"With food prices being so high, many gardeners are considering growing edibles in greenhouses. This need not cost a fortune, especially if you go solar. I highly recommend "The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book -- How to Build an Energy Free Year-Round Greenhouse" by Mike Oehler. Using Oehler's recommendations, anyone can afford a four-season greenhouse. This is illustrated with photos and sketches and complete, step-by-step instructions. Through trial and error, the author discovered a way he could extend the growing season. His revolutionary construction method costs a fraction of the conventional approach. Furthermore, you can use salvaged materials that others are throwing away. With the authors system, the energy costs for the greenhouse is minimal. The automatic vent requires no energy. You also have the option of adding a root cellar and including animals such as rabbits or poultry to your greenhouse. This book is perfect for organic gardeners as the author emphasizes organic methods."
Connie Krochmal, Landscaping Editor, Bella Online

"Detailed instruction on how to design and build an earth-sheltered greenhouse. …. Should be of interest to gardeners intent on raising as much of their own food as possible. Since I'm not planning to build any kind of greenhouse, I started out intending to just skim the book so I could tell you about it. But it was so entertaining I read everything except the technical parts."
Sue Lowe, Garden Editor, South Bend Tribune

"While it is true the timing of the appearance of this book couldn't be better with regard to the recently skyrocketing prices of energy, food and building materials (since it shows how gardeners can save considerable money on all three), the ideas in it haven't sprung up overnight -- rather, the author has worked them out over three decades, long enough to determine their long-term viability. Mike Oehler's specialty is figuring out how to thrive with minimal cash outlay; actually, it's more than just figuring out; it's actually doing it! This book resulted from Oehler's need for an inexpensive greenhouse to extend the quite short growing season in northern Idaho. … For those who don't want to build a full-blown greenhouse, there are abundant suggestions applicable to cold frames and even temporary row covers, including advice on choosing glazing materials and insulation, dealing with pests, (such as carpenter ants, which Oehler routs by blowing cayenne pepper into the ants tunnels every few days), and managing microclimates. There is also an interesting chapter on adding (small) livestock like rabbits to greenhouses. And there is another chapter about designing root cellars (and also about a root cellar designed by gophers!). For the truly ambitious, Oehler even introduces the (again, dirt-cheap; pun intended) "garden house" that combines living quarters with an attached solar greenhouse. The most technical chapters are toward the back of the book, giving quite complete information on seasonal sun angles at different locations in the U.S., with a view toward managing greenhouse microclimate year-round; construction engineering specifications; detailed cross-sectional and plan views of small and large solar greenhouses built with the P/S/P technique and bills of materials for simple greenhouses. This book combines practical advice with entertaining anecdotes to provide one of the best presentations we've seen of the results of homegrown horticulturally related research.
Greg and Pat Williams Hortideas

"For more than three decades, Oehler has built a series of underground dwellings experimenting with low-cost, earth-insulated housing at his 46-acre homestead near Bonners Ferry. He has turned his hobby into an industry, producing first a book ("The $50 and Up Underground House Book") and then videos and more house-making manuals. Now he's produced his latest: "The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book." …. With this kind of practical experience and success, he's become an international expert on owner-built housing. His jolly, full bearded visage has been seen on television interviews around Europe and across the U.S. He even finds a place at academic forums. …. He includes enough drawings and photos for anyone to duplicate his designs …. If you want a greenhouse and you want to build it yourself, a good place to start is by visiting with Mike Oehler."
Bill London, Lewiston Tribune

"This design is so unique and so efficient, this is phenomenal …. an amazing greenhouse system" Jane Nugent, Jane Nugent's Garden Talk, WPTT Radio – TV, Pittsburg,PA

"An interesting, quite complete and entertaining book. The author gives the reader the benefit of many years of trial and error and some well-presented design elements that are not well treated in many other greenhouse books …. He got into greenhouse design choices and did a very nice job …. I liked the book. It was a pleasant read and the pearls of wisdom …. keep up the readers interest."
Tom Karasek, Hobby Greenhouse

In many North-American climates, the benefit of a greenhouse is apparent, especially to those who rely on an extended growing season to provide veggies and herbs to carry through the winter months. Mike Oehler, author of the pioneering work "The $50 and Up Underground House Book" has been gardening---and feeding himself--- from his hand-built earth-sheltered greenhouse for more than 30 years and has now released "The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book" a title dedicated to the subject of a sustainable, eco-sensitive, solar-heated grow house that just about anyone can build for a fraction of the cost of a conventional greenhouse structure. The 220-page soft cover is a combination gardening guide, construction handbook, and life-experience manual, all filtered through Oehler's singular philosophy, which is as practical as it is unconventional. The author's aim is to advocate affordability and self-reliance through the application of simplicity, which he's certainly done with this project. The book covers the theory, design, and construction of the greenhouse (using Mike's low-cost PSP ---post, shoring, polyethylene--- technique): glazing, insulation and ventilation; beneficial critters and those that aren't so; solar energy input: the cold sink system; earth-tempering; and thoughts on how to use the completed structure. …. keep in mind that this greenhouse functions with no heat input in northern Idaho and carries hardier varieties through the winter.
Back Home Magazine

"Every winter, gardeners dream of owning a greenhouse—a warm and sometimes sunny place to tend plants and overwinter tropical favorites. If high heating bills have kept you from realizing that dream, this may be the book that inspires you to dig right in. The author lives in an earth-sheltered home and grows his own veggies in a working greenhouse that is heated by the sun. In chapters about glazing, insulation, heat tubes and pest management, you'll learn the basics of a solar-powered greenhouse and be treated to plans, photos and random notes about the process, including the use of rabbits as part of the growing cycle. The solar heat idea will work best if you have a hillside and sunny location, but you can harness the sun anyplace there is light and soil. The author also wrote "The $50 & Up Underground House Book" and his home has been featured on HGTV and in various magazines. Even if you never intend to grow a thing, the book is a fascinating look into the mind of a modern day rebel."
Marianne Binetti, Seattle Post Intelligencer