Building a Geothermal Greenhouse
Next Sunday morning, February 22nd, you should be one place, right in front of the screen you are reading now, listening to me give a zoom presentation on Building a ground source geothermal greenhouse in Western Oregon. What if you could cut heating costs dramatically, stabilize your growing environment year-round, and future-proof your operation against rising energy prices—all using the constant temperature beneath your feet? This talk will break down, in practical terms, how ground-source geothermal systems work, what they cost, real-world construction challenges and hacks, and whether they make sense for small growers, nonprofits, or commercial operations. If you’re serious about resilient greenhouse production and long-term savings, this is information you can’t afford to miss. Not just for commercial growers this talk goes into approachable ways for anyone growing in a greenhouse to utilize modern energy saving technology as well as time tested techniques for saving energy.
This talk is brought to you by the Calgary Rock and Alpine Garden Society, read more about them by clicking on the links below:
Calgary Rock and Alpine Garden Society meeting
To register for the zoom:
I am always excited to give this talk because it highlights a very special project here at illahe Rare Plants. The ground source geothermal greenhouse design uses the energy of the earths mass and relatively stable soil temperatures to provide heating and cooling with remarkable efficiency. The system uses buried pipes to tap into the constant underground temperature, circulating air that absorbs heat in winter and releases excess heat in summer. The result is dramatically lower energy costs, stable growing conditions, and a smaller carbon footprint—all without the cost and fuel dependency of conventional systems. Join this presentation to see how this proven technology can transform greenhouse efficiency, extend your growing season, and pay for itself over time. The talk goes a bit into the history and design, and then covers my own experiences with construction and operation. Anyone interested in energy efficiency and growing plants will find this talk informative and entertaining. Lots of practical advice is given with lessons learned and tips and tricks for anyone considering such a design or just wanting to learn more about the production of bulbs, alpines and rock garden plants with a modern economical greenhouse design.
The geothermal greenhouse at Illahe Rare plants is a unique design that uses the heat of the earth to keep the greenhouse frost free and plants enjoying stable winter temperatures and cooling in the summer with almost no electricity.
Also covered in this talk are sustainability projects at our nursery utilizing rain water harvest, solar energy, PCM tiles for heat storage and fossil fuel alternatives for heating. In a world of constant and unpredictable weather changes, the ground source geothermal design offers plants, consistent stable growing temperatures from the cold of winter to the heat of summer.
Hope to see you at the talk!
Upcoming events:
Sunday March 1st:
If you are in the Philadelphia area I will be speaking to the Delaware Valley Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society click here for details we will be bringing some plants for sale to this talk so don’t miss out!
Monday March 2nd:
We are at the Philadelphia flower show, give the talk “From habitat to the home garden, cultivating mountain plants from around the world” spreading the gospel of growing alpines and rock garden plants to a wider audience! Click here for details
Weather report: Back to a week of cold and wet after a very spring like mid February season, which I took advantage of to get some seasonal work done in the rock gardne. Some snow is in the forecast this week but it doesn’t look quite cold enough to get anything sticking around for very long. I
Iris ‘J.S. Dijt’ blooming on St. Valentines Day.