Working on the greenhouse

I wasn't blogging last year, but this past September I started digging a hole to do a partially subterranean greenhouse.  The idea around doing a greenhouse with part of the structure underground is that the earth is a great natural insulator.  It maintains a pretty steady temperature as you get deeper underground.

I started digging in early September (by hand because I'm cheap) until I hurt my hip (the doctor called it a Sportsman's Hernia).  I was told to let it rest 6-9 months to heal up before considering doing anything like that again.  It's been 9 months.

I've decided to be a bit smarter.  I'm not going to dig quite as deep as I'd initially planned.  It won't be as energy efficient, but I'll get done faster and may be able to avoid renting a backhoe (~$300 for a day).

The hole is currently 12' x 17' x about 3.5' deep.  I intend to have the greenhouse be 10' x 15' with a 1' area around it where I will be running drainage pipe around the perimeter exhausting it out to the ravine behind the hole.  The reason I'm doing 10' x15' is that over 150 sq ft and I need to pull permits with my county to do the construction.  😁

Here are two pictures of my hole before I started digging today.

After doing my digging today.

The area I dug amounts to a rectangular area that's 7.5’ x 2.6’w x 1’ deep adjacent to a triangle that's 3’ x 3’ x 1’.  That amounts to 24 cubic feet (or 0.89 cubic yards) of dirt moved today.