The Moringa House

Shannon mentioned previously that we had some new Moringa sprouts.  Well, with the weather taking a sudden turn colder I had to do something to protect them.  Morgina trees do not do well in cold temperatures (or so I’ve read) and theoretically will die back and go dormant over the winter.  Then when it warms again they will also theoretically make a comeback.  I imagine that’s probably with a more well established plant.  Of course, since I have no practical experience with them I’d prefer not to learn the hard way on this one. My guess is if my Moringa died at the moment they wouldn’t be coming back.

With that in my mind, I decided to try to build a small greenhouse rather than move the plants in and out of the cabin every night. With resources tight the solution needed to be…well…pretty much free.  Any greenhouse I thought I could do with plastic didn’t seem like it would hold enough heat at night.  So I started thinking about these giant piles of dirt I have sitting around from some excavations we did earlier this summer.  And the best form of insulation to me seemed like it would be a partially underground structure… and thus the Moringa House was born.  Of course, it is really more like an apartment, or lets face it… perhaps government assisted housing for trees, minus the government.

I know we tend to be too technical around here so I’m going to break down this process into a series of simple steps.

The Simple Steps

Step 1: Dig in the dirt.

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 over and over again.

Step 3: Supervise my dad digging in the dirt some more.

Step 4: Place the pallets (you knew they had to be in this somewhere) into the ground and add some cross bracing.

Step 5: Add some plastic and more boards somewhat randomly.

[Imagine this step, I forgot to take a picture…]

Step 6: Fill the dirt around the openings to attempt to create a seal.

Step 7: Fit the classy old shower door from Goodwill over the opening.

Step 8:  Throw the Moringa in there for the night and hope they make it.

Step 9: Get approval from the local building inspector… don’t worry, I know her.

[Pause, process interrupted by Shannon…who while I’m writing asks if she can burn a sock in the wood stove because it already has a hole in it and it would get thrown out anyway.  My response: "When did you become the pyro?"  The nice thing about me writing on here once in awhile is you get these sophisticated looks into the inner life of Shannon. 🙂  It’s a good thing this is typed on the computer or she would probably want to burn what I just wrote.]

The good news is that today I went out and checked on the Moringa once the sun came out and they seemed to be doing okay.  Tonight will be the real test because I think it is supposed to get down into the mid to low 30s.  Either way, it was a fun project and could turn into something more if it works out. 

Check Out Moringa

In the meantime, you should check out Moringa because it has the following great properties for homesteaders (from http://moringaforlife.com) :

• Once established it sends a tap root down to the water table making it drought tolerant.
• It is a nitrogen fixer and can be used as a fertilizer.
• it is a livestock feed
• It grows tall and lacy if left unchecked and so is good for forest gardening.
• The seed is used to clarify water.
• The seed oil never goes rancid and is used in fine machinery.
• the seed oil burns clean and so is a good source for heat and light.
• it is a sustainable food source for third world countries where malnutrition is prevalent

And this from http://www.treesforlife.org on the nutrition of Moringa leaves: