Hi I just saw your blog with the dome. I live on the border of MN and WI outside the twin cities, but I am heading North to superior or duluth area soon. I am building my own home (adobe or earthbag) and am interested in your dome idea. But as a thought have you considered installing a small home-made wood burner inside the dome for winter? You could keep your temp at summer ranges all winter.
For the exterior did you use the plastic sheets or glass and how did you frame it? Did you get a design from online? I work construction so just curious where you got the dome plans from.
In the winter, what do you grow in your dome?
Thanks for your time
-R
Awesome stuff brother - check out St Lawrence Nursery and Oikos Tree Crops for great permie stuff...One Green World Nursery too has great stuff.
I DO have a wood heated stove...its attached to the hot tub! BUT...Im never there in the winter so therein lies the issue.www.snorkel.com - I HIGHLY recommend this...all it takes really is scrap wood and when I warm up the water - its so much better than just a regular stove...it really retains the heat well and adds much needed humidity. BUT...it is also nice to have it freeze over (it gets to the 10-15F in the winter at the coldest because the ground always warms up so much and radiates that heat throughout the night) so as not to confuse everything when there is only 8 hours of light happening, and if snow gets all over the dome, well...forget it - its dark in there. Better to have everything leafless and dormant until February. Things will start waking up in mid feb or early march, while outside its about 2 months later. I surrounded the dome with loads of soil as to protect it and insulate it better too...I highly recommend doing this.
I got the dome from "Growing Spaces Domes'' in Pagosa Springs Colorado. I got the 22 footer. I cover all the beds in the winter with logs inoculated with mushrooms so they can continue to break down the wood instead of being dormant outside, and since I have all perennials in there, I dont really grow anything else in the winter. I dont want broccoli robbing my figs of nutrients if you know what i mean. I grew cherry tomatoes in there this summer and they became so massive that they started to vine out and cover up other plants, almost killing the gojis and the comfrey. I wanted to use the dome to grow stuff that I couldnt grow AT ALL in minnesota...Id rather use that valuable space to grow figs and persimmons instead of winter cabbage and spinach.
I have regular kiwis in there, some grapes, two figs, three persimmons, comfrey, 2 gojis, 2 goumis, um....lavender, white sage, and then all the mushrooms. Doing the mushrooms is the best possible idea really...get the plugspawn at www.fungiperfecti.com
I hope this helps brother!!! Keep me posted on everything - def check out those online nurseries...start planting your edible hedge around your property as soon as possible and get those logs inoculated! Cant wait to see what you do!
Anthony
Here's a video from this summer...these emotions certainly
arise when living the permie lifestyle
And one from last week -
