The Game Changer

Is this the happiest man you’ve ever seen? This photo really shows what Steve is about. If I had worked for two days and was facing down two pallets of materials for a gigantic greenhouse, I would not look like this. But Steve leaves to work on it in the morning and comes home at night full of happiness and a sort of idyllic view of the future. “Aren’t we lucky?” he asks. And yes, I say, we really are.

Lucky that we have this land, the means, and the health to do this kind of large project.  Of course, Steve is already thinking how he could make better greenhouses than this one (which is a giant kit “made to be easily shipped”) and how everyone needs a giant greenhouse. Or not even giant. I try to keep him rational and make him realize not everyone has the land or resources we have– and most people do not actually want to work at growing things in the winter in Minnesota!

My garden shed has not yet materialized (ahem, my 50th birthday present…) but now instead of a prefab job from Home Depot there are talks of the prototype for the new greenhouse construction, half shed, half greenhouse, maximum strength, with room for chickens of course.

The greenhouse people said this one would go up in three days with two people working on it. That has not turned out to be true. Still, I am glad Steve and Jeff are taking their time with the gravel floor, securing the posts, reinforcing the base with wood. Here is the corner post going in, a big moment.

And really, look at those white pines behind him. Who wouldn’t want to be out there building a greenhouse on a sublime October day? Think of the great sound the wind will make through the grove (the work of my brother-in-law Kevin) while you’re in the greenhouse.

When Steve comes in at night, what strikes me is his vision of how beautiful the greenhouse will be and how everyone is going to want to hang out there in the winter. Because we all know, really, that farming is about community. He talks poetically about the sun and the refuge that will be the greenhouse in the middle of winter. (This is the man who wanted a bed on wheels so it could be rolled over to the window at night in spring to better hear the frogs.) Today he said I should get a bike with snow tires so I can more easily go back and forth. Big dreams.

He also thinks he’ll be driving trucks and implements in there in the winter, blasting the propane heaters, and fixing the machinery in the bright sun of a January day. I’m not sure I like the idea of a giant plastic machine shed, but whatever… Jeff has dreams of fig trees and a lemon tree inside.

In the last two days the framework has gone up and now we can really get a sense of how big it is. 72′ x 26′ is no joke. Here is Steve showing me the little area I can use for a few tomato plants. The joker.

At dinner we get out the Eliot Coleman book Four-Season Harvest, which has the most beautiful photo of a 10 x 20 greenhouse, complete with paver area with a little table and place for starting plants and a few rows of raised beds for crops. Steve has told me my little greenhouse plot will be more like 15 or 20 x 26. I’m gonna start with the 10 x 20 idea and work my way up…and maybe purchase the new Coleman book Winter Season Harvest. 

The real purpose of the greenhouse, though, is to grow prairie plugs. There have been two prairie restoration companies in St. Cloud over the years, but they have closed up shop or moved closer to the Twin Cities. There is an opening here, and a market. So the greenhouse is likely to be full of grasses and native flowers in time to come. That’s a business I can also get behind. Next summer we’ll be rebranding Steve’s Landscape Services (currently at http://steveslandserve.com) to emphasize the prairie part of the business.

Which is all to say, we’re really excited about the greenhouse. Even the bees, whose homes are just a little ways off, and who have also had a great year, as you can see by the number of boxes in their two hives.