Hello everyone, and firstly thanks to those of you who have subscribed and i have not yet had a chance to chat. However i have been busy with many projects that have been needing to be done, which has now given me something else to write about.
I have been trying to obtain a sustainable lifestyle for a number of years and part of my garden regeneration has included a workshop, storage shed, 7' fence (needs a redo after i backed into it with my van), and more than i should mention here. Last summer i made 4 grow beds from pallets and installed my aquaponics unit. I wanted to tie the shed into the grow bed set up. My garden is split into three sections, front, middle and back. the back is by far the largest part and contains every fruit tree i could afford to buy and this year has brought fruit in abundance.
The shed idea was that we would have the sunniest part of the garden with decking and a place to grow food or ideal for cannabis growing in a secure greenhouse with shutters. Of course that would be illegal in my country (UK). However the inspiration came to my mind from that type of growing but i needed to think about off grid rather than run up electric bills.
So this shed was built completely out of pallet wood from Gumtree which total cost was £110.00 and is 2.5m long by 2.5 ish tall. It is split into two equal rooms separated by a wall with a large window and shutter. Both rooms have 3 skylights and 4 front windows each, windows on each gable end and two windows at the back for the morning sunrise.
Based on the principles of bloom and veg cycles my idea was to harvest the light in the summer which for 18 hours and one room has all the veg growth in it and at the same time the other room will have the shutters closed to shut the light out for the 12 hour cycle of bloom.
Conversely in winter i swap the plants round and leave the blooming plants with the open side and the veg then goes to the room with the shutters and after sunset the lights come on and the shutters are closed to avoid attention.
This is the first year I have tried this and so far my plants did well including my peppers, chillis, basil to name a few. I frosted out the windows to avoid attention and put a strong bolt on the door for security. I have found that it can get too hot in the summer and a bit chilly in the winter but i still have work to do on it.
On my list to do is to hook up my solar system to the shed, insulate and install an extraction fan. I have an inlet fan behind the deck chair in the photo which is discrete.
I put up some decking lights and at night with all the vegetables growing outside the shed it felt like i was on holiday, listening to the aquaponics water running, looking over at the orchard and chickens, and when the sun did come out this summer when i was building it my son helped me build the roof for his home schooling and a healthy discussion about acute angles was had.
Thanks for reading my post on my self sustainable grow room and if you liked please comment, follow or vote. I will post updating how things are progressing with the shed. Thanks for now.