes, sweet potatoes, horse radish, kale, brussels sprout. The harvest have been underwhelming, behind starting some of the plants too late and having the deer/racoon, squirrel eat down the plants. 

We have discovered that we have a peach tree (in pretty bad shape) and it produced a single fruit. 

With the Master Gardeners, we helped at the composting boots and ran a follow up composting workshop through at the Helping Hands. Had a pretty good turn out, and shared some newer/lesser known techniques with the group. We focused primary on Bokashi and Berkeley composting. 

We are excited to figure out plans for the Walipini and grow with it, grow into it.

Goal for the quarter ahead:

• Walipini opening and first in person workshop at Cow Face Farm training center

• Northwest Arkansas Plant Swap and Sale - October 8th 10am, 983 E Don Tyson Pkwy, Springdale, AR

2022-08-28