It’s no surprise that many people look forward to summer because of the food that the earth offers in abundance during the season—deep green cucumbers, bright red tomatoes, sheathed yellow corn, seed-speckled strawberries, and tiny bursts of blueberries are typical staples found at most barbecues, picnics, and dinner tables.

But for people driving along Highway 90 in Metcalfe County, KY, the surprise comes when they happen upon Fuller’s Hillside Nursery in Summer Shade. Instead of the typical ramshackle roadside stand, there sits a semicircular steel building which serves as the storefront of Susan Fuller’s organic blueberry farm. Attached to the building is a greenhouse which contains a variety of plants and flowers.

“We always get a lot of questions on our building, and customers love the cool breeze running through when we have the front and back doors open,” says Susan Fuller. “It opens up to all the plants in the greenhouse and makes the space seem so much larger. “

Fuller’s decision to build with steel generated from her experiences while living in Florida. “We got our first steel building in 2005 in Florida after three hurricanes destroyed our garage,” says Fuller. “As do-it-yourself type of people, we found them easy to put together, and a great project. When we moved to central Kentucky, we put up another one for our organic blueberry farm.”

Fuller is a proponent of working with the land and incorporated many ‘green’ elements in the building and adjoining greenhouse. “Our building has a greenhouse on the south facing wall to take advantage of solar gain in the winter,” she says. “The 10 X 30 concrete porch floor in the greenhouse works as a bio-mass to hold the heat. We placed a rain gutter on one side to collect rain water and on the other side we have a plant bed. Inside, we added a second story inside—the downstairs works as a sales room and workshop, and the upstairs works as storage and an office. When the building is done, it will have a grey water system, composting toilet, tank less hot water heaters, solar panels, and possibly a windmill.”

Manufacturers of steel buildings, steel building kits, and prefabricated steel buildings say that steel buildings are popular among those committed to protecting and utilizing the environment because of various green building techniques, which include:

• Solar reflectance and reliability through the use of Galvalume Plus coatings;
• Emphasis on taking advantage of renewable resources such as use of sunlight through solar powered energy sources;
• Measures to reduce energy use and increase efficiency of the building envelope (the barrier between conditioned and unconditioned space) by using high efficiency windows and insulation;
• Orientation of windows, walls, awnings, and porches to maximize solar gain in the winter;
• Onsite renewable energy through solar power, wind power, hydro power, or biomass which significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building; and
• Reduction in the impact on wells and water treatment plants.

Author Details:

Author Brenda H. Welch said here Steel buildings are popular among the ecologically conscious because of their solar reflectance and reliability through Galvalume Plus coatings and their use or renewable resources like solar energy.

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