Re-invent: From Cow shed to Hot House.
One of our first projects here in Tasmania was to make ourselves a hothouse from recycled materials. Hubby with his engineering hat on, the kids fully engrossed in their Home Ed project “Design and Build a hot house 101” and me standing around spouting off ideas twenty to the dozen, we were set to go.
Having convinced our landlord that we were here for the long term, he agreed to give us some space on the other side of the fence and excavation and RE-INVENTING began. The kids had their scale drawings of how many holes to dig and which ones required concrete, I had the list of requirements so we set out to source the materials.
Most our metal work came from dismantling the stalls in an old cow shed, set for demolition. The hoops were left over from a neighbour’s project. The raised bed timber was old fencing materials, the vertical strawberry beds were plumbing pipes, screen doors and mesh were given to us.
My couch was set in place before any beds were built to ensure I could reach the strawberries whilst remaining seated. Priorities! The kids tested the optimum space required to maneuver a wheel barrow around all paths and the build began.
The only items we had to purchase were the screws, pipe fittings, cement and plastic cover. We RE-INVENTED the cow shed into a Hot house and completed our project in a few weeks with a total spend of $600.
We have now enjoyed our 6th season and our RE-INVENTION is still standing and supplying us with an abundance of tomatoes, chillies, capsicum, salad greens, strawberries cucumbers and more. And I might add the kids know where to find me late on a sunny winters day… snoozing on the couch..
