GreenHouse

Our box was beat up too. But everything was there also. Keep us posted! Pictures! Pictures! (when your done). :-D

My Dave says lets get one (and they are in stock locally) but eweed says its going to be too small for us (I tend to be pretty ambitious as ernie knows) so now we are in the back and forth mode of "just one year" and "why bother lets build the big one now" lol

Here's my plan - if I like this one, next year I will get another and connect them...

That is a great plan, Sarvs, but hopefully (fingers crossed) we are going to rebuild our little red barn and make it bigger with an office upstairs for Someone who works at home and a studio/workshop for me in the lower part with a permanant GH off my studio.

Hoping and hoping and hoping. (Someone is a penny pincher! lol) So I figure (wtach out!) that if we get this one, we can always move it to the otherside of the lot and it can be Someone's succulent house. He's not buying the idea yet.

I agree with you both daisyavenue and sarv! I really thought this one out before I bought it. I picked this one because it was small. I only have a 10 K square foot lot (including house) . I had read that other people were considering buying and putting two together. I have not read any posts further than that, but that's because I have not been back to those threads (other website) in a while! The other deciding factor was the price for the poly carb. It really held the heat last winter through our snow /ice and the ice melted right off cuz it was heated. Now, if it was not heated, I might have been worried about the ice load on the poly. DH is already digging his favorite peppers to "hopefully" winter over. (I'm getting him to gardening sloooooooowly but surely!! lol :)

It is small. That's for sure. But it's really a neat little greenhouse when it's up. I've also thought about connecting two. Maybe even building a room between. dreamin again.
My thinking is, you could probably sell this little greenhouse if you decided it wasn't for you.

Would also love to see pictures. I am almost too excited about mine I think. This will be my first winter for one. I am already taking cuttings and filling it up. A tomato went in yesterday. peppers. hhmmm. Now I think I should plant a pepper in there.

KJ- Are you planting directly into the ground or into pots? Curious because we are hoping to do peppers and tomatoes and maybe a few trays of lettuces.

I bet that I could sell it later too- my only concern was if I caulk it, it would have to be sold to a neighbor because the panels will be in there permanantly.

I want to get one of these for my daughter's school so maybe I could just donate it to them and write it off next year....

ok folks - got the framework up - phew - those are the most awful directions I've ever used. Ended up just using the pics. The door doesn't move smoothly yet - needs some adjustment. Gonna put the poly carb panels on today. It really is a cute little thing, but very light. We are going to put it on a wood base so it is higher and then on a low trailer so it can be moved (NOT my idea!) All in all I am very satisfied!! ... wonder if a lawn chair will fit in it to relax!!

daisyavenue, I am only planting in pots, unless something falls to the ground and goes on it's own. Had some wandering jew that did that , I kinda like it.

sarv48, How bout those directions? huh??? Couldn't believe it. I found some better ones on the internet. I woulda sent you to the site, but lost it ....

I do bet caulking will make it harder to move. I am also caulking.

Hey there: I'm just in and trying to catch up to what everyone is doing on these forums and I had to laugh at the ones saying the HF one was pretty small. I am evidence that no greenhouse is ever going to be large enough.My last one was 32 feet long and I put out about 200 flats a season. Then had to build additional smaller one to handle the overflow. Jessamine

NOOOO! Jessamine HUSH or my DH will hear you!! LOL

We have gone round and round today (not fighting- just weighing options) and after a day where we gathered a ton more new succulents and went to a GH beyond my dreams, we saw how fast we would outgrow the HF and he got that the little one was far too wee for us.......

BUT Someone does not want to build the BIG ONE for at least a year and so we are back to getting the little HF GH for now and then he can make it a succulent house or something else that he likes by then (it started because I like veggies, he liked jades, go figger cuz his succulents have officially moved into the kitchen garden and now I have the succulent bug and he has the tomato bug).

One thing is for sure it NEVER ends once those bugs start biting. (and am I wrong but isn't a GH just one more room that I have to clean? LOL)

Our HF greenhouse is done!!! Man, it took us two days - who did it in 4 hrs??? We are considering the caulking thing now. Any tips on how to do this????please... I even laid out those black plastic plant trays to see how many I could fit in. I've got it badddd.

daisy, you are too funny. At least your Hubby has the plant bug. Mine is just tolerant.

Never thought of it as another room to clean. For me then , it would be the bigger the better. What a fun room!!

Just went back to HF because we were short 3 clips and 4 were so screwed up that we couldn't use them. I was afraid I would get the "we'll order them" talk. But much to my surprise a very nice young man lugged another boxed up greenhouse to the back, opened it and gave me 12 clips. Boy that is service!!

My husband and son are both over 6' so they had to "handle" the height problem with the greenhouse. The greenhouse is actually at ground level, but they dug the floor inside the greenhouse about 1' lower. The floor is covered with a thick layer of mulch. So, when you step into the greenhouse, you step down.

We're going to build ours up 12 inches - will be lot s more room for me. Our gardening neighbors came over last night to take a peek at ours - they are going to the their own today!!

I picked mine up today- the sale ended the 27th (just as it says in the first post here but duh I neglected to look at that part) but they gave it to me for the sale price anyways.

They laughed at me when they saw my little hatch back and said No waayyyy it will fit. I put my surfboard in there all the time I told them and they shut up and it fit like a dream.

Now my mom and her hubby ,ight get one in Texas. But they want to be able to take it apart in summer and I wonder how well that will work.

Jubabe- you had the best cheapest idea yet to dig a hole and I think that we will do that because we have plenty of pea gravel to put in the bottom. The only concern that I have is the rainy season is yet to come this year and maybe I can have a combo GH/pond with koi. LOL

Our gardening neighbors came over to see ours and the next day they went and got one too! Even got it for less than we paid for it. BUT the manager remembered us and said that we could get the same deal (%off plus extended warranty - which we never get) - just had to bring our sales slip back in. Well, I did! I am very impressed with our HF - bend over backwards to help the customer. Our neighbors are having a dickens of a time putting theirs together. They keep sneaking over to take a peak at ours. I told them I was gonna charge them everytime I saw them coming over- I'd have mine paid for in no time! Can't wait until spring

Okay- I got someone else's bag of clips. We had far too many!! And I am going to caulk it so we won't even need them.

But! Hooray! We got it put together today and it didn't take too long. The elevated base is nearly finished (4x4, 2x4 and redwood planks) and we will lift it on hopefully tomorrow.

Now I have to go find shelving.....

Congrats sarv48 and daisyavenue! Please share photos if you ever get a chance! I put heater in GH last night. Seems almost too early. We have 37 predicted for tonight.

I had to move quite a few plants inside tonight - they're predicting a possible frost. A couple varieties of orchids like a month or 6 weeks of very cool temps, so I left them outside and covered them all with a heavy sheet . . . I hope they'll be alright! I also left the Brugmansias outside, unprotected. Do you think this is a mistake?

It really DOES seem too early for a frost -- I thought we'd get the first frost around the end of the month.

I still don't have any heat in the new greenhouse -- I'm hoping the temp in there won't drop below 40 degrees.

When the sun comes up tomorrow, I may suffer total trauma!

- Kathleen

Hi Kathleen!! Where are you located? I know the Brugs do not like any temps below 45 or 50 - but you can find out for sure by visiting the Brugmansias and Friends forum here at Dave's Garden. When I woke up this morning I knew I had to move my brugs immediately. Every leaf was drooping and looking cold cold. According to my therm, we hit 40 last night. Not good!! Tomorrow is brug digging day.

If you want to, you can change your profile to let others know your location and zone. It really helps sometimes when we are discussing plants.

Nice to meet you!

Sue

How are you guys going to heat the HF greenhouse ........ ? I'm in a zone 5 and it can get pretty cold...... I figured I wouldn't be able to use my GH until next spring...... What are you going to do this winter sarv48.....

I'm in Northwest Rhode Island -- either Zone 5 or Zone 6, depending on who you listen to.

Everything came thru the night OK: the Brugs were a little droopy, but they bounced back in the sunlight. I was suprised that the fuschias (hanging type and upright type), the datura, caladium and dahlia suffered no damage. I know we had a frost last night -- there was ice on my windshield. The rest of the week calls for nights in the mid-40s, so I guess I'll be alright until at least the weekend. By then I'll have to move everything inside. What a crowded mess THAT will be!

I'll go back to my Profile and try to add more information about my location. If you don't see me updated, it's because I'm a bonehead and I can barely operate a computer.

- Kathleen

Shelving issue is almost fixed here! My Dave came home with 6x 6ft long wire shelves and 4x 3 ft shelves that one of his clients was tossing. They are the powder coated white kind like you attach to the wall of a closet or pantry. Now we just have to figure out how to make legs for them!

We are having temp issues but that is another thread entirely. Its going to be 79 here today and at the moment it is 72 outside and 99.4 in the greenhouse already.

I used those wire shelves in my lean-to greenhouse, but I attached them to the walls. They work very well, unless you have really little pots. These shelves are great for orchids, because the pots get air circulation from underneath, too.

The wire shelves are about 8 years old now, and are beginning to show some rust. Eventually, I guess I'll have to remove the shelves, treat the rust, and spray paint them again (white). They've held up very well, and I'm really happy with them.

I also have shelving made from a plexiglass-type material (Lexan?). It's about 1/4 inch thick and clear as glass. The shelves are attached to the frame of the greenhouse with metal straps. I have "L" shaped supports on the edges, because the plastic can droop if you put heavy plants on them. Some of the shelves are 8" wide and can hold a lot of plants. The clear plastic also lets more sunlight down to the plants on the bench below.

- Kathleen

vs - I am not going to use my GH in the winter - just putting it to use in the spring. Would love to use it in the winter, but $$$ prevents me from doing so!

I have 2 greenhouses: one is attached to the house and is heated with the oil-fired boiler we use for the house. I keep the tropicals and orchids in there and keep it at a minimum of 60 degrees. The new greenhouse, which was put up late this summer, will be heated to 40 - 45 degrees. I bought an electric heater for full-time use and a very small propane heater for the inevitable power-outage (we have a generator to run the boiler to keep the lean-to warm).

Oil prices are thru the roof, and I'll be terrified to open the electric bill once the heat is on in the new greenhouse. There just isn't enough room in the lean-to anymore, and I HAD to have a second greenhouse, or lose all my succulents, brugs, gerberas, etc.

We should have a contest to see whose heating bills are the highest. I think I'm going to win!

- Kathleen

We put up a greenhouse this year made of 2x10 base and used pvc schedual 80 pipe and crosses and tees. It cost a total of about 300.00 for pvc and greenhouse plastic. It measures 12' w x 20' L.
Have to put plastic on it still. It is a hoop styple greenhouse. I did make benches and used the wire mesh for the tops. I agree that the wire mesh works best for drainage. I had wood already stored in our barn, we tear down old barns and building and keep what we need. Piles of wood and tin around the house at all times. I got the plans off the internet. We made it a bit longer and can still add on at a later time.
The site is www.i4at.org/surv/green.htm I think you can make it out of the schedual 40 but 80 is a bit stronger. They said that it would cost about 100.00 but inflation as you know.

working on a tempature controller/alarm computer interface for GH based on the radio shack wireless thermo-hygrometer should have the proto done soon.

Dyson,
That sounds way to technical for me.... LOL...... I can barely get something SIDAG (stuck in dirt and growing) ..... you're creating an entire TCACI (tempature controller/alarm computer Interface) based upon a WTH (wireless thermo-hygrometer) this is VP (very impressive)...........

Well, you know those little rubber black bits that plug into each end of the 'gutters'? Duh, they make the overflow of rain pour into the GH. I removed mine tonight in sheets of rain as water was pouring through the bottom of the roofline to the interior.

Great design but that little flaw.

Should be a way to harvest the flow and the use it to water as necessary therefore save use on the normall household supply of h2o. :)

Should be but I was completely unprepared as rain is not a normal occurence for us. hehe

As for heating, I think Jody somehow wraps hers in bubblewrap (she's in Maryland, zone 7a or so), and I've been tempted to do the same thing with mine (it's a PVC structure with a gable roof. If she doesn't pop into this forum soon, you might email her and ask her how she does it.

This year, I'm considering taking some left-over GH plastic and laying it on my PVC "rafters" and taping it to the end and side walls, to seal off that upper air space. When I have to run the heater, it gets nice and toasty up there, and it'd more economical to keep that heat down where my plants are (I don't have any hanging baskets, so there's nothing that benefits from the heat rising into that space...

So did anyone caulk their greenhouse from HF......?


I finally got mine all put together over the weekend and those directions were bad.... I've even got extra pieces left (LOL) ....

I still haven't caulked and we may not because it doesn't get as cold here in the winter.

Our issue seems to be not enough air flow so I may hinge a panel an the far wall to enable air flow through the space with the help of ther fan.

On the other hand, we may caulk just the roofline as during our big rains last week, water was pouring in along the mini gutters.

Ear wigs seem to like crawling in the cells- another reason to caulk!

I had to go look up an Ear wig..... man they are ugly bugs...... but the bug issue is a good argument for caulking the panels...... of course if you have to leave a panel open for the air flow then the bugs win either way......

extra pieces = spare time parts (the parts you would have put in, if you had any spare time during assembly)

See the thermo hygrometer wouldn't stand a chance with me..... I have to agree the assembly directions were a bit of a challenge but it is still standing - I know a few of them were the gutter pieces that daisyavenue removed so see all those little black plastic pieces must not have been that important.....