Building a Geothermal Greenhouse
If you are in Southern Oregon this Sunday you will want to check out this cool talk about the “Climate Battery “ Geothermal Greenhouse project! Click here for the details: https://siskiyousummits.org/
This is the first winter with the new greenhouse and I have been gathering as much data as I can, I’ll be presenting this and the construction process, lessons learned, do’s and dont’s and tips and tricks to the Siskiyou Chapter of NARGS and everyone is welcome. The goal was to build a greenhouse that was as economical to operate as possible, while minimizing the carbon footprint to the maximum extent possible with a focus on growing alpines, flower bulbs and rock garden plants that want just the minimum of heat through the winter and cooler summer temperatures. The project has been a tremendous success and opened a whole new world of possibilities for us at Illahe. Click on the gallery to see a few highlights of the talk and some Spring Projects at Illahe:
Hope to see you at the Siskiyou Chapter meeting! I’ll have a few flats of plants for sale as well!
Important Dates:
Hortlandia Sale: April 4th and 5th, click here for details
Shipping Season: Catalog coming the first week of April, when you see the shop disappear for a while you will know it’s close. I will update before then.
The following may not be for anyone who can’t stomach a little bit of knowledge, coupled with some I told you so and a sprinkle of dire warning.
There has been quite a bit of discussion about deregulation these days. It’s a great way to see a boost in the stock market, (anyone with a 401k would love to see that right now I’m sure?) as corporations are always keen on boosting that bottom line and since regulations do sometimes come at a cost it’s really a no brainer that easing up on them could be good for the economy. But the quote “Everything comes at a price, just what are you willing to pay for it?” rings in the back of my head.
With the greenhouse project, I didn’t really face a lot of regulatory hurdles, or even directives, besides some annoying bureaucratic over reach at the county level. The motivator for this project wasn’t driven by some EPA or DEQ level mandate saying you need to lesson your carbon footprint for the greater good of society and the generations that come after. It was mostly driven by my insatiable curiosity about science, and since I operate and live on pretty much a shoestring and the occasional dime, my spendthrifty ways were probably the biggest motivator really. I want operating costs to be at a minimum, but I also do care deeply for the environment, so win win when it comes to the greenhouse design. I spent much of my professional working career doing wetlands and riparian restoration work that was driven by EPA regulations handed down by the Clean Water Act. Without that bit of regulation, rivers like the Cuyahoga in Ohio might still be catching on fire, Salmon would have long ago disappeared from NW streams and the water fowl that used to blacken the fall skies on there yearly migrations would probably be gone as well. Some regulations are worth the cost. I teach a class on pesticide laws and safety at the community college during the winter term and much of it deals with the regulations surrounding pesticides at the federal and state levels. I teach the students about the The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which came about after years of people dying from food borne illnesses and sketchy medicines often marketed without directions for use or any testing whatsoever. With companies selling everything from untested antibiotics containing the same ingredients as antifreeze and brake fluid (which caused mass deaths) to the outlawing of the snake oil salesman of the day. This is good regulation, as it makes the world a healthier and safer place. That law was updated in the 90’s to set maximum residue levels for pesticides in the food supply. This is another good regulation, one which I think as a nation we are willing to pay for. The Food Quality Protection Act, was put in place to make sure that the food going from farm fields to grocery stores is safe and has low pesticide residues in place. This is a good regulation.
I always ask at the start of the term, if anyone in the class grows all there own food? Many say they would like to but not one student has ever answered that question yes. We live in a society where we are dependant on others to grow food for us, and then we are dependant on others to make sure that food isn’t going to make us sick. With the willy nilly, slash and burn, scorched earth cuts to the federal government we are seeing from DOGE, I wouldn’t trust any of those laws listed above still provide protections for you and I. It’s a good time to triple wash those more expensive groceries you got from store for sure. The new gestapo leader of the EPA announced he is going to cut 65% of the departments budget. Probably a lot of that will be emissions regulations for the air we breath. But that is taken for granted on a daily basis, so I thought I would just point out a few of those lesser known laws where the EPA shows up in our daily lives. These cuts will be good for a few huge corporations, probably the chemical manufacturers, big oil, coal fired power plants and automakers who can cut costs by reducing the emissions controls, not to mention the rocket builders whose satellites will eventually dim out the stars we see. But remember “Everything comes at a price, just what are you willing to pay for it?”, cheaper cars and gas at the pump means a greater chance of lung cancer, pesticide deregulation means the food we buy could be contaminated. Drinking water, well that’s a whole nother can of worms, We will all have to buy it from Nestle at some point, and the market cap on that resource will be unfathomable. Buy shares now while there is a dip.
The cuts that are being made are to those programs that protect everyday Americans. Maybe the boomer generation won’t live long enough to see the effects of this, and even my own generation Xers might not feel its full effect, but eventually the piper must be paid and it will catch up with our kids and grandkids. Wash those fruits and vegetables a bit more thoroughly now, and go outside and take a deep breath of the last of the good clean air we have. And think about this, a billionaire put a few more bucks in his pocket because of deregulation.