The Greenhouse Effect

Sorry for the cheesy post title.  Channeling the Big Bang Theory (which I just discovered {what?  I don't own a television, remember?  I don't hear about new shows until they aren't new anymore...} and am totally IN LOVE WITH).

But really.  I did make a greenhouse this weekend.  A mini one.  Why?  Well, because we are still in the death grip of winter, apparently.  And I want to grow stuff, dammit.

So, here's what I did:

I took one of my new 4' x 4' cutie pie little raised beds/boxes...

 I got out my tools and supplies, which include:

• a roll of 6 mil poly vapour barrier, left over from some home improvement project (those are never-ending around here, so we always have this stuff on hand...it's a curse, really)
• 18 feet of 3/4" dia. pex piping
• 6 clippy/clampy things (photo below)
• utility scissors (for the vapour barrier)
• a hacksaw (for the piping)
• a tape measure and marker (for the piping and the vapour barrier)
• an electric drill
• 2 spring clamps

•  oh, and 2 canine companions for moral support

These are the clampy things (or "attaches de poignées", if you prefer) I found at the hardware store.  They're designed to be fastened to the wall and used to hold brooms and mops, etc.  They're intended to hold 3/4" to 1-1/4" dia. objects, which is great because I had already determined that 3/4" piping would be my best bet (sturdier than 1/2", but still bendy).

I took the clampy things and screwed them onto the inside face of the frame, at each corner and in the middle of each of the sides, like so:

Using the tape measure and marker, I measured out 3 lengths of pex piping (6' each, obviously) and popped them into the clamps.

{Would you just look at my new little boxwood, all lonely and forlorn...}

I cut a big piece of poly (I think it ended up being 9' x 9', but I can't recall exactly...just drape it over the whole shebang and cut the excess and you'll be fine) and draped it over the frame.  At the far end, I gathered all the excess and stapled it into the frame (oops, forgot that in my materials list - a stapler).  On the near end, I just gathered it all and clamped it to the frame using the spring clamps.  That way, I can open 'er up and water things or peek in and see how all my lovelies (basil, bell peppers and approximately 63 different varieties of lettuce) are doing when the urge arises.

So that's it.  I can take everything down and store it over the summer or winter, when I don't need it and whip it all back up when frost threatens.  Pretty nifty, eh?

PS: While I was transplanting all the goodies, I found two incubating Junebugs in the new dirt.... shudder shudder shudder...  I may or may not have screeched out loud when their little hooky legs got caught on my gardening gloves and wouldn't let go.  You'll just never know.