OUR story

          The  Carolina Greens greenhouse project began in March 2020 when COVID-19 struck. Stay-at-home schooling presented the perfect opportunity to initiate this project with the extra time on our hands. Myself, my brother and father worked through the summertime to complete a four-walled, recycled window, old farmhouse board greenhouse over the course of 5 months. The process was lengthy, but each step was done with care and precision. We did everything possible to make sure this greenhouse would last and withstand the winds of North Carolina hurricanes. 

          After using the Japanese shou sugi ban method of burning the ends of the posts to preserve them, we added a coat of copper sulfate mixed with tarnish for further protection of the part of the post that would sit in the saturated soil. The entirety of the posts was then painted with aluminum followed with white paint. Sitting the posts aside, the next step was digging four main post  2 holes each three feet deep. After digging the first one with my brother with a shovel and posthole digger within the course of forty minutes, we thought that the rest would be just that easy. However, that was not the case, and one inch in on the second hole we encountered a root the size of a small stump. We realized it was actually an interconnection of roots from a past tree that had been cut down years before we moved in. We contemplated whether we should change the plans of the greenhouse to change the hole coordinates slightly to avoid the roots; however, we decided to just stick with it and that it what we did. After stabbing with the post hole digger for hours to break off piece after piece of what seemed like an endless hole of wood, we took a break and decided to start another hole for the day. This hole was done easily, but the last hole to dig was a similar situation to the second hole after digging half of it. Both of these holes were eventually completed with the use of an electric chain saw, more post hole digger action, and the use of my own hands to pull out the last bits of roots and mud stuck down too awkwardly to reach another way. This step of the greenhouse at sometimes made me think if we would actually build this thing.               

            Once we got us the posts in the ground and screwing in the two main rafters, we had to not only put together the roof, but somehow get it atop the twelve-foot posts with just the hands of my father, 11-year brother, and me. It was my job to screw the total of one-hundred eight screws to bind the polycarbonate translucent sheets to the mini wood beams. This was a lengthy but easy task but putting it atop the posts was not. After three different attempts, we finally succeeded through lifting one side of the posts and using a piece of scrap wood to push the other side up. After securing it, we started the rows of window sills for the front and back wall. These walls had three sills each, and aluminum tracks had to cut, predrilled and drilled into the sills for all of these and two steel hinges cut and drilled for each of them as well. Wood backings  3 were also installed to support the windows, so they would not fall out. This part of the building process can be overlooked in the finished product, but my brother, father, and I are aware of each set of minutes spent that stacked up to hours. In the matter of a month, we had two sliding window walls completed. 

           The matter of finishing the greenhouse included the steps of finishing the door wall side with the picture window and ventilation boards above it, installing the old farm board beams to support the roof, finishing the fourth window wall, adding ventilation board vents below each of the lowest window sill beam on each wall, and have everything painted white in the process. There are little details that were also completed, such as the installation of the picture window, but that includes the main noticeable steps to the eye within the finished project.                     

             From there I was able to start growing all my greens. They were all first started in black trays that were eventually transferred to the ground of the greenhouse. The first set of experimental crops were kale, beets, broccoli, peas, and green beans. The broccoli and beets were the main successes and set the standard for much produce to come.

Killen Harper

Original Founding Statements of 2020:

• Mission statement: supply food banks and soup kitchens with high nutritional produce to help combat hunger in North Carolina
• Vision:  to inspire North Carolinians to take part with their own efforts by contributing one yard of their own backyard to grow produce for the soup kitchens and food banks of North Carolina.
• Let's grow!