Shadehouse Numero Dos

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I most certainly have enjoyed my shadehouse and it has provided my collection great protection from the harsh elements but I am quickly outgrowing its footprint...  It is time to grow...  These pictures of the shorty shadehouse just make my back muscles cringe...

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A couple pics of the shadehouse before its demolition (note the size )

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The first order of business was to move the plants out of the small shadehouse to under the detailing canopy so they will have some shade during reconstruction...  I removed the 4 foot high sawhorses progressively as I removed the plants...  Christie of course decides to snap a picture of what the work really looked like, me resting...  ::

(Jeff are you sure you don't want that F350 Crew Cab Dualie 7.3L Turbo Diesel?   I promise I will use some of the proceeds at the Rainforest Collection! :: )

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SLOWLY the old shadehouse got broken down and the plants moved...  

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OK, all the plants have been moved into a somewhat shady spot where they can hang out for the next couple of days...  Christie moved all the containers and the individually potted palms.  She worked really hard throughtout the whole project without fussing and I am grateful for the assistance.  Quite the ranch hand! ::  Here she is by the detail area with all the palms moved.  This was by far the hardest part of the job, moving all the palms...

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Next up was construction...  I really liked the ease and portabiliy of the sawhorse design, so I planned to repeat the idea...  No concrete, no digging in shellrock and coral, no leveling, permitting or anything else...  Hopefully no hurricanes for a couple years!

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LOOK AT HER GO!!!  We worked round the clock for alomst 5 days to get the project done...  We almost got all the compnents of the sawhorses prepped by the end of the first day...  7am till midnight...  We were exhausted and both (she more then I, I'm certain) craving a shower by the end of the night.

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Next up, we layed down ground fabric...  I didn't buy enough it seems.  GRRRR.     More about that later...

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Next we assembled and moved the sawhorses into place...  These hold down the ground fabric very well so we made no attempt to stake the fabric into place...

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These are a couple pictures of a really happy grower with a really happy back at this moment, I don't have to duck to get in here! Stinkin Oompa loompas! (Notice the shadehouse is still obscured to the City complex on the other side of the hedge...  Keep your fingers crossed that code enforcement doesnt catch onto this one! :cool: )

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Ok , so we took a break and went down to The Searle Borther's Nursery in the middle of the project to pick up some 3g Carpoxylon macrosperma and some 1g Licuala sp. (I forgot what kind I purchased, not good!)

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Next we threw on the 2 large finished pieces of shade fabric, it is really cumbersome to handle these large objects... I then attached them with zip ties every 6 inches...  seemed like a much easier solution than sewing with twine....  Hope it hold up as well!

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Then we moved back all the palms, ugh...  I'm gonna be in debted to that girl for some time I have a feeling! ::  Here's a couple of palms that caught my eye while we were moving...

Areca vestiaria maroon leaf form

Dypsis sp. Pink crownshaft

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The plants were getting a bit dried out so I gave them a real good watering after they were moved back...  

I purchased a whole bunch of rebar stakes to stake down the shadecloth...

Here's the idea...

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Now the concept was to pull the shadecloth taught and stake down the other side but my ground cover came up about 4 feet short on two sides...  sigh...  and the prediction of a tropical wave had just been announced so we decided to temporarily hold down the shade fabric with some spare tires until more fabric could be ordered and the fabric could be staked down with no exposed ground in the shade house...

It is starting to look like the real thing!

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A couple of the palms are beginning to show a bit of sunscalding from the 3 days they were underneathe the detail canopy...  It didn't provide much protection before 11 am and after 3 pm...  At least it offered relief from the hottest parts of the day...  I'm guessing these damaged leaves will turn brown over the next week or two...  

The Dypsis sp. "Orange Crush" looked a bit bleached...

So did the Archontophoenix purpurea and the Kerriodoxa elegans...

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Here's our work from last night...  We got the homeade manifold and all the funny pipe installed...  I love the fact that I have built this shadehouse off of a garden hose...  No Fancy PVC or Complicated systems!  

We hung the irrigation from the 2x4 crossmembers with zipties...  Is there anything that can't be fixed with zipties??

[Gbarce]

Nice convenent setup. Thanks for sharing.

What kind are the 2 palms in the big black pots--Coccothrinax crinita?

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It is pouring outside today...  No working in that garbage...  The tropical wave is moving through, appreas to be moving toward Lake Okeechobee, the water is certainly welcome!  Hopefully I can get my shadecloth in soon and complete the project!

Here's a sharp palm...  Acrocomia aculeata

My Caryota gigas has really taken off this summer, it started as a one leafer...

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(Gbarce @ Jun. 28 2007,11:44)

QUOTE

What kind are the 2 palms in the big black pots--Coccothrinax crinita?

Those are Coccothrinax borhidiana... I hope to see them seed in the next year or so!!

[BigFrond]

Hey William,

That ranch hand is a keeper.  The only thing that my ranch hand will do is get me a cold one.

I really like the details of the removal of the old shade house and the building of the new shade house.  Good job William.  I really like this post

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Thanks Big Frond!  I definately agree, I'm doing my best to not mess things up!  Luckily for me she is a patient and forgiving woman. ::

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So a how about a teaser of palms to come in the future, these are some of the reasons for all the effort and trouble of building a decentish shade house...

Voanioala gerardii

Psuedophoenix ekmanii

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I guess I'll get my groundcover ordered and take some pictures as I complete the project...  I still need to put the misting heads on the black funny pipe to be able to water via the fertigation system...  With all the rain we are having today, I think I can wait a day or two...  It's time to go catch up on some well deserved rest...   :cool:

[junglegalfla]

William,

Very cool post, I'm inspired to make my own now! I like your plant labels, how do you make those? You must have your own laminator?

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I do have a laminator and that is how I made all the labels.  

[Tyrone]

Isn't it good to do the hard work and look back and see the result is just so good. I like your setup. You are very organised. My setup is a pot ranch combined with a rainforest garden that has barely a place to walk. I need to buy the bare block next door.  

regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

Love the oompa loompas.

[Kris]

Dear William  

i wanted to comment yesterday it self but thought you will

be loading in more stills,so felt not to barge in middle of uplaods.

as most have pointed out that 2 palms near your old shade house where the mini trucks are parked are mind blowing(they are in huge black plastic pots...

your  work is purely proffessional and the materials all seem to

be first class quality.it is clear that you have not cut corners when investing for the benefit of the plants_great job !

and the labelling is fentastic,it is very clear for dumb heads like me_who call themselves as VisualMan.its self explainatery as to what it will look like when grown !

and now to the most important thing the ranch hands...

she is the best team you may ever have in this life.

since with work like that for 3 day it will bring out the real

person in you,but for 5 day...jeseus.i feel that you are the

luckiest guy on earth to have a such a nice buddy_Period.

because one can act being good not more than just 3

days !

and the results speaks it all ! and the plants are all going to thank you both for your hard work.and mother nature

is watching all of this_Do you feel it !_William  

your work and another member by name Palmtrafficiate

have show all the palm lovers & enthuiests how to go

about doing with shade houses...i doubt our folks hear

will ever teach how one is made !

you guys are great and god bless you !  

Love,

Kris  

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Kris,

Thank you for your kind words.  I am always certain that when you comment you are sincere and intentional.  I appreciate your patience in waiting until I was finished posting photos, but it is not necessary.  Please always feel free to interject.  And as you say, I must be a "Dumbhead" too!    I need the visuals on my plant labels to help me learn and memorize the plants as I am very new to this hobby!  I simply made a label with a color printer and laminated it in a business card size laminator.  Very easy!!!

Best wishes my distant friend.

[bgl]

Bill,

Great job with the new shadehouse. But I'm going to miss the photos from your old shadehouse....it made all your palms look like giants!!

Bo-Göran

[Jeff Searle]

Bill,

    Beautiful! Alot of hard work HAS paid off. Your palms look very well grown, so we can expect to have you as a palm vendor at the local sales in the near future,right. I can see myself poking around your plants, looking for palms I need.

    And thanks for coming down the other day.It was nice to meet Christie, she's a keeper.

Jeff

[calyptrocalyx&licuala freck]

Good job Bill, Now thats got to be saving your

back,Only need to bend to check things.

Thanks for sharing your rebuild Excellent.

           Cheers Mikey.

[Dypsisdean]

Thanks for the fun thread.

[BS Man about Palms]

As the founding member of "Ranch Hand" helpers or the like... She qualifies AND gets the job done too!

My back feels better reading this thread too.

[RadPalms]

HI William.......I built my shade house from the frame of a canopy like what you put your plants under while you were building your shade house....When you add up the price of all the material you used it was cheaper to go with the metal frame plus you get a higher head room.  I did this because one I have a unit like it that my van is parked under (power lines over head=lots of bird **** on my car) and it needed a new cover, so wall-ah I killed two birds with one stone.... I am glad to see you standing now...never knew you were so tall...and for being new at this game you are doing some awesome stuff....Thanks for posting your adventures...

Curt

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Thanks for all the comments guys!  I know its really not the most exciting thread (like Bo's "Orange crush", Dean's Double red chambeyronias, or Jeff's Carpoxylon) but it may give a newcomer some brainstormin ideas to help propagate somthing rare!  I can't wait till it gets done...  Gonna place an order for more Texel ground fabric tommorrow, with some more pots in different sizes...  need some inbetween sizes for medium speed palms.  I'll post more pics as I finish up!  

Jeff, I will definately be a vendor someday...  That or I may have to move out by you just to have a place to keep this snowballing monster!  When I got into this (in over my head that is!)  I didn't calculate for one key issue, these things will get big in a hurry!  

And Curt, I looked into that option as well... acecanopies.com has some really inexpensive deals and was ever so tempting...  My only problem with that is that the local code enforcement office is within visual sight of my property...  The shadehouse is obscured from their vision by the ficus hedge on the perimeter of the property...  I know I'm breaking some rules here by doing this, and really don't feel so great about it, but I can't afford to hire an engineer, do permitting, and pay for the labor thats envolved with their idea of hurricane proof...  The town code calls for structures to be wind resistant to 170 mph winds for 10 seconds...  For the detail canopy I played by all the town's rules and they had me pour 2 foot cube footers (you can see this in the photos) to hold down 1.5 inch galvanized pipe structure , the detailing canopy structure we used to keep the plants under temporarily while building the second shadehouse!  All in all, not including the actual cost of the canopy I had about $1300 bucks into engineering schematics, code inspections and permitting, and materials for the footers...  Unbelievable!! OK, I'm ranting a bit here...    All that to say I would have love to have gone the cheaper way and put the shadehouse with a metal frame canopy, but I just wouldn't be able to get away with it....  This way worked out to be less expensive, for now....  

[Tad]

looking fine william, what are the turqoise ish colored things just of the hose manifold?

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Hey Tad,

Those little turquoise boxes are bettery powered timers...  I have four different zones in the shadehouse that are all able to operate independantly...   I can't run them at the same time, but I can accomadate different needs for different palms if need be...  Each independant zone also has an inline pressure regulator (so the misting heads don't get blown out of the black pipe, I have never seen this occur) and blackflow protector, and a filter where I can throw in water soluable chemicals and have them distributed throughout the irrigation system...  I have put in all kinds of goodies, from antitranpirants to miracle grow and fungcides...

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I finally got my ground fabric in the other day, and yesterday I had some time to get it installed!  I removed the tires that held the shade cloth in place and layed down the ground cover...  I then staked off the shade cloth at intervals just to get it held into place and then went back around to tighten it all up...  I read on all the sites I could find about building shade structures the "right" way (which I have most certainly not, this is more a makeshift temporary kindof gig)  But all ofd them stated having the angle for your windward sides to be at least 45 degrees from the ground...  I believe I have closer to a 30-35 degree angle, hopefully since none of this is lashed down to the ground, this will help deflect the wind enough in minor storms that the shadehouse will survive for several years...