Soliciting advice for a first timer

Next spring I will finally have a greenhouse! I am over the moon about it but there is so much I need to learn. I'm zone 5. It's a small greenhouse - 6' x 8' and will not be heated- at least for the first season. Any advice you guys can give me will be greatly appreciated!

If it's a kit greenhouse, see if you can find a thread here that talks about the one you have (problems, pitfalls, things to look out for.). If you're looking for other information ie. over-wintering, lighting, passive heating, etc. , you should do a search on that subject. The one thing that's common with any GH you build, it must be level, front to back, left to right, or you will have problems.

I agree with what Pastime said. We took our time with our kit GH (3 days for leveling and building) and it has turned out so nice. It's about the same size as yours, too. My only problems now are getting it covered, and to get power and water to it. AND to decide want will grow in it. We use it for storage in the summer, as it gets too hot to keep anything in there.

Have you decided what you're going to grow in the greenhouse? If you're just trying to get a little head start on the season by starting some seeds a little bit earlier than you could do it outdoors then you'll be OK without heat, but if you're trying to overwinter tropicals you ought to look into investing in a heater even for your first year.

Thanks for the advice. I have my eye on the one truly level spot in our yard for the location and I'm considering putting some kind of "flooring" down before we build it.

I will use it primarily for seed starting. I imagine I will probably be able to move some overwintered cuttings into it sometime around mid spring. As a guestimate, how much heat can I reasonably expect it to retain overnight? I am imagining something in the ballpark of 5-10 degrees above the outside temperature - is that I reasonable guess?

What kind of shelving/benches would you recommend? I will mainly be dealing with flats and 4" pots, I think.

I love my concrete blocks with recycled metal closet wire shelving. I can change the set up (with DH's help) depending on my needs.

I purchased the 2' x 4' shelves from a GH supplier and use concrete blocks for the bases. When I run out of space, I take parts from a shelving unit out of DH's workroom. (center of picture).

Two great ideas...thanks, guys!