Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse Doubles As Storm Shelter

Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse Doubles As Storm Shelter BUILDINGS Miscellaneous 34-2-35 Mark Jenkins built a 12 by 20-ft. greenhouse into the side of a hill with a combination root cellar/storm shelter, made from the drum off a cement mixer truck, buried behind it. First Jenkins excavated the hillside to bury the cement drum. He cut off the beveled front half of the drum and removed all the baffles from inside. That left him with a round tank, 7 ft. tall and 8 ft. across. It mounts sideways on concrete blocks for drainage and he cut a door out of the side facing the greenhouse. "The domed roof is 3/8-in. thick with 1/4-in. sides," he says. "I lined it with shelves made from treated lumber and dismantled pallets. There's room for 5 to 6 people to stand and for 500 jars of canned goods." The greenhouse was framed against the excavated hillside, in front of the root cellar/shelter. Jenkins slipped pieces of recycled corrugated tin behind wall timbers where they came in contact with dirt. The dirt floor and exposed a 2-ft. dirt bank on the backside soak up heat during the day and release it at night. "I've had nights that got down to -10? F and not had to worry about plants in the greenhouse," says Jenkins. "Heat from the ground keeps the greenhouse warm." Costs for the greenhouse were minimal, thanks in part to a door and window recycled from an old camper. The real savings came in 30 pieces of glass salvaged from a nearby factory that years before had stopped using tempered glass in the screen doors and windows they made. "They set all the unused glass outside for the taking, and my dad picked up thousands of sheets of it," says Jenkins. "I had plenty on hand for what would have been my biggest expense." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mark Jenkins, 12723 E. Panama Road, Nevada, Mo. 64772 (ph 417 684-3339; kyud8@yahoo.com).

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