As far back as I can remember, my grandmother always said “If you want something done right – do it yourself…”
As of today, I thoroughly disagree.
The brand new 42′ Growing Dome greenhouse installedat Roaring Fork High Schoolin Carbondale, Colorado has brought me to this decision.
The project came together with such ease, we owe it to the dedicated project planners, donors, local volunteers, students, neighbors, and community members who worked together with Growing Spaces Crew to assemble the structure in May.
Lining the beds with straw before filling
Now that the growing beds have been designed and built- 16 students from Colorado University were hosted for a program through the Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute featuring a workday over at the RFHS Growing Dome. The day at the Dome included filling the gardening beds inside the Dome.
The students first lined the growing beds with straw, which will eventually break down adding additional nutrients to the soil, and then bring the soil in to fill the beds to about 2 inches from the top.
After punching in this morning I went out to the 33′ Dome here at Growing Spaces to check on the lettuce seedlings surrounding the new strawberry transplants. Once again it appears we have planted way too densely again, not hard to do with fine little lettuce seeds. So I spent about 10 minutes plucking out some of the seedlings to give all the others plenty of room to grow. It’s such a leap of faith every time I plant to really trust the planting instructions of how far apart to plant, but in reality I would waste a lot less seed if I did. The seedlings won’t be wasted though, as they are sitting in a bowl of water happily floating until I take them home for lunch to be added to my sandwich today. Reminder to self each seed has the potential to be a whole plant all by itself.
For us Wednesday is Dome Day. Now that we’re into full summer swing, the Dome likes just a little more attention than winter. This means that instead of going to the Dome once a week, or even sometimes not for 3-5 weeks at a time, we’re heading out to the property to check in on the Dome, Wednesdays and Saturdays. For those of you who don’t know me, I work at Growing Spaces and we own a 26′ Premium Growing Dome (the perfect size in my opinion) on our property outside of town, we have since purchased a home in town and keep the Dome growing year round up on our property (18 miles away).
This summer we have been a bit challenged by a water pump timer that seems to keep eating batteries up every few days. CJ says it’s a small leak shorting out the battery. But the point to this is that our dome has been getting watered really inconsistently for weeks now and continues to grow in spite of that! The tomatoes looked kind of spindly and not all that happy, so chatting with Richard here at work, he encouraged me to spend some time with them and supporting them (literally). So last week I rounded up some old towels and chain to hang from the struts to tie the Tomato plants to. Tomato cages have evolved into supporting big flowering plants, as my tomato plants always outgrow them in no time at all, and then they fall over and break. So this year, I’m copying Bonnie’s idea of suspending chains from the struts above and tying them on with strips of old towels, (so I don’t bruise or cut the stems). It looks like all my tomato plants are wearing blue fuzzy ribbons in their hair, but after only one week of having them supported in this way, they are really on their way. The stems are much thicker and I have tons of new growth, looks like that “supporting them” idea really does pay off. We grabbed a couple of plum tomatoes and ate them still warm from the sun, man, tomatoes that are actually so intense their flavor is sweet!
Looks like my stevia plant is happily established in it’s new spot. Even though I have no idea yet how to use the stevia from the plant, I’m sure I will figure it out sooner or later. I think for this year I will just let it grow and get really established before doing any harvesting. Echinacea is in full bloom (using one of those former tomato cages to keep it sturdy). I harvested again fresh basil, sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary, grilling with fresh herbs is just the best! I am finally managing to grow more than I can use up fresh and starting to dry some for later use or to share. Right outside the Growing Dome I have some random blue flax and some coneflower growing and I’ve begun harvesting seeds everytime I go to the dome, you just have to love free seeds! I’ve started some blue flax in the 33′ Growing Dome at work and can hardly wait until it goes to seed to scatter about in the other planting beds as a little suprise to my coworkers. Udgar’s birthday present this year was some gorgeous strawberry plants from our dome transplanted into the 33′ Employee dome on site. I tucked them in on the northeast corner right near the tank. I know that in summer this is one of the coolest spots and in winter they will stay warm from the tanks radiant heat. We’ve planted some lettuce seed in among them as well, to really utilize every inch of space we can.
I’m thinking about doing small herb packets and seed packets as Christmas presents this year. (How Martha Stewart of me!) But I know it will be used and enjoyed much more than some presents I ‘ve given over the years.
The jalapeno and bell pepper plants are all blooming and some have already started setting peppers. The squash plants are now blooming and I wonder if they are getting pollinated, when I come up wednesday evenings the blooms are already closed for the day, so I’m not sure, maybe I will do a little hand pollinating just to be sure, as I love acorn and spaghetti squash and can hardly wait for it to be ready to harvest. Like many other dome owners I’m a bit behind schedule on some of my plants, but I’m not worried as I’m sure the dome will give me plenty of warmth and a long enough season for them all to come to harvest. Spring onions (I know it’s mid July) are up everywhere and it’s always a debate whether to eat them young and fresh or to let them mature, I guess I can be patient for a while longer.
Well that’s my rather long winded update on our Dome, hopefully more stories soon.
Greenhouses like the new dome behind Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale, Colorado could become a more common sight in the Roaring Fork Valley. Pitkin County is contemplating code changes to better accommodate greenhouses.
With community gardens cropping up around the Roaring Fork Valley, it may be only a matter of time before the first community greenhouse sprouts in somebody’s neighborhood.
As the “eat local” movement grows among those with a green thumb or, at least, a longing for fresh greens, so too is the interest in greenhouses. The need for a lengthened growing season certainly is not lost on anyone who has tried to grow a tomato between the last snow of spring and the first frost of fall in Aspen, or even Basalt.
But in Pitkin County, where 30 years of land-use regulation has focused on reining in development, loosening up the rules for backyard greenhouses could mean a whole new chapter in the local land-use code.
“If we really want to promote agriculture, isn’t a greenhouse in the backyard just as important as some big commercial operation? I’d say yeah,” said Cindy Houben, head of the county’s Community Development Department. Her staff is tackling the issue, which could include the need to accommodate community greenhouses that serve a neighborhood or the members of a cooperative venture.
At present, greenhouses are lumped in with barns in the county’s land-use code, and count as part of the allowed floor area for a house on lots of less than 20 acres. Properties larger than 20 acres but less than 160 acres in size are allowed a barn (or greenhouse) of up to 58 square feet per acre and it doesn’t count toward the floor area maximum. A property of more than 160 acres doesn’t face any limits on agricultural building size.
County planners have suggested allocating 120 square feet for a private greenhouse as a floor-area freebie, but a committee of citizens interested in the issue has suggested 200 square feet instead — sufficient space for a detached structure that won’t conveniently become part of the living quarters instead of functioning as a greenhouse. The committee also urged the county to regulate greenhouses separately from other agricultural buildings.
The county’s wariness when it comes to handing out extra floor area is understandable, said Michael Thompson, an architect and greenhouse designer who helped draft the committee’s recommendations. “They’re afraid people will build a greenhouse and store a Porche in it,” he said.
Thompson and Jerome Osentowski, whose Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute on Basalt Mountain is a showcase of year-round greenhouse agriculture, have teamed up in EcoSystems Design Inc., designing greenhouse environments like the new Growing Dome greenhouse that will celebrate its official opening at Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale on Aug. 1. Thompson and Osentowski envision regulations that allow virtually anyone to grow their own food on some level in a backyard greenhouse, and that accommodate a large-scale commercial operation, should there be an interest.
There is interest in greenhouse operations among some ranchers in the valley, according to Thompson, and Osentowski says Whole Foods, which intends to open a store at Willits in Basalt, is interested in locally grown products and the possibilities a greenhouse offers.
“If we want to become sustainable here, we can’t get all our vegetables from Paonia,” Osentowski said. “We can do it here. We have a lot of land.”
“We could have quite a robust local food economy,” Thompson agreed.
To foster small-scale food production, the county is being urged to simplify its rules for the would-be, backyard greenhouse gardener.
Senior planner Suzanne Wolff said she has spoken with individuals who are interested in putting up a greenhouse, but none have gone through the hoops currently required by the code.
“When we say we treat it like any other accessory structure — it has to go to land-use review — then they’re not so psyched,” she said.
It may be a gardener’s neighbors who are less than thrilled, depending on the size of the greenhouses that go up, if the county starts allowing extra floor area for such endeavors, Houben noted. “How big is it before it ceases to be a family, backyard greenhouse?” she mused. “We’re supportive, we just need to figure it out.”
In celebration of being named as winners of the “Colorado Companies to Watch Award,” Growing Spaces will offer a Summer Discount Special on their Growing Dome Greenhouses, for a limited time.
Our customers can gain up to $1,000 off on the first 10 Growing Domes purchased before July 31, 2010 depending on the size of Dome – see below for discounts*.
Imagine having great tasting, healthy food right outside your back door, even in winter! Growing Dome greenhouses can help us build the kind of lifestyles we all want to create.
Customers of the sale are required to take delivery by Sept 15th, 2010.
Call our friendly staff for additional details at 800-753-9333 or email:info@growingspaces.com
The State of Colorado recently recognized second-stage growth companies that are developing valuable products and services, creating quality jobs, enriching communities, and creating new industries throughout the state.
The program, called “CO Companies to Watch” had several hundred companies in the annual competition, but only 50 of them were named as 2010 CO Companies to Watch award winners. One of the 50 companies was local business, Growing Spaces, LLC, the manufacturer of the geodesic Growing Dome® greenhouse. Anyone can nominate a company for the award. Growing Spaces was nominated by Joe Keck and Lynn Asano of Southwest Colorado’s Small Business Development Center.
Growing Spaces, located in Pagosa Springs Colorado, has been in business for over 21 years. The company has supplied the Growing Dome to more than 1,200 clients in 48 states, and 11 countries. Best-known customers include Toyota Motor Co., Shumei Natural Gardens at Rodale Institute, and Naropa University.
Using technology in combination with wind, sun, water and earth, Growing Domes are efficient yet affordable. They allow the growth of fresh vegetables, flowers, fruit, and herbs year round, with minimal extra heating or cooling.
The dome structure resists wind and weather, and has an enormous amount of growing space. Even a 15’ Growing Dome can produce 400-500 pounds of produce per year – enough to feed two or three adults.
Yet, the dome is popular for more than growing plants. Its beauty and serene environment is perfect as a sanctuary for an enclosed hot tub, a relaxation/meditation space, or a community gathering place. As an off –the- grid enclosed indoor garden space, it is a living classroom for over 35 schools and 8 Indian Reservations and a shared garden for several communities and neighborhoods. As such, the Growing Dome teaches people to work with natural systems and the seasons in planting and growing, as well as re-directing our use of fossil fuels for energy to renewable ones. It is designed to be successful in remote areas and on rooftops, as well as expanding the growing seasons in difficult climates.
The company has tripled its sales and continued to expand its workforce over the last few years, with all of its hiring coming from the Pagosa Springs area. Growing Spaces is a direct-based business, meaning they contribute to the local community by having 50% or more of their sales coming from outside of the community. This expands the local economy, making more dollars available to its residents. Part of that growth has been in providing Growing Domes for communities, educational institutions and small farms.
Whether it’s a community like the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community wanting to re-introduce native and indigenous foods or a school like Rio Gallinas wanting to change how its children eat and teach them where food comes from, Growing Spaces provides a year-round greenhouse and the knowledge to help them grow. Their staff is well-equipped to offer classes in permaculture, sustainability, holistic health, and sustainability.
Through its brilliant design construction and renewable energy use, the Growing Dome® provides an optimal environment for those wishing to grow fresh, organic and nutritious vegetables, herbs and fruits throughout the year. At the same time, the dome dramatically shrinks the environmental footprint by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. Aiming to be a part of the “solution” to the problems of our times, Growing Spaces models the success of economic viability and social responsibility along with environmental sensitivity.
If you would like more information on Growing Spaces and owning your own Growing Dome, please feel free to call us at 800-753-9333 or visit us at www.GrowingSpaces.com
Exotic harvests: The Mast family grows grapefruit, limes and many, many other fruits & vegetables in their geodesic greenhouse.
This summer, Kellie Mast is looking forward to harvesting grapefruit, limes and maybe even olives and avocados. But she doesn’t live in Spain, she lives in Silver Creek, British Columbia.
Thanks to a funky-looking 33-foot round geodesic dome greenhouse, Mast can grow exotic produce, as well as an array of regular plants, vegetables and flowers.
“It’s not your hobby greenhouse. This is an entirely different dog,” laughs Mast, who admits the learning curve has been steep over the past year. “I’ve learned so much and still am. I don’t think I’ll ever be done.”
For the past year, the five-member Mast family has been growing their own organic produce in their Growing Dome – so far the only one of its type in the Okanagan.
The structure is made of large triangular panels and is equipped with solar power and “thermal mass” heat gathered by a large water tank. Designed by a Colorado company, Growing Spaces, the dome is intended for rugged conditions, including snow.
According to the Growing Spaces website, the geodesic domes – which come in several sizes – are alsoused as community gardens, educational school projects about “the living earth,” and even for meditation centers, saunas and studios.
The Masts, who moved from Edmonton two years ago, began looking for a greenhouse that would allow them to be self-sufficient. The dome promised growing conditions year-round as well as a small environmental impact.
“We really want to have clean healthy food for as much of the year as we can. We’re mostly vegetarian, so it’s very practical.” Now, the family grows tomatoes, cucumbers, a large variety of herbs, lettuces, greens, and they even have a miniature orange tree and may try bananas. Last summer, they grew melons started in the dome, situated near the Salmon River that flows through the family’s 24-acre property.
The whole family helps with everything from planting and cultivating, to seeding and harvesting. Succession planting – planting new crops on an ongoing basis – said Mast, is also a learning experience. “It’s easy to buy insecticide and spray it. Organic options aren’t as easy to discover but they are often right in your own home once you learn what they are.” Mast is pleased that she’s making connections with other organic growers who are willing to share tips.
The Mast family is thinking of one day selling some organic produce or operating a community garden, as their growing dome is capable of much higher productivity. “We’re only using 30 per cent of the available space now. There’s a lot more to it than putting up the dome. Each person does something different inside their dome. We have perimeter beds, vertical and hanging racks and a mezzanine. There’s still room for a lot more.” For Mast, the rewards are worth the work.
“I really like cutting up the food. There’s a stark difference in taste and freshness. You know there’s no junk in it.”
After spending a few minutes in the domes – I had to grab my camera! We have tomatoes, grapes, artichokes, figs, belle pepper, squash just to name a few of the wonderful things growing inside!!
Cherry Tomatoes - passed on from another dome owner
The Grapevine is looking lush!!
Artichokes!!!
Beautiful!!
Figs!!
Look at that grapevine! - It provides additional shade as well during the warm summer months!
The townspeople of New Stuyahok, Alaska “New Stu or Stu” as the red headed Casey in Dillingham called it, made the first step in what hopes to be a healthy, long journey of green. The road to this day has stretched adults imagination to that of a child’s and the bureaucracy of our times challenged the most steadfast of personality types. But one thing about life, change has a way of showing up. And show up it did!
On June 1st this year, myself and Janet Miller, my wife and Growing Dome guru arrived in New Stu to help the town erect a 33′ diameter Growing Dome near the newly completed ” Chief ” Ivan Blunka school. The site, a knoll above and at the edge of this Yupik village of 500 folks with backgrounds from “Charlie-man”, a Samoan to descendants of traditional Alaskan residents, is a great place to start a journey.
Installing the tank
The opportunity to grow organic, fresh, local greens, root crops, herbs, fruits and flowers is an adventure many communities are taking in becoming close to their food source and aware of what it takes to sustain us. No, a 33′ diameter Growing Dome will not feed the entire community, but it can provide an educational tool for teaching organic gardening, a place for community seedlings ahead of the outside planting curve to flourish until time to plant outside, and a center for “inter-generational” time.
Thecommunity garden is a place, like the Nushagak river in town,where old and new hands work together to help feed, educate and inspire.
Find this homestead on the Archuleta County map where you least expect to find anything close to an organic export food processing facility, and you find Archuleta County’s finest organic export food processing facility.
Of course, when you find such a facility in such a place, you expect to find extraordinary people. And in Aspen Springs, just east of Broken Off and far from any water main, you find them: Barbara and Daniele, partners and creators of Enchanted Valley Farm.
Barbara & Danielle inside the Growing Dome
The name is apt. Not ‘Efficient’ Valley Farm or ‘Practicable’ Valley Farm. Only enchantment leads people to start businesses like this, in locations like this.
Remarkably, neither Barbara nor Daniele had a background in farming or food production before moving to Pagosa. Daniele is an architect from Geneva, who had practiced for decades in Switzerland, California and Mexico. Barbara practiced as a dental hygenist in Houston for 30 years.
Then they visited Pagosa: “Then we came up here and fell in love with Pagosa, and sunshine and cool nights, and said ‘Let’s go home and sell everything and come back, and bring the camper.” Daniele recalled. “But when we bought our first property we moved into the growing dome,” Barbara added.
That first property was in Chromo, where Barbara and Daniele built their first house. Well, they nearly built it: “We had a property in Chromo, and our house was three-quarter’s built, and it burned down, and we had no insurance.” Soon thereafter, the women looked at a growing dome for sale in Aspen Springs, and purchased the dome and home, which today houses their commercial kitchen.
Remarkable willpower keeps Enchanted Valley in business producing up to 1300 containers of organic pestos, spreads and live-sprouted hummus each week — 26 varieties of organic, live, raw food — and distributing their unique products from Las Cruces to Jackson Hole.
Willpower and that combination of seriousness of purpose and capacity for delight I find in every successful business person in Pagosa, and rarely find in government-funded or public/private enterprises, whose will power seems limited to asking those in power in Denver and Washington, “Will you give us grants, please?”
Recently, sales have slowed, whether due to the recession or an increasingly regimented organic foods market controlled by distributors such as Rainbow, Shamrock and Cisco. Barbara lamented the demanding production rhythm Enchanted Valley had reached the previous summer: “We can’t keep that up, that pace. Nobody wants to work that hard, and I don’t want to push people that hard all the time. We had fantastic people working for us, and you begin to feel like the master with the whip. ‘You have four cases to finish before you can go.’” Continued…
Daniele is matter-of-fact about creating the future for their firm: “You have to discover the level at which you can be happy. And then to stay there, we have to do other things, like growing organic tomatoes and herbs in our growing domes for the local markets.”
It’s easy to see Barbara and Daniele devoting the patient hard work to creating a local market for the organic produce from their domes. And then see that market cornered by the Town’s geothermal greenhouse project, with its land give-away and free geothermal utilities, state and federal grants and, inevitably, taxpayer supported labor from the already stretched Town Parks department. If it can corner the local rhubarb market, the Town may get its finger into every pie literally.
But one can’t see any grant-funded hobby houses inspiring the plain hard work of these two remarkable women. After detailing the process of creating their hand-crafted spreads during the fifty-hour work week, Daniele described with a sense of leisure their two “days off” delivering their product regionally and working in the gardens and domes planting, transplanting, harvesting and washing.
With a sweet evenhandedness, Barbara discussed the romance of growing food: “People don’t realize that you have to care for your animals, and milk your cows every day, and plant lettuce every three weeks if you want continuing quality. Yet, at the same time you have to be perpetually hopeful when you are holding that small seed and see that beautiful harvest because otherwise it is so much work. You plant them, and transplant them, and transplant them, and then harvest them and schlep them here and schlep them there.” It was nearly 8pm, and Barbara said this with a warm end-of-day smile, weary but playful.
I asked the partners if regular water service would help. Barbara was quick to respond: “It would be like a dream come true, but we just try to make it through every month and pay our electric bill and our phone bill,” while Daniele added, “But this really is our dream come true. It is, it is, it is.”
And Daniele is confident that she can create a partnership with the water delivery man: “He was coming and delivering his truck of water. And I said ‘We will agree to an exchange and I will give you carrots for water. His response was ‘Oh, but you will have to give me a lot of carrots.’ I said, ‘No, I will be happy with the water and you will be happy with the carrots and you will not calculate anymore!’”
Before departing, I asked the partners what kept them working seventy-hour weeks to just meet the bills. “It is because we are good friends,” Daniel said thoughtfully with a smile, “and we believe in commitments, and believe that we are meant in this life to do something special together.”
“And,” Barbara added with a smile, “next week we will have baby goats.”
