Heavy snow takes toll on Lynchburg Grows greenhouses

Lynchburg Grows suffered heavy to moderate damage to three of its aging greenhouses during last weekend’s snowstorm.

“The heavy weight of the snow just overwhelmed the glass and broke some of the supports,” Dereck Cunningham, president of the community farming nonprofit, said Monday.

Greenhouses No. 4 and 5 both sustained heavy damage, including broken support beams, he said. Several windowpanes also shattered in greenhouse No. 7, which volunteers are working to transform into a functioning aquaponics site.

This comes after last month’s record-setting snowfall inflicted considerable damage on multiple greenhouses and smashed hundreds of windowpanes. Lynchburg Grows said it had to clear away about 2,000 pounds of broken glass after that episode.

Each of the three greenhouses battered this month had already sustained significant damage during the December storm. No people were injured in either incident.

Cunningham could not immediately estimate the cost of the damage. He said the group would work to stabilize the two hardest-hitgreenhouses and replace the broken glass in No. 7 as part of the ongoing restoration work there.

“We’ve been raising money to get that greenhouse back in use,” he noted. “This just slows that process down.”

Lynchburg Grows is an urban farm that has been operating off Fort Avenue, behind City Stadium, for the past four years. This is the first winter since it opened that the farm has sustained snow damage.

Located in an old rose nursery, Lynchburg Grows is dedicated to the principles of sustainable living, community agriculture and healthy eating. The food grown on its property, largely with volunteer labor, is distributed to food pantries, restaurants, members of its community-supported agriculture network and the local farmers market.

Last summer, its CSA had more than 100 members.

The property has a total of nine greenhouses. All three damaged over the weekend are currently empty. Cunningham said greenhouses No. 4 and 5 are the oldest on the property, dating back to the 1920s. They have not seen significant renovations since the nursery closed there in 1998.

Greenhouse No. 7, the centerpiece of the nonprofit’s current capital campaign, is a circa-1980s structure. Lynchburg Grows hopes to convert into an aquaponics site.

Aquaponics is a form of soil-less, water-based agriculture that adds fish to the environment to introduce a new source of plant nutrients and create an integrated and sustainable food production system.

Lynchburg Grows has been trying to raise $100,000 in donations for the project, which will give it access to a challenge grant worth another $50,000. The group is currently about a third of the way toward its goal.

For more information about Lynchburg Grows, visit http://www.lynchburggrows.org or call (434) 846-5665.