Glass Houses

Any hope of me overcoming my new obsession with hot beds in the near future was destroyed today, by the same wind that took out another window of our cold frames:

It was really gusty today, and when I got home, six of the eight glass windows that we use to cover our cold frames had been tossed around to other parts of the garden. Luckily only one broke, but now we are down to just seven, and that means that one of our cold frames is done for the year, because we need eight windows to cover both completely. And if it's not completely closed up, it obviously won't work. So I put away the three remaining windows that had been over the frame with cilantro, fennel, and dill, leaving them to certain death when temperatures drop again. I also reinforced the windows over the cold frame with the salad greens, weighing them down with bricks: 

But really, is this any way to live? I had to re-batten down a lot of the plastic on the greenhouse tunnels too, for like the 50th time this season. I know that it's our own fault for not having the bricks on the glass in the first place, a lesson we should have learned after the last time the wind took out some of our glass. But the issues with the plastic are a total pain, and we need a better system. If I were a rich dowager who lived in an abbey, I'd be an eccentric who hung out with the garden staff all day, and I'd build myself one of these:

Look at all that glass! There's a big walk-in greenhouse with a brick foundation (no doubt to hold in heat), plus smaller glass houses, and all the hot beds in the foreground. All that glass isn't cheap, and we don't need this much. But the last episode of Victorian Kitchen Garden we watched (from which the above photo was captured) continued to feed my desire for hot beds and greenhouses, and this all looks sooooo much sturdier (not to mention prettier!) than our assortment of random windows and ramshackle plastic tunnels stretched over PVC.

Would it be a bad idea to dismantle the garage and rebuild most of it in glass? It's already got electricity to keep it (minimally) heated, and if its north wall were brick, we could espalier potted figs. 

Don't ask about the snowblower and bikes and car and tools. I haven't gotten that far. 

But I might.