It arrived an hour ago!

Hi all, after dreaming of wanting, wanting, wanting my husband bought me a greenhouse out of the blue last Friday! It is 9'1" w 7' 3" h x 12' 2" L. We ordered it from Tek Supply (Farm Tek) and it arrived at a local Mennonite business at 4pm today. Our road is so steep and narrow the semi could not come down it, especially with the foot of snow we received since Monday. Thankfully this company that makes sheds and gazebos (next on my list) agreed to unload it and give me a call when it arrived.

Of course with its site covered with the FOOT of snow, I did mention that didn't I ;'}, it may be a while before we build. Anyone have a really big heater out there we could borrow.

I guess you can tell I am just a little excited. I have wanted one for over 30 years and thought that since I couldn't seem to have kids (took nine years and then another seven for the second one) a greenhouse might be a bit of a diversion. Well, two kids later who are now 25 and 18 and were a "joyous" diversion my husband blessed me yet again.

Thanks for letting me chat your ears off. I will probably go back to lurking now but you are all very dear to my heart and DG is my third home after home, and church.
--Joy

Oh Joy don't go back to lurking, congrat's on the new greenhouse, sounds like you will have plenty of room to grow all kinds of flowers. I am somewhat a newbie on DG but I am starting to stop lurking because the people are so friendly and can help and give you all kinds of support with your new venture and of course we will expect you send all of us some plants from you GH LOL.

Keep us posted on the building we love it. Congrat's again.

Thanks thinkdirt, I am driving my husband and 18 year old son nuts I am so excited! I love to read others posts, they are so informative and fun. I'll try to pop in from time to time but you may be sorry. lol

I tell all my friends come with a shovel and a bucket and take all you want. Reseeding seems to be my flowers speciality. Soooooooo ya' ll come!

Hi Joyous!

It is very nice to meet you! Congrats on the greenhouse. I just got my first one too. Isn't it exciting!

What do you plan to grow?

If you promise not to lurk, I'll *try* to behave. :)

Michele

Howdee Joyous!!! I can't promise to behave but feel free to ask all the questions you want when you start building. My DH and I put up a 48' X 20' Farmtech this year - was a lot of work, learned a lot, but now starting to fill it up. I KNOW how excited you must be.

...and POST PICTURES!!!

Best to you and your family

Shelley, the perennial lady

Always happy to see somebody get a greenhouse! They are such fun. Like Shelley said, we need pictures.
Think Spring,
Bernie

Hi all, thank you for the words of encouragement. I just got back from teaching a bunch of wild pre-teens at our church. Wow give me little ones...I think I was getting too comfortable with them. These 11-12 year olds can wear one out in an hour and a half.

Michele, I feel like I am finally meeting a dear friend. I have followed your threads for quite a while. What a family...and girls to boot!! I have especially followed your greenhouse threads, a wealth of information and please tell us all how do you do it!! Might just be worth lurking to see you bad.......badseed. I am not sure what I will plant or when I will be able to. The winds and temps have the windchill below zero here or very close to it.

Shelly, I have also been following your threads on this forum. The size of your greenhouse boggles me. Of course right now mine is for fun and figuring out what I am doing. My husband would like me to go into some type of "plant" business. Right now I have a miniature shop at our local farm market. So untill I see what I can do things will pretty much stay the same. But, OH how I have longed for a greenhouse. Pinch me I might be dreaming!!

Bernie I have been following your posts too! The dger's on this forum are a wealth of information and I can get so lost in the goodies of following thread to thread.....that's where my day goes! Pictures, I may surprise you tomorrow and post one. lol

Thanks to all for a great welcome.
--Joy

Welcome Joy. I also just got a greenhouse -very small but it works great for me. I can see you are elated, and I can share the feeling with you. I just bought one of the remote thermostats and what a great thing. I walked around the house all day with that thing in my hand just so I could see what the temp in the GH was, love that thing. Happy growing and post some pics.
Cindy

Joyous,

My husband gave me a 20 X 20 greenhouse for Christmas this past December. The model he gave me has sides that roll up, an absolute necessity here in Texas. He purchased it from FarmTek. He did most of the work himself with some help from one of our sons who was visiting for Christmas. I love my greenhouse. It allowed me to overwinter my citrus collection and other potted plants that would have died out in the cold. However, putting it up wasn't free of woes.

My husband is an engineer and is great at building things, but he spent two very frustrating weeks (vacation time) putting it up. Although he was satisfied with the product, my husband found that:
• Instruction sheets were totally inadequate.
• Time estimate for erecting greenhouse was vastly underestimated. They said it
would take 2 hours. It took 2+ weeks with a few weekends for odds and ends.
• Holes had to be drilled form vital bolts. Very time consuming.
• The side covers didn't quite reach the ground so we had to improvise a barrier for
those sides.
• The eye bolts that attach the greenhouse to the holdfasts (the gadgets that screw
into the ground to keep the greenhouse from blowing over) are by necessity on
the inside. There are no protective covers for the bolt ends on the outside so they
tore holes in the cover.

On the plus side, it sure beats having to buy the separate pieces. Hope you enjoy your greenhouse.

BettyDee

Cindy, my husband just bought a weather station with remote sensors hopefully they have a built in alarm and that we can purchase an extra sensor for the greenhouse. I see you are the same zone as we are, we sure have had long periods of below freezing this winter it is discouraging. Green thumbs to you.

BettyDee, my husband is not an engineer but has done a lot of building in his spare time. He is diligently studing the instructions right now! Two weeks ago he had rotator cuff surgery so he is going to have to be patient, I can usually wai,t he wants things done yesterday. This surgery has been a learning time for him. Know that I will be posting his questions as they come up. What a grand size your gh is. I am jealous of what your weather is now, we had 12 degrees over night........sigh
--Joy

Looks like Farm Tek out to give a discount to people who belong to DG. They sure are selling a lot of stuff to us members.
I ordered 2 shutters from them the other day.
We are going to buy a 14' x 30' shelter to use at the farmers market. Figure it should be lots better than the pop-up ones we've been using. The price is sure right, only $279. Pop-ups are $100 to $200 for 10 x 10. You need to spend the $200 to get anything good.
My friend is buying some kind of shelter too, so we are going to order together to get the free shipping.
Happy greenhouse erecting!
Bernie

After we ordered our gh I thought about the DG Watchdog, and was a little worried with the rating then 78%. Hopefully though we will be able to add a positive rating when we get ours up. I do know that Bob at Tec Supply (Farm Tec) was a great help and willing to throw in an extra or two!

It was 12 degrees this morning and the weathermen are predicting another storm for next week and then another arctic blast. My gardening might not begin till fall from the looks of it.

Hey Joy. Look at all I have going in the greenhouse. Can you tell that I really want Spring ...and now please :) Got down to 45 in the GH last night, and if I do not hurry and shut the heater off, it will be up to 100+ in a few hours. I do not have a FarmTek GH, but the one I got also said that erection takes from 3-6 hours. HUH! Took hubby 2 days to erect and the directions left a lot to be desired, but it did get done. LOL.

Hope DH is feeling better. I had rotator cuff surgery a couple of years ago, and it was a long process to recovery. I think it took almost a year before I felt back to normal. I kept asking myself why did I do this? But now all is well....so tell him to just be patient and take it easy.

Cindy

I just don't know what to say after reading your reply above! You should have said hi a LONG time ago. :) Maybe you can give me some pointers on those 'wild pre-teens'. LOL I think I may need the help.

I do hope your hubby will take it easy putting it up. I had to level some ground and terrace to put mine up and that was SLOW going. Once I started building, the momentum got going and it was SO hard to have to stop or take a break. Somehow though, a baby that wants to nurse, really takes priority. LOL

If you have a camera, you will have to take pics and show us how it goes. I waited until I was nearly done to post anything. I was afraid everyone would be wondering if it was finished and I'd feel pressured. hahahaha Several times I asked my hubby "Do you know what is worse than NOT having a greenhouse?? I have one sitting out there in 200 pieces and can't use it!!!". LOL

I'm glad to see you still posting. :) It is nice to meet you!

Cmalon: Your GH looks great with all the new plants in it. You are doing a good job with it, it is so clean and neat. I am one of those dreamers, maybe one day my DH will buy me a GH. He was on my case the other day asking if I was going to start some tomatoes, I told him I really had ran out of room, all my south windows are full my little 3 shelf mini GH in the spare bedroom is full and the metal shelf in my computer room is loaded, so where did he want me to start them at. Hint Hint. I don't know for sure but I think it went right over his head. But I'm not giving up, I keep throwing those hints every chance I get.

Joyous: Please do send us pictures, I do love looking at other DG'er GHs.

Linda

Cindy what a great greenhouse!! It also loooks green outside and you are a zone 6! One thing for sure is dh's shoulder will keep him slowed down a bit so as long as the weather is bad he can heal. I also had this surgery a couple years ago, I would have to hurt long before I would do again but I am fine now.

Michele, I don't know about any pointers my own kids were just about the opposite of the ones I teach. They were more couch potatoes than high jinxers. Hubby has already formed a plan about leveling and adding a base of 4x4's and things like that. I am the gofer but it sure helps to have an 18 year old 6'2" son still at home. He almost believed me last night when I said we had to get the yard cleared to start building. lol. Teens can be so gullable!

Linda thanks for the encouraging words. May even see a pic tonight. We just got back from my dh 2 week check up and he has to wait 3 more weeks before he starts therapy. Help, we need good weather so we can at least get out and walk!

Here is the site where the new greenhouse will go. More to the left of the photo but near the the fenced garden.

If you look close you can see why my vegetable garden had to be fenced in. Deer tracks. We have only had a couple this year, past winters 7-11 were feeding from our ground bird feeding station right out the kitchen window. The beautiful blue in the background is Seneca Lake one of the Finger Lakes in NYS.

Well I thought I was an empy nester at lease have been for alot of years, until last week, when our daughter and grandson moved back in. He is 1 1./2 and what a hand full if you are not used to it.

I am spending alot of time in the GH these days, and I am posting a OFF LIMITS sign on the GH also a sign that says Grandma's place LOL talk about a stress reliever. FLowers and more flowers. Where flowers grow angels will sing.

Hope you have as much fun as we all do with our GH. Don't forget to put music in your GH the plants will love it ans you can sing along LOL

I heard a quote awhile back but don't know who said it..."you can burry a lot of troubles digging in the dirt". I know it's kept me from flipping out at times (grin)

Oh Joyous! What fun you are in for. I just got my first "real" greenhouse last November. I love it! Of course it's too small already, but better than what I had before. Call your FarmTek sales rep and customer service whenever you have a problem. I called them a bunch and they were great. In fact, the sales rep called last week just to touch base and say hi. We found the instructions lacking too. But when they sent stuff we didn't need or the wrong stuff, they didn't want it back and immediately sent the right stuff. No trouble.

Don't be a lurker anymore. There's too much going on here. Join the fun.

Well it has been finished for 2 weeks on Monday. Boy have I had fun. First carting plants down to it, then in the evening bringing them back up to the house!!!!!!! No heat yet. Inside the gh things are kind of mix and match, but I can't believe how wonderful my tomatoes look after a few days in full sun! Sure seems worth it already. I will try putting a light in there tonight and watch the temps. If that doesn't work back to the house till morning.

Everyday is getting better and better. We have most of the yard and flower beds cleaned off already and my first daffodil is in blossom with many more to go. DH gave me a bag of 100 bulbs late fall of 2003, (how I hate planting bulbs) and I tucked them in spots near the walks and am I glad I did lots of spots of color popping up. It WAS worth the work in the cold. I am such a whinner.

Joy

OOOOOOOPS, I forgot to post the picture :').

Joyous, looks wonderful - I bet you are estatic. What a great place for you to garden!

Joyous.. is that one of those with the rigid Polycarb walls? I found an old farmtek catalog the other day and have been looking at what they have. Very very tempting.. course I want the 11'8" by 24'8" lol.. sigh.. Tell us how much you love it please

I got one last fall from FarmTek, a little larger, 14 x 24, and of course it's not big enough. Knew it wasn't when I ordered, but money talks, right, all I could afford and so much better than what I had before. I love it, love it, love it! DH does too. It's wonderful!

Hi all, yes it is a Farm Tec and YES I do love it! It will soon be too small and I talked my dh into this size, he was going to buy the smallest and I knew better!

As great as it is, it is a doozy to put together. The instructions are terrible and I think we are missing some kind of rubber for the bottom of the roof vents. Small price to pay when I have been wanting a gh for almost all my adult life and that is a long time!! I am still not sure what I am doing in it but I am having fun. I cannot believe the difference from window sill, grow lights to GREENHOUSE. There is no comparison. We need to tighten things up though because it gets almost as cold as outside at night hence the carring plants back and forth to the house. The rigid polycarb walls are 4mm and the next size up would probably have been better. That will be my next house. LOL

Thanks for all your encouraging words,
Joy

It's impossible to keep any kind of building warm without supplemental heat.
We have an old barn that we use for a wood shop. It is insulated with foam sheeting inside. It gets very cold very fast if the furnace don't work.
Probably won't take very much of a heater to keep yours warm.
A portable oil heater, like they use around a farm might be best. You can roll that in & out of your greenhouse & only use it when it's going to be below freezing. (People call them Knipcos, which used to be a comman brand name.)
Bernie

Bernie, thanks for the information. We have a Mennonite farm supply store just up the road we will have to check it out. Husband and son are getting weary of toting flats for me.
-Joy

Hi Gang!

I've got a crew of professional contractors working to build my Farm-tek greenhouse currently (18'w x 24'l x 10' H) . I've got 4"x6" pressure treated timbers to "level out" the land and serve as a base for the greenhouse. In turn, hopefully, the weight of this will help stabilize the greenhouse from the occasional 50-60 mph wind storms you get with the spring and fall seasons here in Parkersburg, WV (zone 6).

It took these guys (3 of them, all very good workers and construction guys) roughly a day and a half (12 hrs) to level and square the foundation. ( I gotta figure out how to post pictures on this website, especially w/o a digital camera or a scanner). Once the leveling was finished- and it took them QUITE A WHILE to do that- not complaining, just the truth because that is VERY IMPORTANT, the frame went up quickly, until the crew discovered we were 2 "pipes" short (stabilizing pipes that "tie" the purlins together up top on a gazebo-style GH---- turns out to be about 12 separate pieces that connect to make the 2 "pipes" that run the length of the GH to connect the purlins together near the peak of the GH. We have the 2 outer "pipes" connecting the sides of the GH together.) out of the 4 required to finish the framework. The crew called Farm-tek and they are sending out the necessary pieces all free of charge and free of S&H. Should arrive this Thursday. Very helpful and understanding, the folks at Farm-tek!!!!

I'm looking to raise/grow orchids and other tropicals in my "backyard retreat"---dwarf banana plants, pomegranite trees, dwarf lemon/lime/and orange trees, and of course lots and lots of orchids (did I mention "LOTS"? ;-) ). When I came home from work tonight (about 9:30pm in the dark), I looked at the framework already up and thought "gosh, I'll NEVER fill all THAT up with plants!". Then my next thought was "Geez, I'm gonna have to HEAT all THAT this winter? ---keep in mind tropical temps too---minimum 55 at night, 70 in the day with northern/ north-eastern exposure). Sheesh! But it sure will beat being in the house looking at a cold, grey winter's day out the window!

Hope to get some pix posted for you folks of the work in progress so you can see what's going on and maybe get some ideas or share some suggestions!

OrchidMan10, that is a dream come true size greenhouse!! I am sure that you will easily fill it and need more room. I did read somewhere in a thread that the more you have in your gh the easier it is to heat. If that isn't an invitation to fill it up I don't know what is!!

Have fun, especially on those cold, gray winter days that seem to happen pretty regularly long about Dec.

-Joy

Joyous, glad to meet you and best wishes for your greenhouse. i waited 30 years to get my first remodeled room made into a gh, then moved up to this location. I had the garage builder make the north east corner into a 10' x 14' gh, and that isn't large enough. Especially when I try to carry over winter some of my large brugmansias. I had 5 large tree type brugs in there and a couple of days ago it was so crowded I finally moved them next door to where my pickup is normally parked in the garage. It was either park the pickup outside for a couple of weeks or make another plan and that seemed the best.

I must go out and open the garage doors so sun can shine on the brugs. And then out to the garden. I try to keep the temp in gh at 50 or slightly above. Using an electric heater. Electric company loves me in the winter. the gh if full of seedlings. I want to plant zinnia seeds in one of the strip trays this morning. Still too cold outside, was 27 for several hours this morning. DonnaS

It is still cold outside, so I decided to take a photo of what I was talking about in previous message. DonnaS

Donna, great addition and I like you water storage system. Right now I am carring water in jugs to my gh. I am still in the learning stage. I had finally decided that I really didn't need a gh it was just the late winter "crazies" that I told my husband to just ignore and we would get through it. But he plopped a catalog down in front of me and said "I want to buy you this", now tell me what's a woman to do? lol......

We have been having temps in the 20's also so I know I have to go slow or lose what I have already started.

thanks for the best wishes,
Joy

"""But he plopped a catalog down in front of me and said "I want to buy you this", now tell me what's a woman to do? lol......"""


Exactly what you did.. Order it before he regains his sanity!!

You betcha!!!!

Joy