Building a Greenhouse at Whistling Wolf

On this photo shoot back in March, Helen Chandler of Whistling Wolf Farm was building a cold frame greenhouse on her fields. The air was still cold and the ground was only beginning to loosen up when Helen and three friends (Amy, Cara, and Ashley from Gravity Hill Farm in Titusville) started work.

Helen bought a used greenhouse at auction, disassembled it, and had to rebuild it on her farm without any instruction manual. It was not an easy process because it had rained hard earlier in the week so the field was still very wet and muddy, yet it was critical that the underlying structure be secure. Since the plastic sheeting catches wind easily, the greenhouse has to be extremely sturdy. They had to remove huge rocks and boulders from the dirt before ensuring that the posts were sunk solidly into the ground. Then they had to make sure that the baseboards were exactly level on both sides.

You’ll see in a future blog post (part of our series about Whistling Wolf Farm, documenting a year in the life of a new farm) that Helen, Amy, Cara, and Ashley succeeded — the greenhouse went up beautifully, and now it’s producing a bumper crop of greens, herbs, tomatoes, onions, and much more.