Sustainable Greenhouse Design

Rocky Mountain Gardening Elective

Have you ever wondered if it could be done? Can you create a greenhouse that needs no supplemental heating or cooling year-round? The answer is yes! No more over-heating and freezing as is common in all-glazed greenhouses - this design balances the use of thermal mass, glazing, insulation and sun angles to achieve the stability needed in our extreme climate without the use of fossil fuels.

Learn how to design a sustainable greenhouse from the ground up using salvaged or new materials, or in combination to achieve the look and performance you want. You can also use these techniques to improve an existing greenhouse.

In 2000, the Parmenters built their first greenhouse out of 90-percent recycled materials on top of an 8,120-foot decomposed granite mountain. Since then, they have designed and built dozens more and are ready to share what they've learned about state-of-the-art materials and cost-saving strategies. C'mon, walk through the snow into your warm, inviting greenhouse and lose yourself in a year-round garden sanctuary.

This class is a comprehensive look at how passive solar greenhouses work. It includes how to orient the building, basic principles of passive solar design including the use of stored water as thermal mass, simple math formulas to help guide you with your design, a materials list and drawings and calculations for a 13' x 15' greenhouse.

Price: $160, $150 member

Instructors: Penn and Cord Parmenter

Penn and Cord Parmenter are high-altitude food and seed growers. When they began homesteading in 1991, the Parmenters were told tomatoes don't grow in the mountains. Today, they work with 250 varieties of tomatoes at 8,120 feet in the Wet Mountains. They apply a multitude of techniques to overcome the challenges of growing tomatoes in the high country. They own Smart Greenhouses LLC, a sustainable greenhouse design and build company, and Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds, providing regionally adapted seeds for extreme climates. They are celebrating over three decades of growing seasons in the Rockies!