Around 250 mostly chicken breast trays have transformed into a three-metre-long hot house destined for a Garden of Eden within its walls.
Retiree Gordon Mohekey has naturally found a penchant for upcycling at his Richmond home including making bricks from paper and guttering from plastic milk bottles. His largest project to date is a meatier kind and it’s seven trays away from closing the door on its two-year construction. Gordon says as well as using the trays from chicken breasts, PAK’nSAVE Richmond had also donated about 50 trays for his project which also includes plastic sheets, recycled wooden pellets for the framework and parts of tinned food cans for the joining strips.
He says the build has been “trial and error”, particularly with monitoring the temperature so that the strawberries, tomatoes and capsicums don’t cook before they’re picked.
“I put a thermometer in there and it was 40 degrees one day, so I’ve taken three meat trays off the end and put a green wind-breaking cloth in,” he says.
“I’m going to put removal windows in so I can open it up to let some air in, I don’t want to cook the stuff I’ve got growing in there.
“It’s quite relaxing to be out in the garden and actually produce stuff and bring it in for meals.”
Gordon says he had previously constructed a more traditional hot house at his former quarter-acre section in Wakefield, but he wasn’t there long enough to reap the benefits. Here’s to a second slice at the summer harvest.
