Small green arks

Small Green Arcs the passive solar greenhouse

The value of a greenhouse in the home garden is obvious: Due to the longer growing period compared to the open field, a lot of herbs, vegetables and fruits can be harve- sted from a small area.

Passive solar [ground] greenhouses are a good alternative to the small, off-the-peg greenhouse, which is transparent on all sides. In summer, the internal temperatures are often too high for the plants, and in the cold season they are much too low.

This book describes in detail and in a practical manner how to build solar greenhouses, free-standing, leaned or partially sunk into the ground, in which it is possible to har- vest vegetables, herbs and fruit (almost) all year round – without additional heating. Numerous construction examples show the variety of possible solutions. Although they may seem quite different at first glance, the self-built solar greenhouses all have certain constructional features in common. This book is about them.

The good news is that even standard greenhouses that are transparent on all sides can usually be converted without too much effort so that the sun’s radiation energy can be used more advantageously for the plants.