Not only did it eliminate any wind scrubbing against that And there was thc problem of just

where a guy was to for a greenhouse catastrophe. Now despite the fact that the adgrating from the ultraviolet rays. Within a half hour 1 had a excavation to tbe north 24 The grow-hole concept decomposition of the fresh horse manure. 25 campfire till they have an eighth to a quarcan make a day with a thirty-degree temperature seem warmer throughout the night and during cold days than is that of Compare the two systems in their relationship to the air How would a conventional 40 sq. ft greenhouse score? If "hinging". This is when the pressure from the was lucky and the snow melts, he can sometimes find in his ground surface area on each end proportionate to the 60 sq. ft the second person standing back and sighting down a plumb tem that has worked well for us so far. It's of what underslipped the post down over the rebar via a 'I.-inch began using the growof the heat from the sun 's rays. Finally, you had to open the grow-hole to work on the Let's compare for a minute grow holes with the hoop glazing on it. This house, raising its score to + 148 and the comparison final angles to each other so that they form four sides and a top advantages which we will mention soon that the hoop metbod ground for tbe earth

roots probably reached the manure. I think those were some of made indoor starts practical, it was a real boon to the gardener. vs. hoop and plastic method we gave a -I unit for the five sur~ My quest to extend the growing season began when like ten degrees. What that wind does to you it does to the factors, but think also the #%@&! gophers finally found the way around because we usually tamp with shovel handles fice. We have taken care before charring to make sure to cut 26 In the original $50 Underground House we hadn't protected If we call each heat-losing square foot a minus one unit and The long rows do cut down proportionately on some of the ;~ anyway. ing soil, and the top foot is growing space for plants. It is grow-hole. would be considerably larger. It would be a "structure". It When I described this phenomenon later to my friends stove pipe for the next pouring. The concrete was grow bed was 3'x8' for 24 sq. ft. The floor of the cold-sink pond liner. concept is a tale in itself. So that you may have year ' round with boards and earth, but cold air was seeping through noneGREENHOUSE: - 202 HEAT UNlTS growing space for and no longer were willing to use that poison donnant January garden a volunteer crop of green and edible poured concrete footings.

sun when it was low in the sky and in the morning and eveBut again there are two more considerations that must be we had one that was 5'x8 ' with 6' walls witb a one-foot rise to adding heat or +40 energy units. The back, or north, wall square foot example only to stun you into realization of how model. It would be a super deluxe grow-bole. And if a guy the end of the post that is to go into the crobes included, want to eat creosote-laced charcoal. factored in. The first is that the earth in our eartb-sheltered to grow after transplanting. Or if you were late in transplantning across the bole and packing loose dirt around the edges. the plants. That may have been the year that I saw one of my "Gophers," they said. The fi rst cold sink greenhouse Among several other advantages, this eliminates the need for when wrapped with clear polyethylene glazing. Let's say that greenhouse, being below ground level, is going to be appreciably 42 been protected from the earth in some way into the ground, Here WINS BY 318 HEAT UNITS face, wbich was a glazed 8'x6' for a -48 . The east and west losing growing space against both of those walls. H be able to report my roaring success, but, alas, that is not the when backfilling. A number of other implements may be used A person would not be far off, probably, were he to connadian border in a North Idaho mountain valley. For less friends told me about the grow-hole concept. This is a tech-

ter-inch of charcoal over all the area that is the lumber siding (shoring) from the damp of the earth with a 30 The grow.ho]e in practice there is the fact that since the grow-hole is sunken it is down to see if the plumb is off. If a person is using milled lumber, but still edible and organically grown. I learned that if a guy ceiving too much shade from the walls. The latter had many " stunned. 4. Similarly, a grow hole traps, utilizes and stores much you'd have to work the plants from inside the structure. them lip on concrete piers that we had previously from the excavation which we piled behind the north wall. pare it to that of a typical above-ground greenhouse of simideveloped when we built my original $50 underground house, +40 units +207 units ing significant growth rays because of the pitch, then why not dried strawbeny leaves. These brew into a beverage so greenhouses four-season successes. The cold-sink concept is ;1----',- , A second problem quickly manifested itself: the sides they were no longer heating with wood. This information earth is pressed against it during backfill. Then we dig holes storm window used as glazing. I patched as best as I could utility on factory farms, where tractors do the cultivating and planted seedlings were spindly, and that the plants I left in to FINAL SCORE The concept is simple: you construct a post and beam I did not repeat my grow hole experiment the next year.

32 themselves. One was that the depth of the walls shaded the tions. When the concrete set, we removed the why weren't any of the other plants shaking? Earthquake? use it on both the walls and roof of our houses. For one of the buildings and above-ground greenhouses also. Being mer was doubtless the result of being buried often and also readding heat. Since there is only one unit losing heat, it is a Sboring would solve the #@%$&! gopher earth dumpthe wonders of cucumbers turned into diU pickles. Friends tuned branch of Scotland's famed Findhom community in the early boxes or bins up off the ground and the carrots in pails of hole as a dumping by the low pitch of the sun blocked by depth of the south wall. as in the illustration. To avoid this, the post must cause in a 20' hoop row there is only one square foot of abovefor tamping of course - as long as they do not have sharp pay to solve some of the other problems at the same time? A grow-hole allows you to plant garden plants a month guy migbt speculate reasonably that the sunken grow-hole More problems: We still have the shade factor caused Here's the story of what I fmally achieved near the Cathen notch girders into them for floor joists and rafters. 36 The first cold sink greenhouse stumbled upon the "cold-sink" concept which was to make my and not always feasible, so we continued to search for other push both the post and pier into the structure a bit, themselves. Polyethylene comes in rolls of various sizes. We

land for the posts and peel them first. 10 mil. thick - excepting when we use multiple garbage bags The Eanh-Shellcred Solar Greenhouse Book 29 -32 No doubt many of the old-time farmers used storm windows cases we think the better move is to berm earth out there, my sanity. I was just a couple of years up from my California began (a) immediately crumbling into the grow area and (b) young Seventb Day Adventist cook in my favorite restaurant No, they weren't eatThose were problems due to lack of materials and was not going to faU back in. The result was [ was daily unthat J would need to shore up a grow-bole if I was going to imneighbors, to cover tbe tomato plants at nigbt in dread of the hole drilled in the post bottom. This is the method house over the loss ofa still-air night. Ne'er-do-wells, oil comers and farmers straddle the plants with hoops stuck in the 27 lar you can lose up to 95% of the rays. (This is not a probderstood part of post setting. The earth to be backfilled and brought in for testing - till the lab technicians went out and minus 2 for a vent. That would be 38, then. The east and mile-per-hour wind for any length of time on a 25-degree night tunnel with no care whatsoever about where it went, because it five -I units. That is probably quite low. Seems to me a 20TRADITIONAL ABOVE GROUND ,I above-ground walls each had 8 sq. ft of glazing for a -16. ditional -20% is probably quite small, we are going to use it

-11+5 unit situation. time. Other problems, design problems, began presenting was going to be filled up with horse manure and growing soil garbage bag system" - not an intriguing tipicked their own leaves to test. +40 units. The nortb wall of the heat sink was 3'x8' for a since there is five times more surface area receiving and storends into heat sinks and give a + 16 instead of a -16 for a ning. Score one for the hoop and plastic method. you'd be taking up prime growing space. That way you'd be ground. This is another old-time farmer ies and successes one by one. And I'll tell you how you (and The coldest air is removed from the plants passively, shaded area against the south wall - the logical place - you ll last most all winter." rays tended to glance off like a rock skipping over water. I The rest of the minus units? Well, there was the south A grow-hole is far more efficient at keeping the seedlings methods of post preservation. not sink the posts into tbe earth at all, but to set -202 units +1 16 units through the course of a night or cold spell, and we're talking Sun low in the sky presented another problem: since garden. Instead, they fair and objective here, and to try to head off protests by advocase: It was only moderately successful at best, maybe even wild winter cress. And you can count on wild dandelion covering my seedlings and throwing the earth out of the growProlog to a happy discovery

COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE Setting these posts is pretty much a two-person operapoured in greased 6-inch or 8-inch stove pipe secSo that's what I built. 1 didn' t realize at the time that I'd required either longer and wider glazing or smaller grow space strong in natural vitamin C tbat autbor Ewell Gibbons was not all of these are root cellar material. cious time blowing and shaking and washing off as mucb as I earth behind the wall pushes in hard enough to Tbis is not to knock the hoop system. There are a few .. ing problem, too. But it would no longer be the economy all right as far as it goes, but, trouble is, it does not go very far. roots in her family's root cellar. Not prime stuff to be sure, kind of a trapped bubble that could pop the poly when the string beans, corn, pickled beets, peppers and, of course, the This was back in the early ' 70s, now, and memory dims, but able to drastically cut down loss from predators. This was all poly with several inches of earth. That could tum those -242 units -91 units whicb extended four inches out the top. We where the earth has lost a lot less heat than tbat on the surface warm and it is important to understand why, for it illustrates ous about such glazing in northern climates. In many The grow-hole in practice add another negative unit to that method, making it -6/+ 1. this first experiment, but these will be close enough: the good in theory. But the end result was the gophers discovered We have progressed througb a number of methods for

Where these are not available, a guy could House - whicb was an addition whicb tripled the original tiny +40 other additional -40 units to the -202 for a total of -242 then 3. A grow-bole utilizes the heat stored in the depths of are lated here has glazing on the east and west walls, totaling +24, while its west wall was 2'x5' for a + 10. The east wall When the sun goes down, the five surfaces rearing above I) can have even more grati fying successes in the future. for the above-ground greenhouse. Our earth-sheltered greenLike how about the problem of chilling the plants when around the post. We tape them in several places and take care with a twelve-month fresh harvest. Simultaneously I was would be soon in my The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 19 then, this first earth-sheltered greenhouse had a score of I. It is down out Let's go back to our beat unit method to calculate the heat which has been absorbed near the surface during the day. to go two to two-and-a-half feet into the We call it -91 units. The fmal math then reads like this: bing. pared to our own one square foot example above. This is bePost and beam itself is simple. You set posts that have thick. In our construction we generally use material that is 6 to 34 Though tbis problem would lessen as the sun elevated in the

CHAPTERS first killer cold, then finding that I was only extending tbe the strings and will just barely touch them. The holes, then, CHAPTER 4 The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book me on to beef and venison jerky, and gave me home dried apand what we are using on our structures Now I'm not a mathematician or a scientist, and this is bed just three foot across, soutb to north, I could work all the the advantages of method of fence post preservation. Charwould move the glazing a foot or two away from the grow rate times during the post-setting process. If large amounts of increased till the entire plant disappeared into the earth! I was 2. There is little glazed by simply laying a window down on the ground spanple slices. or so early for subsequent transplanting into the garden when structure in an excavation and, before backfilling, you protect find it. theless. area. Clearly, I was going to have to shore everything up. achieved without any energy other than my labor, the warmth less than that. I did not repeat the experiment a second year. to start a garden early. So of course I made one. trapped on sunny days. polyethylene. We use five bags as a rule, but put them on one mile-per-hour wind is rare and might only happen once in a ing the plants as tbey

My second improvement came wben it became obvious ing. Wouldn't that bum the plants? negative units on the hoop method, incidentally, when comWhich means it would no longer be a grow-hole now but had pulled up months before and hung upside down by its bad built the economy Correct tamping is an acquired skill and the most misunground will be losing heat while the growing surface below I' ll take you through my thought process, fumbles, di scoverprove the pitch this way. Vague memory recalls that tbe secI discovered the winter pleasure of borne canned peas, since, for the glazing to have a reasonable pitcb, it would have total plus of 32 more units to the earth-sheltered greenefficiency of tbis earth-sheltered, solar greenhouse and comreinforced with chicken wire and Y. inch rebar out siding it off with anything - figuring that the lower portion raI se your young. That means that this simple, earth-sheltered greenhouse Gophers and my poor results aside, there were a couple of moderates somewhat the effect of excessive heat thought to be salting with ascorbic acid the samples be about five surfaces - add another two plus units. And, finally, hold it with one hand while scraping in the earth with a shovel gone through the looking glass with Alice? What was going a two-step process. The first step is to char tamped around the post must go in small increments, of perheadache and requested another assignment.) And there is One supposed old-time method we were told about inplants. This shocked the seedlings on cold days. No way to

the glass was horizontal to the ground, much of the sun's down. Poorly-set fence posts cover long rows of plants, for the sake of illustration let's cretle perhaps, but a descriptive one for a sysof the sun and the warmth of the earth. How I pondered and greens fresh from the garden nine or ten or even twelve plants by just reaching. I would never have to get up in the (l0'x I2 ') $50 Underground House - we soaked the posts in a penta and diesel oil solution. When we came to our senses should be as simple as 'L_--;,: And there was a -2 for that vent we mentioned. All together, But wouldn't it be nice to have home-grown, organic plants. That way I would have headroom. And with a grow pany executives and other rascals may protest that a lengthy 20the north and slanted on the east and west sides and that, since /.:r-the roots of the plants reached the fresh horse manure below sun was shining and the air reeked of the polyethylene disintesay 6x6s, he might be able to tape two levels to the post and " pitcb tbe roof, we would get 202' of exposed surface for a -202. the two. The soutb wall, the cold- sink wall, was 5' x8' for a The pier method bas a built-in flaw whicb sbould add a final two plusses, bringing the score to -1 /+ I0 vs. faces combined, or an additional minus 20% for each of the us of the outside boundary. That is, our posts will be set inside to the otherwise lowest spot, the growing bed, now spills into holes must be large enough to accommodate shovel handles all

layer of polyethylene. the roots and the trapped air in the space above.A grow nique that had been used by farmers in cold country for more minus 16 units. We'll see in Chapter 16 that we are dubithings about the concept that looked like they could be imedges which may rip the polyethylene. We have previously those early years (all right, I didn't have a place at all - I was the months when it would be most beneficial. the grow-hole so we can add another plus unit there. Then effect of wind scrubbing on the hoop unit so we can probably phenomenon till I saw that the plant was beginning to sink into stumbled into the earth-sheltered greenhouse and cold-sink south wall in the shaded area to stand in while working on the house gets an additional -15 wind scrubbing units for a total of I didn't have either electricity or a place with central heat COLD-SINK GREENHOUSE: +116 HEAT UNlTS tion. One holds the post while the other sees ifit is plumb and moist sand. Radishes, too, I discovered, would keep in moist deep in which the bottom six to twelve inches has been backThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 37 was 2'x8' or an additional 16 sq. ft for a total of 40 horizonbedded longer, perhaps for the season. So that was my first clude that a grow-hole is up to eight times more effective than version - had just dug bob string visually aligned with the edge of the post. We do 21 The grow-hole concept 18 The grow-hole was not a success for me that year. I

None of the others were quaking . I stood and pondered this after the charring. We char them over a Note: The earth-sheltered, cold-sink greenhouse calcuate a situation in which a grower might want to put a single piling tbe dirt from the the trench where it is warmed by the earth behind the walls. EPDM, the artificial rubber swimming pool and containment of the cold-sink was a door and was a -10. sand. Apples, if they are "keeper apples", will over-winter ground builders position himself to work on the plants. If you utilized the the ground. I stood there, mouth agape. I began to question plant, say a tomato start, under protection. Let's say he inserts .,' this has you confused, skip over it. We're merely trying to be filled with fresh horse manure, the middle is a layer of growa three-foot hole withdles. mature did not produce and, in fact, did not survive. The forcamping at first), and a grow-hole made a lot of sense as a way call "wind scrubThe Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 41 to keep squeezing the air out of the bags so not to have any season a month or more. Before electricity and central heat This greenhouse had the additional benefit of the earth Almost immediately I had gopher problems. This was to The first cold-sink greenhouse organic greens for pennies, and need not reinvent the wheel, ...,.", .

made of, only garbage bags are usually just 1.2 millimeter at a time, pulling the surplus to the sides, then wrapping it CHAPTER 3 Above ground Earth-sheltered with either posthole diggers or shovels and set the posts. The our disappointment we were never able to sides then resting the bage bags, usually the full-sized black ones, though for greenThe Ean h-Shcltercd Solnr Greenhouse Book 45 hole traps, utilizes and stores the heat generated by the have to work lying down or sitting bent forward. But if you (x2) plants which were improve upon it? That miserably folks have failed to appreciate earth sheltering . 33 situation. The seedlings were taking a beating each time this hapthis, and it is this simple: The coldest air, which would sink the protected growing surface beneath is also one square foot. Then we wrap the cooled, charred ends in plastic garscore to a win of + 350. and plastic system, a common method today of protecting was going to invest such time and resources, then wouldn't it method, we did some experimenting. One was to keeps it from stacking back up and covering the plants again. two house roof layers, however, we are now beginning to use , l"![

The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 31 - blocking at least half of the sun - and I was spending preto guesstimate. During the discussion before of the grow-hole as described in The $50 & Up Underground House Book. the other which is on the surface. A reasonable guess is tbat it use three 2x6's nailed or screwed together greenhouse by night. 5. By storing heat in the surrounding earth, a grow-hole What I finally decided was to dig a trencb along the one square foot example above the ratio was 2/3 or 40/60. If tending the growing season . west walls of the growing bed were each 2 ' x3 ' or a + 12 for sky towards summer, there would still be no sun there during getting tired of seeing my hard work go up in frost. Several ond year I actually got a new bole dug and the earth piled to 22 The grow-hole concept H bing". Wind scrubbing is what causes the "chill factor" 1980's. (In fact [ was put to work in that greenhouse when the The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 23 beautifully. Otbers were having success keeping beets, parseach heat-adding a plus one unit, we see we have a -5/+ I unit and on a slant on the ground greenhouse. earth are dumped at once, it will not tamp solid all the way Coleman has had good effect using them inside his above doing the reading is satisfied with the plumb, he begins the from their tunnels. I 46 P(SfP construction

What we came up with in the end, not a million-dollar researcb study, but it would seem to me a ":...-----hole, doing much of the gopher's work for them. begins the backfilling. Because of the irregular surface of unpea plants, waist high in a row of similar plants in my garden, the danger of frost has passed. [t can thus extend the growing garden soil. There were other tricks like making tea from than a century. A grow-hole consists of a pit two to three feet hippy days. Cold this be an acid flashback? Had I suddenly own creosote, for creosote, we are told, is the product of the the dormant winter season - a nine-month growing season 17 44 P/S!P construction anyway, thereby squashing the hysteria of critics. We add anwhere there is a need to temporarily shelter long rows of crops. insulate it, cover the insulation with polyethylene and the the earth. It radiates up, warming both the soil around tal square feet. That's 40 square feet of horizontal surface lar floor space. I can ' t remember the exact measurements of will add 25 per cent more heat per square foot than the other. So seedlings and sometimes mature plants. This is when gardencates of the above-ground systems. We gave you that one this from two directions, say the north and east. When the guy volved soaking or otherwise impregnating stovepipe creosote Tne Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 35 astounded me by making coleslaw from garden cabbage she into wood. We were told it was a common practice among anyway, and the top foot of earthen walls would be held in

and it is warmed passively by the heat of the earth . This we used on the hillside greenhouse. we anticipated from the start. 38 The fi rst co ld sink greenhouse 2' to)' in the ground, earth might be added six to twelve sepacould easily double the heat loss from an above-ground greenand mentors they smi led ruefully and shook their heads. r did and it worked. I put the potatoes in sacks or in - say if you wanted to leave some of the seedlings in the pit is 318 heat units to the better compared to a similar above-42 in humans and animals on cold, windy days. It is what Subtract a +40 for the heat arising from tbe earthen floor, and we growing surface adding heat is joined by the four walls also In the case of the grow hole the ratio is reversed. The in the other, inverting it and tamping with the handle. place by the roots of the grass surrounding the pit. It sounded Post/ShoringfPolyetbylene, or P/SfP, is the method we later read that if the degree is great enough from perpendicuout of most of the wind avoids most of the wind scrubground. We use small trees right off the be the first of decades of struggle with those #@%$&! demons. face. They could instead just shove it horizontally out their for reason of comparison factors we have to add +41 more taller and that you off any sharp edges or protruding limb stubs that could tear the the principle upon which this book is based. -6/+ 1. traditional

could, and neitber the plants nor I were happy. Only the #@% can 't remember all the details, but I do recall that my transI had met the enemy and he was #%$&! gophers. two hoops into the ground a little more than a foot high at right on? I watched with alarmed fascination as the rate of descent greens in the spring before you can even think of working And there is the wind scrubbing factor. This is a toughie years in a row I'd scurried along, same as my gardening lem with the hoop method - score another.) Chapter 2 the loose earth wouldn ' t of its own stand in vertical walls, it fore the next course is scraped or shoveled in. On a post sunk bas over the grow-hole. The hoops have tbeir place. Elliott ground over which they stretch polyethylene. This system is begin to shake when none others were. Was it the wind? Then would be, in fact, a greenhouse. And we have forgotten that the horse manure is adding beat to of surface area on the two sides and top, or a 2/60 ratio. Ln our 43 growing season. I was also able to harvest some greens in , .\ ring hardens the wood. [t also creates its house projects the smaller, white garbage pail liners might sufThe Eanh-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book 39 warmed by the sun all day and radiated the heat back into the will be radiating heat from the earth's depths plus the suo's would find yourself cramped by the low glazing there. You'd

they no longer had to shove the earth uphill and out on the surimprovement. protecting tbe posts where they are in contact with the earth. might wish to keep was pretty new to gardening; that I was too busy working to now, is what could be called the "Chari was supposedly related in one of the Foxflfe books, but to nips turnips, onions, garlic, squash, and pumpkins, tbougb opening the hole to work on them? If you were to avoid that, 40 The first cold sink greenhouse wall, but now it became a heat sink in its own right. [t was the above-ground system. the posts at all and tbey, of course, rotted out and had to be the four sides and top each have an area of one square foot and j must stretch beyond the string to acco=odate the shovel hanmilled trees, the easiest way we ' ve found to check plumb is by did begin to crumble and they began leaving gaps around the incomplete combustion of wood. Not many critters, mi$&1 gophers were happy. 20 replaced after ten or twelve years. In the $500 Underground units, making it now +207 minus -76. It would be nice after that big build-up for grow-boles to come up with -162 heat units. for this. They' d be taking them off the house in the spring 28 The grow.hole in practice could be up to l4 times more effective in sheltering plants than was 5' high x8' wide, giving us an additional +40 heat units,

wind. farmers for their fence posts, and they only stopped when + 164 and -76 heat units. That's 88 heat units to the plus. and the earth. Though the hoop system is generally used to winter - but once is enough. The plants need only freeze once staked out the site with batter boards, and run string to inform make my land payments to weed and water properly; that the correct it, or at least proved upon. One was the pitch of tbe glazing. If you are losworked against the north wall where there was head room, P/S/P construction season a couple of weeks at best. Many hours of conscienbe braced from the inside of the structure. This is a hassle to rest on tbe highest part of the mound to the north. That than four hundred dollars I was able to permanently triple my here is what I recall: backfilling and tamping, but stopping to check every so often tious gardening work deserved more reward than that. [bepened, of course. Their leaves were coated with dust and mud Polyethylene is the stuff your plastic garbage bags are ground greenhouses, and [ saw this used in a greenhouse at a gan a personal quest to find a passive, low-cost way of exwould also give more But where were the fresb winter greens? A pretty causes, I think: the fact that I don 't have a green thumb; that I the hoop and plastic method. But wait. We have forgotten the Then there was the problem of what would happen if months of tbe year instead of one to three months? I was ..:i!.t -

growing bed at all. ing the sun's warmtb at any given moment of sunsbine, we of most of the haps 6 to 8 inch depth then compacted to perhaps half that beA grow hole looks like this: