Jump to content

My husband just told me I get a custom greenhouse


Dirtyhip

Recommended Posts

1 minute ago, Kzoo said:

And........... there goes the retirement fund. :)

You could build this off the metal box.

Have fun with the design.

 

Can't do it there.  The trailer will sit there.  

It's going near the side of our home, where the garden will sit.  

I wonder if that zillow house had anything to do with this.  Hmmm...  HAHA

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

He must think you will plant those trees that money grows on! 

You can start those in the greenhouse but you need to move them to the money grove after about 2 years.  I think our expert green thumb, @jsharr, has experience with that.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

He must think you will plant those trees that money grows on! 

We might need a list of "stuff DH is buying!" to really capture all of it.

Someone has to support the economy.

He is going to build it.  After looking at the greenhouse kits for 800 bucks, he thinks he can do it better for less.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Someone has to support the economy.

He is going to build it.  After looking at the greenhouse kits for 800 bucks, he thinks he can do it better for less.

I think you just scared him into compliance with all your chipper talk!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the type of greenhouse I have built.  We poured a center walkway, then drove in fence post to attach the lower wood frames to.  We had a machine that would roll the bend into fence to rail.  We bent our own hoops than then put the entire thing together.  We could cover with poly for cold months and shade cloth for warm months.  

Built quite a few when we were growing our own seasonal color for a nursery I managed way back in the day.  It was pretty cool to walk in and see tens of thousands of plants that you had grown from tiny little plugs.

How To Build a Greenhouse or Hoop House

  • Heart 1
  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, jsharr said:

This is the type of greenhouse I have built.  We poured a center walkway, then drove in fence post to attach the lower wood frames to.  We had a machine that would roll the bend into fence to rail.  We bent our own hoops than then put the entire thing together.  We could cover with poly for cold months and shade cloth for warm months.  

Built quite a few when we were growing our own seasonal color for a nursery I managed way back in the day.  It was pretty cool to walk in and see tens of thousands of plants that you had grown from tiny little plugs.

How To Build a Greenhouse or Hoop House

I hauled many loads of tubing up to Ma. to a big nursery. I think it was in Leominster.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spend the money on glass.  Lots and lots of money.  It will give you a longer season and make heating it more affordable.  Also, really think glass.  I replace a lot in ours each year.

Consider a floor too - definitely nothing pressure treated as it will leach chemicals.  We put a stone floor in.  Sounds trivial, but you'll get muddy and track that in the house.

20170530_181406.jpg

  • Heart 3
  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ours is much smaller than those that @jsharr built.  This one is about 10 years old.  We didn't expect the cover to last this long. Not too much in it now.  Pepper plants are in a small hot bed. They take more warmth to germinate than the tomatoes.  In the fall we will bring in plants that can't take the cold. It gets used all but the hot summer months. We plan to build one with solid sides and thermostat controlled vents, heat and fans when this one fails.  All the plants on the top shelf are different varieties of tomatoes.  The wood box you see behind the greenhouse is used to grow seed tomatoes. We use it to raise the seed for the Morgan tomatoes, a heirloom variety that came from friends of ours in Kentucky.  Their grandfather got them from a neighbor who owed him money.  They have been in their family for over 70 years. This bed keeps them away from the garden and other varieties so they don't cross pollinate.  They are only available from a couple places.  The Morgan family raises them in Kentucky and we have them in Indiana.  We only have about 30 plants so there won't be many available after we keep about 12 to 15 that we will raise for our tomatoes and seed.

DSC02581.thumb.jpg.bcbe821519993107219ba48c329fe124.jpgDSC02582.thumb.jpg.fff68dd7ecbd3bd7f4a7319833c02740.jpgDSC02583.thumb.jpg.2ab982d04a09b242c132017b5d0c5225.jpg

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I need shed too

39 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Spend the money on glass.  Lots and lots of money.  It will give you a longer season and make heating it more affordable.  Also, really think glass.  I replace a lot in ours each year.

Consider a floor too - definitely nothing pressure treated as it will leach chemicals.  We put a stone floor in.  Sounds trivial, but you'll get muddy and track that in the house.

20170530_181406.jpg

Nope.  Not going to do glass.  Likely it will be that plexiglass or maybe even a budget one like Sharr posted.

Our floor will be gravel.  We do have some boxes of old tiles.  We might have enough to to tile.  

Are you growing pot in that blue container?  HAHA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

He is gonna build it for me.  Oh my gerd!!!!

I need a shed, too. I've got an 11' x 12' slab of concrete in the corner of my yard - the result of a neighbor with leftover concrete in a cement truck after he had a driveway poured.  Now that my BiL is retired, we're going to put up a 9' x 10' "Gambrill Shed" - leaving 2' ft of storage/work space along the fence at some point in the summer/fall. We'll use pressure-treated wood on the bottom and anchor those 2x4's to with cement anchors and bolts. We'll just use the cement floor and caulk the wood to prevent rain seepage so we won't need the 4x4 skids. The free plans that we'll adjust for 9' x 10' are here with 7 pages of extreme detail and a materials list: http://mystorageshed.blogspot.com/2007/03/building-storage.html

image.thumb.png.030f0a83c28df0d90f355d66193a7422.png

I'm also going to make raised beds (pics below) that will be both garden and greenhouse.  I'll build them in late summer or fall for use next year, after I get things in my rebuilt house settled.  Since my "sunroom," my enclosed back porch, is going to get both a storm door and regular outside door, I'll keep the door between the kitchen and the porch open beginning late February and use it as a greenhouse and grow some extra plants to put in the tarp-covered raised bed earlier than normal to see if I can grow plants there ok.

I'm going to build two (initially, maybe 2 more later) 4' x 10' raised bed gardens (with 2' feet between them for lawn mower room) that each have 3 semi-circular hoops of either flexible 1/2" PVC pipe or 3.8 gauge rebar resembling the top of an 1800's covered wagon.  If I put thick transparent tarp over them, I can use them as greenhouses, too.  They'll also support netting if there's a major bug infestation in the area or support trellises or strings holding up plants.

I'll also dig out some of the ground-level ground out and staple, with stainless steel clips, a plastic weed barrier (the tiny-hole mesh stuff which has worked for me before, no the solid stuff - the dirt in the bed may get too waterlogged at times) along the insides of the boards (food-safe decking) and a foot in toward the middle to limit weeds.

Excellent, free, step-by-step instructions from Sunset are here: https://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to#raised-bed-main  and the video's at the bottom of this post. They did 4' x 8' but you can make it longer than 8'.  Changing the 4' parameter might affect how well the hoops work and how easily you can reach into the bed.

 

image.png.43041b189d11b3aa94431380cfaf9a09.png Protect your crops

 

  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, MickinMD said:

I'm going to make raised beds (pics below) that will be both garden and greenhouse.  I'll build them in late summer or fall for use next year, after I get things in my rebuilt house settled.  Since my "sunroom," my enclosed back porch, is going to get both a storm door and regular outside door, I'll keep the door between the kitchen and the porch open beginning late February and use it as a greenhouse and grow some extra plants to put in the tarp-covered raised bed earlier than normal to see if I can grow plants there ok.

I'm going to build two (initially, maybe 2 more later) 4' x 10' raised bed gardens (with 2' feet between them for lawn mower room) that each have 3 semi-circular hoops of either flexible 1/2" PVC pipe or 3.8 gauge rebar resembling the top of an 1800's covered wagon.  If I put thick transparent tarp over them, I can use them as greenhouses, too.  They'll also support netting if there's a major bug infestation in the area or support trellises or strings holding up plants.

I'll also dig out some of the ground-level ground out and staple, with stainless steel clips, a plastic weed barrier (the tiny-hole mesh stuff which has worked for me before, no the solid stuff - the dirt in the bed may get too waterlogged at times) along the insides of the boards (food-safe decking) and a foot in toward the middle to limit weeds.

Excellent, free, step-by-step instructions from Sunset are here: https://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to#raised-bed-main   They did 4' x 8' but you can make it longer than 8'.  Changing the 4' parameter might affect how well the hoops work and how easily you can reach into the bed.

 

image.png.43041b189d11b3aa94431380cfaf9a09.png Protect your crops

Definitely budget friendly.  Might consider this for the beds.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

I think I need shed too

Nope.  Not going to do glass.  Likely it will be that plexiglass or maybe even a budget one like Sharr posted.

Our floor will be gravel.  We do have some boxes of old tiles.  We might have enough to to tile.  

Are you growing pot in that blue container?  HAHA

The plant in the blue container on the left looks to be a variety of schefflera. 

Schefflera: Plant Care & Growing Guide

If you wanted to make it look like you were growing pot, you would get a nice Ming aralia.

Aralia Ming Stump in 9.25 inch Grower Pot 24  28 inches Tall image 0

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

I think I need shed too

Nope.  Not going to do glass.  Likely it will be that plexiglass or maybe even a budget one like Sharr posted.

Our floor will be gravel.  We do have some boxes of old tiles.  We might have enough to to tile.  

Are you growing pot in that blue container?  HAHA

I grew up on a nursery and have built quite a few greenhouses. Most economic to build are the hoop and plastic. You have to have a sunshade or the plastic will degrade from UV damage in a season, and even with the shade cloth it’s only going to last a few years at best. We always did two layers of plastic sheeting. And cut a hole in the inside layer with a bathroom fart fan blowing air between the two layers of sheeting, ballooning them apart. That creates a dead air space and provides some insulation.


The drawback to the corrugated clear panels are air gaps. They sell sawtoothed insulation foam to fill the gaps but it rarely fits well and pops out easily. The panels do hold up much better than the plastic. My greenhouse behind the garage is corrugated and has been standing for 20+ years. It’s drafty as hell though. 
 

One of these days I’m going to patch quilt another greenhouse together with windows from the salvage yard. SW is right, glass is by far the superior material.  
 

Pay attention to drainage when you put in the gravel floor.  Puddles in greenhouses are mosquito heaven. And don’t store your metal tools and shears in the greenhouse, they will rust in an eye blink. Rusty clippers suck.

 

 

  • Heart 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Allen said:

I grew up on a nursery and have built quite a few greenhouses. Most economic to build are the hoop and plastic. You have to have a sunshade or the plastic will degrade from UV damage in a season, and even with the shade cloth it’s only going to last a few years at best. We always did two layers of plastic sheeting. And cut a hole in the inside layer with a bathroom fart fan blowing air between the two layers of sheeting, ballooning them apart. That creates a dead air space and provides some insulation.


The drawback to the corrugated clear panels are air gaps. They sell sawtoothed insulation foam to fill the gaps but it rarely fits well and pops out easily. The panels do hold up much better than the plastic. My greenhouse behind the garage is corrugated and has been standing for 20+ years. It’s drafty as hell though. 
 

One of these days I’m going to patch quilt another greenhouse together with windows from the salvage yard. SW is right, glass is by far the superior material.  
 

Pay attention to drainage when you put in the gravel floor.  Puddles in greenhouses are mosquito heaven. And don’t store your metal tools and shears in the greenhouse, they will rust in an eye blink. Rusty clippers suck.

 

 

We took it as a fact of life that plastic was put on in the fall and taken off in the spring for our houses and we kept various gradients of shade cloth on hand.  Used old carpet for door hinges.  One 6" wide 8' long strip made a great hinge.   We never did the double wall houses 

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Allen said:

I grew up on a nursery and have built quite a few greenhouses. Most economic to build are the hoop and plastic. You have to have a sunshade or the plastic will degrade from UV damage in a season, and even with the shade cloth it’s only going to last a few years at best. We always did two layers of plastic sheeting. And cut a hole in the inside layer with a bathroom fart fan blowing air between the two layers of sheeting, ballooning them apart. That creates a dead air space and provides some insulation.


The drawback to the corrugated clear panels are air gaps. They sell sawtoothed insulation foam to fill the gaps but it rarely fits well and pops out easily. The panels do hold up much better than the plastic. My greenhouse behind the garage is corrugated and has been standing for 20+ years. It’s drafty as hell though. 
 

One of these days I’m going to patch quilt another greenhouse together with windows from the salvage yard. SW is right, glass is by far the superior material.  
 

Pay attention to drainage when you put in the gravel floor.  Puddles in greenhouses are mosquito heaven. And don’t store your metal tools and shears in the greenhouse, they will rust in an eye blink. Rusty clippers suck.

 

 

This is giving me headache already.  I don't think I can afford a glass greenhouse and the infrastructure that it needs.  Maybe I will just do hoop systems on the beds and a cheap plexi thing for seedlings.  

I am not rich.

You guys did see the modest home we are building.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

I like the one SW has, but damn $$$$$

I only have $$$

We were not looking for a greenhouse when we bought this place, we needed bedrooms.  We've had fun with it and will likely put one on our retirement house - whenever that happens.

I can't imagine how much the one we have now would cost now, I suspect well over 50.  Lots of aluminum and lots of glass.  I just wish it was a lot thicker, maybe even double pane.

8 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

SW hasn’t admitted to growing pot yet. :D

 

Nah, never tried it.  It's legal here.  If I were to try it, the wife would happily grow it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

We were not looking for a greenhouse when we bought this place, we needed bedrooms.  We've had fun with it and will likely put one on our retirement house - whenever that happens.

I can't imagine how much the one we have now would cost now, I suspect well over 50.  Lots of aluminum and lots of glass.  I just wish it was a lot thicker, maybe even double pane.

Nah, never tried it.  It's legal here.  If I were to try it, the wife would happily grow it.

Never tried it either.  I feel like I am a minority.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

Here's an idea....  Now you just need to find a lot of old windows.

https://offgridworld.com/15-fabulous-greenhouses-made-from-old-windows/

We are considering this now.

You guys always make me spend more money.  HAHA

Likely we will do hoop things for a while as we gather windows.  We can keep the windows as we go in the box.

I am starting to like the box now.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...