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Listened to this while doing homestead chores. Was great to be reminded of and learn a few new techniques.

https://youtu.be/eoxH4522is4?si=QbluROwbtlQJWkYx

I was homeschooled and this is how I would do my work. Now I just use the same method for my botanical knowledge.

I am seeking design advice around my somewhat shaded small space. My southern New York (41.0 degrees north) property has an extra little square and it I would like to try to make something like a 3 season solar greenhouse on it. I was thinking something in the range of 6×12 – spending $1.5-2k, designing and building myself, disconnected from main water & electricity, maybe heating only on abnormally cold days. I finished the book “the year round solar greenhouse” by Schiller and have started reading the recommended “how to build your own greenhouse” by Marshal & looking for other design resources.

I don’t have carpentry experience myself but I have people that could help me out of the kindness of their hearts.

Here is a pic of my space

My problem is that the area has a lot of tall trees to the south and west. The picture was taken in early September at around 2pm, If I was making a long structure would it be better to orient it towards the early morning sun or follow the basic advice of having the glazing facing south. I noticed that down the road a local farm has 150 foot long north to south oriented, acrylic sheet arch greenhouses so to some degree it seems possible for me.

I am already able to grow tomatoes in the spot so my main goal is simply extending their season and expanding on what I grow after accomplishing that. I know that here they receive the light required to produce from summer to now and currently in October I haven’t had it go to freezing so they are still slowly producing the occasional full sized tomato.

These are just accessory questions but the solar greenhouse book told about an insulated ground + ground air heat transfer system which sounds very interesting, I understand that it would have limited heating and cooling under a footprint of 6×12 but I think I would have fun just installing it and using it as circulation. The solar greenhouse book has an example where a >1kw system could supply the energy for a small GAHT fan system + venting fans. Does anyone know where to find more specific design documentation on it ? And if after a long time do insulating foam + PVC pipe leach into the ground and create a problem for nearby plants & the environment?

also does the shade from trees kill the viability of solar panels? If i have them closer to the south I could increase the hours of a higher angle sun but in the colder seasons they would get more blocked out. I think if I oriented it to the more clear sky to the south east it might capture more energy, I’m not sure. I know how to get the timings and positions of the sun in my area so this could be a do-able complex calculation.

Hi mods/community—Master’s student here. We’re exploring a low-cost, solar, sound-based wildfire detector for small/mid-size farms.

• Goal: understand needs/challenges to see if this is genuinely useful.

• Time & privacy: 2–3 min, anonymous; results used for coursework only.

• If allowed, here’s the survey: https://forms.gle/enxux5n42wg1XL178

As I understand it, soil has sand, silt and clay. You change the ratios based on what you want to grow, but any soil must have some of those 3.

Now if I added 100ml of vermiculite to 100ml of soil (which had a 1:1:1 ratio of sand silt clay) would the soil become more sandy? Cause vermiculite is somewhat sandy (it aerates and its large) but it’s somewhat clayish (its porosity holds moisture). So what is it? Does it exist outside of the soil/silt/clay spectrum?