This is the end. It was a good run, though.

The Dirtbag brigade and the earthen greenhouse was a great experiment; we learned a lot along the way and we had a lot of good times as well.

Since my last post, father winter hit Saginaw and our little greenhouse didn't trap any heat or sun rays. The new roof held up well through the winter weather, however. Luckily, I didn't have the time to replant the buckets--they would've froze. We kept the temperature log and it reported very cold temperatures in the greenhouse, so we didn't have a lot of experimental data for the project, but hey, we went out with a BANG.



I checked on the greenhouse last Sunday and, to my surprise, found about 6-8 inches of green, half frozen water inside. I'm not sure how that much water entered as we didn't have a lot of precipitation during the week before and I had checked it the previous Sunday and it was pretty dry.
I thought maybe groundwater was seeping in because the hole is over 4 feet deep. Dr. Thomas thought maybe because the nearby corn field was recently cut, the groundwater level became higher; which makes sense.

Anyways, I had to devise a way to retrieve the thermometer which was hanging in the center by a string. I was going to just tough it out and step in the half-frozen water but I like to avoid hypothermia at all costs. I decided to make a bridge with the dirtbags, that worked well and I felt a little like Indiana Jones for a bit.

Although the greenhouse didn't thrive well, it was still a good experiment.


Alyssa and I learned a lot from it:

• First and I think most importantly, we learned how to make quick decisions on our own without the direct guidance of an instructor...It truly was an independent study.


• We learned how to make our own experiment, what the most important factors to measure with the plants (plant size, plant count, etc.) (I didn't get to do a lot of that because the experiment was ruined during the first spell of mother nature's destructive fist.)


• We learned how to improvise which is important when something is unplanned (like our roof collapse.)


• We learned a lot about building roofs and our patience. Carpentry, haha.


• And we also learned that this model of farming is probably not something an urban community would take the time to implement. It takes a lot of manual labor and it simply didn't work like the huge earthen greenhouses in China do.


• Also, Taco Bell is real tasty after filling dirtbags at midnight with Dan and Alyssa.

It was a good learning experience and although it seemed to fail; it really wasn't a failure. That's what experiments are; it will go one way or the other, either way you gain some kind of knowledge.

I look forward to more urban farming project in the future. Adios.

Weeks 5 and 6: In Repair

After the depressing news of the collapsed roof, the Dirt Bag Brigade built a new, sturdier roof. Alyssa and I spent last Saturday building a roof (attempting to build a roof, really.) Our plan was to build the roof with making 2 squares of 8 foot 2 by 4's. Somehow, even with measurements, we over-estimated the size of the greenhouse. We finished with only making one square which was placed on the poles left over from the first roof.

Alyssa and I quickly realized that we are not carpenters. Even growing up in households with handy-men for fathers, we could not build sturdy squares, and the one we did build took over an hour. So we gave up and decided to head to the greenhouse on Sunday and use the cordless drill, which we thought for sure would be much easier. Well, it wasn't.

The screw-driver had old, stripped

bits and we are both pretty incompetent when it comes to drills (we had the drill on reverse for a good 10 minutes.) After some time we finished the second square. at this point we felt pretty defeated so we decided to wait for another student (Dan) to help us stretch the plastic.

Thursday morning the three of us; Alyssa, Dan, and I were ready to finish the roof. We had a set-back, our two squares fell apart over the previous 4 days. This may have been a blessing because Dan thought of a better idea, a sturdier idea. We built one square with one board through the center to keep it level and sturdy. Dan is much better at building things than Alyssa and I, thank god Dan was there. Then we stretched the plastic tight and nailed it in to the dirt bags. We also used a staple gun. It looked much better, much more taunt than before.

Now we are going to see how well it holds up, and with-in the next couple of weeks I will re-plant some buckets and see how those do. We are going to keep a digital thermometer in the greenhouse to record the temperature so we have some data from the project.

Week 3 and 4: Uh-Oh

Well, a lot has happened to our little experiment since my last post.

Saginaw had some terrible weather last week (winds up to 40-50mph) and our dirt bag walls did a great job withstanding it, however, our plastic cover (or roof) didn't do too well.

It seems that, like we expected, the plastic sheeting pooled a lot of rainwater and the weight of the water was too much. The roof fell in along with a half-dozen dirt bags that were holding the plastic roof down. It is unclear at what time this happened, we do know it happened on the weekend after I had watered the buckets which were doing excellent at the time. The next week, a greenhouse employee informed us of the problem.

I took a look at the greenhouse expecting it to be collapsed (as the e-mail made it sound so) but was surprised at the little damage I saw especially with the high winds the area was facing. It was mostly daunting because the greenhouse was filled with water but I was impressed that our walls didn't collapse.

So, the greenhouse is still intact but the global bucket study will no longer continue. The buckets were subjected to the elements including the freezing temperatures during the time the plastic fell-in and that will have an ill-effect on the study.

However, with the enduring spirit of the Dirtbag Brigade, the roof will be replaced! We are going to build a roof using 2*4's. We will stretch the extra plastic sheeting over the wood and use scrap wood to nail the plastic in place. In case there are more attacks by mother nature we will keep the roof secure by lining dirt bags on the edges. Hopefully this new design will keep rain water from pooling as the plastic will be stretched tight.

Once the roof is built, I will re-plant some of the buckets and continue to study plant growth inside the greenhouse during cooler temperatures, mostly for kicks. However if there is a harvest, we will use the basil to make pesto sauce and sell it for an organization that I am the co-president of, Taking Education Abroad at SVSU.

I will continue to post about the new roof and the buckets throughout the semester. Stay tuned.

*Note I took the pictures after the pool of water in the greenhouse evaporated, so it looks better than it originally sounded, which is good*

Week 2: spinach is winning!

A little soggy

We're on week two of the earthen greenhouse with global buckets study.

Saginaw had some windy and rainy days last week so we were excited to see how our little greenhouse would do, and it held up pretty nicely for the most part. Like we had expected, there was a pool of water on the plastic sheeting. However, inside the greenhouse it wasn't much more damp than it had been before the storms, so that's a good sign. But as I was pushing the water off the sheeting from the inside, some of it spilled into the greenhouse, which was a bad move on my part. I will be more careful next time. I cleaned upas much of the spill as I could and that helped a lot.

Spinach
As of now, it appears that the spinach is beating the basil in a growing race. Almost all of the Spinach plants have sprouts and Basil isn't too far behind. The Spinach buckets have grown considerably since last week. The Basil buckets aren't growing as quickly.

Basil

The greenhouse is staying warm despite the freezing temperatures the area has recently faced. We're in the market for a digital USB thermometer so we can track the temperatures in the greenhouse throughout the weeks.

This week, on average the Spinach buckets took about 2.5 Solo cups of water as the Basil took about 2 Solo cups.

I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of greenhouse visitors about our earthen greenhouse and the global buckets. Spreadin' the word.

I now have designated "mud clothes" that I wear every time I go to the greenhouse. It's a muddy time but I look forward to it.

Buckets through the plastic

The Buckets are in their new home (It's a muddy one)

We were pretty excited when the greenhouse was finished

The greenhouse was finished last Wednesday with the help of our wonderful volunteers. On Thursday, Alyssa and I planted the buckets with basil and spinach, 10 of each. We then moved the buckets from the shed to the earthen greenhouse. We used a golf cart to load the buckets and drop them off next to the greenhouse, we had to use the golf cart because the shape and weight of the buckets is awkward and our fingers would have fallen off otherwise. Then, I stood in the greenhouse as Alyssa handed them to me. During this process we lost a lot of water through the over-fill holes and the corner soon became a mudslide. Once the buckets were all

in, we both watered them, we put about 2 Solo cups of water in each bucket.That process took about an hour.

We were pretty muddy by the end, which we didn't mind.

Global buckets inside the earthen greenhouse

Today (Wednesday) I went to water the buckets again. AND WE HAVE SOME SPROUTS!

Which is exciting. The greenhouse is keeping pretty warm through-out the day and the plants dig that.

There is a problem with venting, however. It is pretty damp inside the greenhouse and when the sun hits the plastic covering it creates a lot of condensation, so it's a really moist environment which could cause problems later.

Also, the buckets aren't on a complete even ground, so some are sideways which causes water to escape the overfill holes on

one side of the bucket. I tried to make them as level as possible. With that said, the amount of water for each bucket varied from about 2-3 Solo cups.

Both of these have small sprouts but you can't really see them in this picture. (Just Imagine)

The buckets are ready for a home!

The Global Buckets are ready for their new home in the earthen greenhouse which should be complete this Wednesday after the volunteer day.

I went to the greenhouse yesterday (Sunday) for a few hours and assembled 14 of the 20 Global or "Dirt" buckets. It was a beautiful day to do so, cold but sunny, which beats just cold. The process took a little less than 3 hours, which wasn't too bad at all.

I had to make new wicking cups, soak the soil, scoop the soil into the buckets, and place a garbage bag cover on the buckets. I was going to use duct tape to secure the bags in place but remembered I had aquired some zip-ties. I didn't finish the buckets because I wanted an excuse to go to the greenhouse and get my hands dirty today. So, today I will finish assembling the 6 buckets and I will also bring my zipties to secure the garbage bag covers.

I will plant the buckets with spinach and basil by the end of the week and place them in the greenhouse! They will grow for 6 weeks.

Reminder: Dirtbag Brigade Volunteer day is THIS Wednesday the 6th from 4p-7p at the SVSU Greenhouse! We Hope to see you there!

Green News Network story

Thanks to Julie and Lisa Luce for covering our effort as part of the Green News Network!



Don't forget to be there on October 6th when we finish the greenhouse!