Passive Solar Greenhouse's First Winter: Success! - Latvian Homestead

Find out how we successfully our passive solar greenhouse made it through the first winter on our Latvian homestead. We'll share our spring tidy up, planting first seeds, and the improvements and new features we want to add to make it even better!
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Our Story:
In 2018 we left the UK to come to Gita’s family homestead here in north Latvia, not far from the Estonian border and now we live somewhere nowhere in the middle of a forest in a house built by Gita’s grandfather. We’re videoing our journey and trying to give you some insights into how we’re living here.
You can also find us on Instagram where we post different and more regular updates: baltichomesteaders

[@-RONNIE]

That is smart using the old plants for compost. Keep up the good work

[@BrianProsser]

Sveiki from New Hampshire. Thanks for the update!

[@estherscegolsky1972]

Best way in Latvia is to dig in ,insulate and only roof above. Seemingly you are inlands ,where frost can reach 3 foot deep.another way- put bales of straw under soil and it will improve sand content in the soil. I’m from west coast of Latvia.

[@BalticHomesteaders]

Sveiki! My original idea was a wallapini dug in type thing but that needed an excavator. The soil has lots of good stuff in it, I made a whole video on it last year, chicken compost and more :) Are you enjoying the early spring over in Kuldiga?

[@estherscegolsky1972]

@@BalticHomesteaders Sveiki or čau ,as we all say there😆im living in Ireland for the last 25 years now, but im from Ventspils originaly. I was a keen gardener in Latvia and i have garden here too. Kuldīga is a lovely little town. If you are there,you are lucky😄i haven’t seen all your videos but i currently gorging on them😆thank you for reply.

[@jeffreyjacobs6072]

As a suggestion.....along the back wall you could build a raised bed using material suitable for a heatsink. Although in the summer you might have to shade the material with plants. Lots of options to consider for sure!👍🤠

[@leofortey7561]

The slope of the roof prevents direct sunlight from hitting that back wall in the Summer which is about 54deg in his area. In Winter the slope should reflect the 8deg Sun angle which will slowly cut the Sun while it reaches peak height and Summer heat to prevent overheating. Watch Arkopia for details.

[@JohnGuest45]

A couple of 10-12ft long raised beds filled with soil would be a good bet. Install 10-12ft lengths of 4" drainage tube in the beds and attach some 120mm pc pressure fans to push the greenhouse air through them. Use a 12v solar panel to power the fans directly, if there`s enough sun for the panels, there will be heat in the greenhouse that can be stored in the beds. The brighter the sun, the faster the fans will run so its very simple and somewhat self regulating

[@BalticHomesteaders]

@JohnGuest45 to give you an idea about sun. We had more sun yesterday than we did in the whole of December :)

[@JohnGuest45]

@@BalticHomesteaders Its surprising how hot a greenhouse can get with a small amount of winter sun. I store any and all excess heat in the ground underneath the greenhouse.

[@JohnGuest45]

I`m surprised you didnt install vertical perimeter insulation in the ground. It makes a huge difference to how fast the greenhouse soil heats up in the spring, which plays a big role in early germination. It also prevents heat being lost to the cold ground outside in the winter, especially if the outside air temp is -30C :)

[@BalticHomesteaders]

It was never really designed as a 4 season solution so I didn’t bother. I could retrofit if I felt spring was a problem but I have a decent grow light setup indoors for main germination and transplant growing.

[@JohnGuest45]

@@BalticHomesteaders I start mine indoors under lights too to get a jump on the season. As the greenhouse soil warms up quicker i can move them out a little sooner which is a plus. There is also less chance of transplant stress/shock due to soil temperature difference, indoors vs greenhouse.. If you have a short growing season, its worth considering.

[@JamCamel]

Appreciate the 'warts n all' videos. Some of the self-sufficiency videos can be (ironically) quite disheartening; watching someone talk about how blazingly fantastic and perfect everything is going in their little patch, meanwhile you're looking at your garden with a bunch of seeds which never came up, slugs which are destroying everything, and round 479 of you vs the local deer population. Hearing about the stuff that didn't work (e.g. water barrels) makes me feel a little bit less annoyed at my own failures.

[@leofortey7561]

If you want to grow all year you need that mass in the back wall. Water is one of the best materials for this(Sand is one of the worst). If you don't want all-season growth then sure, use the drums for irrigation.

[@BalticHomesteaders]

It’s 3 season only or ‘season extension’ but there’s still frosts to deal with before light becomes a problem.

[@jaimeantunezreed429]

what about heating it with a Korean Ondol system or a Big Batch Rocket (BBR6 or 8) and some kind of hydroponics maybe duck ponics... also maybe dig a deep hole for cold air sink. Love your gh and I'm very impressed, specially for the price tag and automation... maybe also a thermal blanket inside like the Chinese solar greenhouses

[@BalticHomesteaders]

The original design (on the animated vid I did) I had a little RMS as part of it but I changed my mind when I built it. As I indicated here if I went back to the original idea of a solid mass so the exhaust chimney could run through it.

[@jaimeantunezreed429]

@@BalticHomesteaders but I still think you should use it with some form of passive hydroponics