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Splendid, practical handbook -- essential reading for anyone looking to extend their growing season. Thoroughly recommended. --Peter Andrews, Founder, Eco-logic Books, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Old master and pioneer Mike Oehler surprises us and a new generation again with his new book full of basic facts. Useful even for those like us in the Netherlands, living around 53 degrees latitude north ... focuses on simple methods and materials ... Interesting and important ... humorous ... highly inspiring. --Sietz Leeflang, Director, Center for Ecological Techniques; founder and editor emeritus, De Twaalf Ambachten, Boxtel, the Netherlands.
Yep, it tells you how, and in Mike s colloquial, humorous, and sometimes curmudgeonly and always inimitable manner. I ve always prided myself on sharing information on low-cost greenbuilding techniques in my books, but Mike outflanks me every which way ... the guy builds cheap, dirt cheap, and I say this with begrudging admiration. --Rob Roy, author of Earth-Sheltered Houses; Director-Earthwood Building School, West Chazy, New York
About the Author
Mike Oehler has been designing, building and living underground since 1971 on his North Idaho 46 acre homestead. He has been gardening in his unique earth-sheltered greenhouses since 1976. Author of The $50 & Up Underground House Book, his work has received international acclaim and resulted in his lecturing or conduction workshops in Canada, England, Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and 26 American states, frequently under the sponsorship of university architecture departments. More of his work may be viewed at www.undergroundhousing.com.
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It has been one complete season now since building an underground greenhouse using many of Mike's ideas. I live in Calgary Alberta, about 200 miles north of Mike's Idaho greenhouse.
Temperature varies from minus 35 to 35 above degrees celcius. A short growing season and expensive to try and heat and cool a traditional greenhouse in these extremes. The underground greenhouse so far has proven to be the perfect answer to these challenges.
Temperature stats: coldest temp: 3 days of -4 for the lows, enough to freeze my tomatoes in the middle of February when it averaged -30 degrees Celcius outside at night. Everything survived the earlier two cold snaps that didn't go below -25. Most other days of the year were between +7 and 23 in the greenhouse. It is very rare that temperature goes outside of this range. All it would take is a small space heater running a few of the very coldest days to go year round in this. I probably won't do that though. I think it is better to start over completely each season.
My greenhouse measures 16 feet long, six wide, 13 tall. The grow bed is 4 feet wide, with a two foot wide by 3 foot deep cold sink. Along the back north wall I have a 300 gallon water wall with 52 vertical hydroponic net pots. I grow peppers, tomatoes, snap peas, carotts, beets, legal herbs, spinach and all kinds of lettuce. I start all of my regular garden plants in it too. The glazing is 54 degrees - a little flat for this far north but still quite effective at getting the sun in durring winter and out when directly overhead in mid-summer. Wax pistons expand in the heat of the day to push open two vents and a small solar fan keeps the air moving.
I have fallen in love with this book because it is the answer to most of my greenhouse problems. I was concerned about building an above ground greenhouse due to the fact that I would have to run electricity to the building to heat/cool it. The earth berm concept is so painfully smart am left wondering why more people don't practice this? This book also solved my problem of a location for vermiculture and where to house the chickens I am soon to get for the winter. In order to get a better handle on construction methods I also bought the author's other book ($50.00 and up undgerground house) but if you are a little familiar with construction you'll do fine with this one. A must buy right now due to the need for sustainable living!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Is it possible to garden year round in practically any climate, without using costly fuel for heat and light during the cold season? This seems almost impossible in most areas of the United States. Yet Mike Oehler, the author of the well-known "The $50 & Up Underground House Book," claims that he has figured out a way to do just this.
In Mike's latest book, "The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse: How to Build an Energy Free Year-round Greenhouse," he explains various experiments that he has made over many decades with digging into the ground to take advantage of the inherent heat retained by the earth. Mike has an inimitable, curmudgeonly and witty style of writing that makes this an enjoyable read.
Gardeners have often made simple "cold frames" to extend the gardening season by surrounding plants with low glazing. This works for awhile, but eventually the cold will get through and the plants will freeze. Mike tried digging a grow hole with glazing over it, and this worked to some extent, but ultimately cold and insufficient light got to his plants.
With Mike's experience living in an underground house he had learned a few things about the way heat and cold behave. He knew that hot air rises and cold air sinks down to the lowest spot available. With this in mind he realized that what the grow hole really needed was a place for that cold air to go so that it didn't freeze the plants. His next experiment was to make a little recessed greenhouse that had a space wide enough to walk in on the south side that was lower than the growing bed. This not only provided a place to stand while working in the greenhouse, but also provided that place for the cold air to reside.
This simple idea is really the basis of Mike's remarkable success in greenhouse gardening.Read more ›
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115 of 135 people found the following review helpful
The first thing that strikes me about this book is the extremely low quality of production. The second thing that grabs my attention is the $25 price tag - for a soft cover book with 230 pages and very few photos. The photos it does have are of extremely poor quality and half of them are from the 70's. On page 183, the author describes himself as "an irresponsible, frequently-intoxicated hippy". With the price he is charging for the book, be must be drinking Chateau Lafite. I have to take away 1 star for price gouging.
Having said that, the author seems to be just about the only person around advocating earth-sheltered greenhouses. The concept is simple and I have to wonder why it's not more common. In fact, it's so simple that one only needs to read the article by the author on the Mother Earth News Website. I read that article and found the concept intriguing, so I bought the book, expecting some formal, in-depth research on the subject. All the evidence in the book supporting the concept is from the author's personal experience and vague "recollection". I would like to see some university or professional research on the subject. I am in the market for my first greenhouse, but I'm still undecided after reading this. Take away 1 more star for lack of formal test results.
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This item: The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book
