Here are plans to make an Earth-sheltered Greenhouse from a man in Idaho. He actually built it into the side of a hill to help moderate the temperatures inside. It looks like he dug it all out by hand. (Click on Image Gallery for close-ups.) He must have wanted vegetables badly! I’m pretty sure if we tried something like that on our land, the greenhouse would fill up with water. We have a pretty high water table when there isn’t a drought. If this doesn’t seem like it would work for your situation, check out some of the other season-extending books in my Amazon Store.
Thanks to Primrozie for the link.
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This looks like a fantastic idea if you live in a place with hills. I like the way the earth is used to cool the greenhouse – all very efficient. I would use an excavator, though.
Unfortunately, we don’t have many hills in Denmark, so I’ll have to dream on about this particular greenhouse.
Excellent use of tera firma, I own a backhoe and live in maine. This earthen greenhouse is going on my to do list
really well thought out plans, thanks for sharing those.
Very cool idea, but a lot of work, unless you have a friend with a backhoe.
Very cool idea. Like you, I have a high water table. Sigh.
One way to combat a high water table is to bring in soil and build the whole thing above your current ground level. You would have to build a pretty big mound, but at least you could build the thing and get the benefit of the earth sheltering. Most of the additional “dirt” could be pit-run gravel which is usually pretty reasonably priced. The only topsoil needed would be that in the actual growing beds. That could come from your lot before you place the first gravel, so you could save that much.