Can we tour your greenhouse?

wow you have SNOW!

Yes finally!
We got about 6" last week.
Just a dusting before that.

Henryr, nice pictures. Hope you have some of the work you did last summer.

Henry, I love your house, it looks so pretty. I would love a sunroom. Our house is so dark I call it "The Cave"!

Thanks!
Our house is actually quite dark also... not a Cave but not nearly enough windows.
So when we rebuilt the room under the Roof GH we added plenty of light.
The North wall is solid for insulation but the East and South will let in plenty of daylight in the Winter.

Here's a year ago as we're laying out the east facing bay window tile design.

Ric

My greenhouse comes today I'm SO excited ! Planning on reviewing this thread lots for idea's ( assuming I have room in there to do anything once I put all the plants that are stashed in the barn and under benches covered with blankets in there !
whoooo hooooo !

Who says Christmas only comes once a year! LOL!
Enjoy!

You have a good day to work in your greenhouse -- we are finally getting a warm day! I know you are excited. When we got our sunroom in Hot Springs it seemed that they would never finish. Now all of my plants are back there and I would love to see what is going on. Left some orchids that were spiking, along with two tubs full of epis that were rooting. Our neigihbor takes care of them when we are away. Most of the time we take some of the orchids with us when we come down for the winter but this time the car was full of electronic stuff for a new computer DH was building down here. I wish we had a camera back home so I could peek at them periodically.

Well, I spent the afternoon moving plants either back out side or into the greenhouse...
Took some pics, I still have a ton of plants to move back outside or to the greenhouse, this is just a drop in the bucket !
I was going to take a pic before putting in plants but the battery in the camera was dead. Do I went ahead and got started...sorting plants by what could go back out side and what I wanted in the greenhouse.
First pic is the front. We put it near this maple, and there are oaks nearby, to help provide shade during the summer.
There's windows on each long side with screen that I can put up/down, plus with door on the front, and we'll put an exhaust fan in the top center gable. Light switch is just inside the door to the left, and outlets are in the center wall left. Light fixture center top. All waterproofed.

this is the right back corner, I'm using one of those wire racks you clip together for a temporary bench till I can get in to town. I'm going to get a few of the heavy duty plastic shelving units that have the holes in them, and instead of assembling them full height, make them half height, then they should fit right down the middle to make a long row of benches. We're also going to add some extra shelves at some point and some low benches underneath the shelves.

This is the left back corner, it's more under the maple tree, so gets more shade, later in the day the whole greenhouse is in more sun, but in the summer, it will get more shade. I'm may train a vine up the inside on the southwest side to help shade it and get I think some of that white shadecloth that reflects the heat away. Between the windows, screendoor, and exhaust and trees, I think it will stay good in there for propagating, and keeping the butterflies off my baby passionflowers.
Later on when we can move more plants back outside I will "play" more.

Congrats!!!! That is an excellent GH!!! They delivered it yesterday complete with waterproof fixtures? You did well on that one. It looks like it will last a long time!!!! I wish you many happy hours of gardening!!!!

Yup, pre- wired, and all with the conduit, light switch, outlet cover, are all the water/weather proof covers, they set it, leveled it, anchored it ( wind rating 150mph) .all we have to do is run the electric from the barn to the greenhouse and we have a friend who works for a power company that is going to come up and help us do that. Water is already only 10 feet away as we have a couple of run in sheds for the horses to the right of the greenhouse. I'll be headed out there in a bit to work on finishing up moving plants in.
mj....doin the happy dance...././././...

Love your new playhouse!!!!!! Looks like a wise choice. They really did a fast job of setting everything up and getting you ready to go!

haha, that's what D's SO says. A "big girls" play house....actually, I do sell a few plants and seeds as a little side business to my horse boarding and riding lessons, two passions I have...so it will be a big help, and we won't have to go thru so much of the grief in the winter and he can put his car back in the big barn. ( he's happy about that)...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!!

You are going to be shocked on how fast it fills up. Enjoy.

Hap

Very Nice!
I really like the full wired aspect!
What brand is it?

Ric

It looks great! I love the visibility through the walls.

gotta ask. . . where did you order such a neat GH?? I don't need one that big... more of a lean-to out back, maybe leaning against the back of the house or something. What is the material the walls are made of.

Mjs, Looks great how very nice to have a GH and without a lot of fuss just roll in and there she is. Mine will be much more labor intensive. LOL Plants look pretty happy already.
Henryr10, Nice looking sun room. I will be interested in seeing your GH when it is finished.

I purchased it right here in town. But it's made by Larkbuilders...
Here's the link..
http://www.larkbuilders.com/greenhouse.html

.there's a spot to look for a dealer.
It really did take a lot of the "headache" out of it. They use "Suntuf" Polycarbonate panels by Palram which comes with a pretty good warranty.
I'll try to take more pictures soon, but it's filling up fast ! We still have to "customize" shelves, adding to what's there, but it beats the heck out of trying to put one together and then still having to do all that. All in all we by the time you do all that yourself and have to purchase the add-on's we didn't end up spending that much more.

thank you...we actually have a dealer right here in Brandon too!

I have to say as far as pre-fab green houses go, that is very nifty. Love that it has shades..seems well thought out, and seems like you could put some light extra shelving, on the shelfs if needed for seed trays. I like!

how exciting, I know you will love it...

One suggestion I would change your solid shelving out to slotted so the water can run through.

Janet

That was my first thought on the shelving also when we were looking at it. I had the guy at the dealership get a bucket of water and we dumped water on the shelves and floor, there's enough gaps that it runs thru. The "wood" is that artifical lumber that will never rot. I was familar with it cause they started using it in horse trailer floors some years ago. Any new benches or shelves we put in will be slotted tho. We're putting a screen door on also. That way I can keep the solid door open in summer but keep other things out ! Friday morning it was about 45º outside and was 55 in the greenhouse, without any additional heating.(don't have the electric hooked up yet) During the day I've been opening the windows and doors and be just a little warmer than outside temp. Know I'll need the exhaust fan for summer but that's also one reason we put it where it will get shade during the hottest part of the day.

Oh totally forgot about that new stuff... not that it really is new anymore...LOL

That is good idea using that, I've got a hoop house that I'll be putting up in March and this is a reminder to get some of that product to use inside mine.

Janet

I wonder about all that galvanized steel rusting after a while. I mean a greenhouse is full of moisture. In their ad they say everything is warranted by the manufacturer of the raw materials. Who made the steel? What happens if it rusts?

fred

We used galvanized steel brackets for mounting mirrors on pressure treated lumber in our riding arena over 15 years ago....
The brackets and posts are in better shape the the mirrors and frames now. No rust on the mirrors and they most definitely are exposed to the weather. I guess sometime down the road it may be an issue, but I weighed that again aluminum ( which I've had lots of issues with around the farm) and I was more worried about the wind rating.

18 gauge G-90 galvanized steel is the same steel used in hurricane strapping.
It's also what we have in the brackets holding our deck together.
I don't see rust being a big issue there.
Plus the company who manufactured it has been in business for almost 50 years....
sounds like they know what they are doing.

That is a VERY nice looking GH!

Ric

Boy I just escaped by the grace of God the other night when our temperature was 25 degrees F. and the electricity went out at 1:00 AM. Luckily it only stayed out for little over a hour. I've said I was gonna have an alternative source of heat but have no idea what is the most economical and emits the less odors to harm the plants. Any recommendations?

My DH is building a 16X16 GH. I am thinking about investing in solar panels as energy source. Can anyone recommend website?
Thanks.

HI,

I have solar heating for my pool, but they are solid black. The company is Heliocol . Perhaps they would have something you could use. I am very happy with our system which is new since Hurricane Wilma. (The other one landed somewhere in the Bahamas. LOL)

Good luck.

Hap

I have gas heating for the house, so...I ran a gas line to the green house, and have a small 1950's gas heater..works wonderfully

Here is my modified Harbor Freight 10x12 greenhouse, that is now 12x18. Note the metal on part of the roof. 40mph + winds just love Harbor Freight greenhouses and their little wire clips to hold the (fast browning) plastic panels in. And this was after using over 30 tubes of clear silicone from “Wally World” in an effort to keep the panels from flying out. Also note the 2x6 angled brace stuck in the ground. This has saved the greenhouse several times from strong northwesterly winds.

I am attempting to heat and cool the greenhouse using wind and solar. I built the white colored solar electric panels from 3x6 inch cells (plan on building three more soon) I purchased on Ebay. I am on the ladder installing a 3 phase wind turbine. I purchased the motor and blades then built the rest. I have eight deep cycle batteries in an array to supply power when the wind isn’t blowing or it is dark.

Supper set up you have Arthur (?)
I would love to see some of your plans of building the solar and wind equipment.

Great work and a wonderful program you have going, Dwight

I also like the opaque panels..they work really well, without worrying about burning

What a job....it's wonderful.

Hap

Really like your alterations!!!

Great! I'd like to hear more about the solar and the wind. What do they tie into?

What is in the pen?

I want to know, too. I tried a solar water heating set-up to get hotter water in my barrels, but we've had almost no sun this entire winter. Hmmm, doesn't work very good that way. We have had lots of wind.