A Close Look At Our Multifunctional Passive Solar Greenhouse

three and a half years ago we built our passive solar Greenhouse it is the center of our thriving permaculture garden and in this video we will have a look at the construction of the greenhouse and its different functions [Music] if you watch the video of the building process of the greenhouse you already know that the foundation of the greenhouse is made with concrete and the east west and North walls are built with Timber and the light clay insulation that is held in place with Reed mats only the south side is glazed with 25 millimeter thick polycarbonate on the inside the clay walls are painted white to reflect more light inside the greenhouse and the plants get light from all directions to enter our Greenhouse we have tours on the West and East Side in summer I only need to open these two doors and the greenhouse stays cool if we need a little less ventilation we close the doors and replace the lower panels of the doors with some fencing on a wooden frame additionally we have small flaps on the top and bottom of the greenhouse these small flaps are the first things I open in spring when the first bits of cooling are needed to open the top flaps we have built a mechanism with wood a few screws and some ropes the roof of the greenhouse is one of the main water sources on our property and it collects water into the tank in the greenhouse this tank supplies us with clean water throughout the year when it freezes outside it is the only available water on the property that we need for our plants and our chickens to be able to store the collected drain water in high quality for a long time in the warm conditions inside the greenhouse we filter the water with a fine nylon filter before it enters the tank additionally a plastic cover protects the tank from sunlight when the tank is full it overflows into the pond in front of the greenhouse we also use the water of this tank for our outdoor sink that is attached to the outside of the building however the tank is situated too low to create enough water pressure which is why we first pump the water into a bucket a little higher with a hand pump a simple garden hose then takes the water outside to the sink the Wastewater from the sink then continues into a reed bed and then overflows into our pond the pond in front of our Greenhouse is positioned in such a way that it reflects the winter sun into the greenhouse this helps a lot to store as much warmth as possible in winter the pond also reflects the sunlight to the entrance of the greenhouse where a lot of warmth builds up even when it freezes outside and we love to enjoy the sun there the integrated Tool Shed is also an important part of our Greenhouse here we have a workbench many tools and we store the grains for our chickens in there to store stuff like building materials and other things we have a sheltered space on the North side behind the greenhouse and what about the plants right now we grow kumquats lemons oranges figs Ginger and Laurel inside the greenhouse the great thing about growing citrus trees is that the fruits ripen in winter it's quite an exciting feeling to be able to harvest organically grown Austrian kumquats in a greenhouse that only uses the Sun as an energy source we also use our passive solar Greenhouse for starting all our seedlings due to the constant warmth the bright light and the good humidity inside the greenhouse this works really well as you see our passive solar Greenhouse is much more than a growing space for plants and in my opinion a building like this needs these multiple functions in order to be worth the effort building one if your Winters aren't too harsh like ahasi and Austria and you just want to grow wintergreens and summer tomatoes in a sheltered space you might better build a polytunnel by normal greenhouse because these buildings are much cheaper and easier to build you will very likely even have better and faster growth in a polytunnel because more Light reaches the plants inside of it if your Winters are really cold and long a passive solar Greenhouse is the right choice because it stores warmth for longer and your vegetables will be safe but in our case the passive solar Greenhouse is designed as a multifunctional center of the garden and not only is a growing space for plants our passive solar Greenhouse is an essential part of our garden we do not want to miss a building like this can bring so many benefits to a garden or a farm if well adapted to specific needs and individual requirements if you like this video please consider giving it a like and subscribing to the channel I very appreciate it thanks for watching and see you next time [Music]

Channel: Manuel Angerer - Temperate Climate Permaculture

Views: 231,828

Keywords: permaculture, chicken, compost, gardening, soil, farming, permaculture design

Id: JJWG9W-GZDI

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2022