The root cellar I'm working on(right now the hole is being dug, or at least it will be, once winter's gone and the ground ain't frozen), I started thinking about building a greenhouse on top of it, to make it more convienent to store food(so the access to the root cellar would be through the greenhouse 'floor'), but I'm not sure how that could be accomplished, or even if it is doable. Right now it's just an idea stage, would really like help, whether it's suggestions on how to build it, or if I'm just confirming the idea that I'm crazy and it could never be done.
Hmmm never thought of that. Will have to price new ones. For some reason I don't think a used one would be a good idea. Thank you.
I don't know. It is putting your food sources in the same area. I see the ease but wouldn't the door/floor take up space in the green house?
Well the greenhouse will need an aisle between the planter beds to walk through for watering/harvesting/maintenance, and that's where the access to the root cellar would be.
You are doing this for ease of storing. But how close will these be to where you prepare the food? I agree that it would be easy for storage but didn't the old farm houses have root cellars in the cellar? So in case of blizzard their food was right there.
It will be close enough in case of bad weather that getting to it won't be a problem. I grew up in places where blizzards/whiteout conditions were occassional, not rare. The 'snowstorm' we're having now, to me it's actually typical. Our last winter when we really lived in snow country, we got to witness the kind of real snowstorm, that happens about every 30years or so. So I laughed when we moved to Seattle area in 1996 and that winter a storm dumped 2feet of snow and alot of people were just clueless about what to do.
Making a door that can be safely walked on, is child's play. as long as it is supported on all sides and thick enough. I have one in my hunting cabin between the second floor and the first. (no one will ever go tumbling down the stairs because they stepped on the door) so it's location matters little, as long as there is room to open and close it.
Odds are that the "normal" (1000 and 1500 gallon) size tank will not do, you would need to pay close attention to dimensions, especially head room. Ready made (concrete, but various plastics are also common these days) come up to 5000 gallons that I've found, like as not there are larger. Uv cuss, you could build your own to better suit your storage requirements. One thing to bear in mind is that ready made will be water proof, so the storage will be dry. I think the old time root cellars were not, and that may have some bearing on how well they worked. Another possibility would be an underground fuel tank (also waterproof, obviously.) They come in fiberglass, might be easier to handle getting placed as well as being available in much larger sizes, and there are no baffles as are often found in septic tanks. Don't forget ventilation --
