It might look like a shed, but it's a greenhouse built for N.L. winters
The Sun Tunnel uses opaque wood — not panes of glass — to help crops grow year-round
St John's has a new greenhouse for plant enthusiasts and aspiring gardeners, and it's built differently from what people might expect.
Called the Sun Tunnel, the greenhouse is located at the Mercy Centre for Ecology and Justice on Mount Scio. Sitting on windy and exposed hillside, the greenhouse is the third in the area.
But the Sun Tunnel stands out from the others. Instead of glass, it's made mostly out of wood.
The building isn't heated, but its tunnel-like design traps sunlight inside the structure, rather than allowing it to bounce away through walls of glass panes.
That, says garden educator Dan Rubin, is ideal for leafy greens that thrive in winter weather.
"How most people build their greenhouses in and around this place makes no sense," said Rubin, who helped design the structure.
Instead of being square or domed, it's shaped like a pentagon, and only the roof is transparent. It's insulated at the bottom of the structure, and the sun comes in only through the top.
"In an unheated greenhouse like this, you can grow all those crops. The leafy greens that really like cold weather, you only need a little tiny bit of protection from the weather to grow year-round," Rubin said.
"Of course in the summer you can grow your tomato, cucumber, basil, pepper."
The construction of the greenhouse was built by a Build your Future class through a program administered by the Association of New Canadians. The class takes up to 30 newcomers for training in carpentry and the construction industry, making sure they have the skills for placement in quality-paying jobs.
According to instructor John Sheppard, the biggest challenge in the construction industry is the shortage of availability in skilled trades.
"We need an investment in this program, and really an expansion in this program, in order to solve the challenges with the housing shortage. We can't build all the apartments that are needed in this city without skilled trades," Sheppard said.
The greenhouse will serve as an educational site and a food production site for future ANC programs. Visitors will be welcomed in the spring.
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