Monday, April 27, 2009

New House On the Block (Greenhouse that is...)

Another successful work party! This time we were at Jean's house assembling a large greenhouse frame. Tomatoes here we come! We started with the plot of land that the very first work party we had at Jean's helped to clear away.


Then we layed out a mish-mash of tubes that at first glance looked like they were going to cause us nothing but grief. "What does this thingy do?" and "this is a funny shaped tube" and "how come we have 40 of these and only 2 of these...?"


But then Jean pulled out the instruction manual and Armageddon was avoided. All the tubes had corresponding letters and numbers and the manual guided you step by step through the magical journey of greenhouse building.


Instead of trying to piecemeal together a bunch of found glass or spend a fortune buying it, we opted to use vapour barrier plastic for the walls and roof. It was surprisingly easy to drape the plastic over the top and the piece we cut folded out twice to cover the entire roof and walls. The only other piece we'll need to cut are for the ends of the structure.


Midway through construction, Skye provided us with her delicious lemonade. It was getting hot inside that greenhouse and labourers can become quite unpredictable when dehydration kicks in....


A big thank you to all who participated this week. We are working towards a vegetable prosperous neighbourhood!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Making Space for More Mess Projects!

A big thank you to everyone in Sunday's work party. The Beaver Dam is no longer! With many hands making light work of it, the once massive pile of greens is now stuffed into 4 green trimmings bins, headed for a better place (than our back yard). And my oh my, the many tomatoes we repotted! I'm sure they are all very happy in their new roomier accommodations and ready to grow into scrumptious plants that can equal Kate's beauties. So, yay for team work! Community banding together to GET STUFF DONE. I love it. Pictured here is the Beaver Dam in all its snow covered glory. Yes, that's how long our pile has been sitting there..."After" picture to come. At the moment the spot has been filled again. This time with a half a dump truck full of compost and some large branches we trimmed from our tree today. These beavers' spirits cannot be broken...As it is now, there are 2 large piles of compost that Tamara ordered. One is sitting in our back yard at 35 East 24th, and one is sitting on Tamara's front driveway (and her tulips) at 41 East 23. For anyone that didn't get the pricing information that Tamara worked out, I've reposted here:

Pricing:
$25/metre or $19/yard (this includes delivery and taxes)

4-5 large contractor wheelbarrow (6 cu. ft) loads = 1 yard = $19
6-7 homeowner size wheelbarrow (4 cu. ft) loads = 1 yard = $19

Please pay Tamara for your share.