Greenhouse Plans

[Tom Winship]

Does anyone have any good greenhouse plans that they have actually tried. I'm a little overwhelmed when I google it.

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe the first question to ask is how big of a greenhouse are you thinking about?

This is where my greenhouse came from:

http://ovg.com/

This is 20 feet wide by as long as you want it to be. Ours is 48' long.

My brother and I were able to set the support posts, 24 in all in a day. We may have taken longer because of all the beer breaks. It is something a person and a helper can do.

They do ship. There may be a fabricator in your area who makes a similar arrangement.

It really depends on the size you are interested in making and whether you want to use a plastic cover or if you want to go with glass.

Also to be considered is if you will heat the greenhouse or if you plan on going natural with what you get when you get it.

We have a heater in our greenhouse to protect sensitive plants during the winter.

If you are good at fabrication on your own, it is not difficult to make a frame from PVC water pipe and find "clear" plastic to cover.

jtk

[Tom Winship]

Thanks for replying, Jim. Yours is tons bigger than we want. My wife wants a little space maybe 10 x 12 that has power and water and could be heated on our 2 or 3 freezing days per year. Also a place where she could hang out like I do in my shope. Might do it with windows and stick framing.

[Jim Koepke]

Also a place where she could hang out like I do in my shope. Might do it with windows and stick framing.

Sounds like what might work better is what is often called a conservatory. It isn't a full blown greenhouse. Usually a converted room for growing plants. Often exotics or flowering plants to provide flowers for other rooms in the house.

Some I have seen are just an attached "sun room" on one side of a house.

A few simple pieces of furniture to allow muffins and coffee while reading the paper or a favorite book…

Sometimes I am a hopeless romantic.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

One thing to consider if you build your own is to make sure you can open windows at both ends. It can get real hot even on cool days.

Fans are also a good thing to include. Our greenhouse has automatic louvers and evacuation fans. They are on separate thermostats to let the louvers open a few degrees before the fans come on.

We also have overhead lamps and a dozen electrical outlets.

jtk

[Tom Winship]

Sounds like you are a commercial grower Jim. Thought you just sat around and sharpened handsaws and planes and made totes for both.

[Ben Beckham]

This may be up your alley: http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?911. I ordered it and have watched it several times trying to decide how I will do it with hand tools only. The wife loves it and keeps bugging me to build it for her.

[Ryan Mooney]

Recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Own-Greenhouse-Basics/dp/0811727750 It has a lot of good simple plans that are easy to make and also explained why you would do various things which was somewhat useful to me.

Any of the plans here are pretty likely to work as well: http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?search=greenhouse

+1 to Jim's suggestion of the auto opening vents. You can also get wax filled cylinders that expand automatically at the right temps and open the vent automatically with no power required if you're electricity challenged. Search for "solar powered vent openers".

Surprisingly the harbor freight greenhouse isn't complete junk. The double walled polycarbonate panels alone are worth the price. The frame is a bit flimsy but if you anchor it down real well its not to bad (and well instructions... umm yeah figure it out..). I put one on a 4x4 base the 4x4's were half lapped at the corners and anchored with a post anchors put into a bag of concrete in each corner. Digging out the inside of the base frame gave another 4" of headroom which was nice ;)

[Jim Koepke]

Sounds like you are a commercial grower Jim. Thought you just sat around and sharpened handsaws and planes and made totes for both.

Not quite commercial of yet, but we are working in that direction.

A lot of my wood work is done when I can't work the garden.


The frame is a bit flimsy but if you anchor it down real well its not to bad (and well instructions... umm yeah figure it out..).

My experience tells me this is something everyone should think of when building or planing a greenhouse. It is amazing at how much lift wind can create and how far it can move things that are not well anchored.

We have a couple of frames made from PVC pipe covered with plastic. We also have a couple of cinder blocks at each end to make sure they stay over the plants as planned.

PVC pipe is an inexpensive material for making a light frame. If one was making a small greenhouse it might be an inexpensive way to go.

jtk

[Dave Lehnert]

Just toss this out to you.

I used this company for years in our retail garden center. They also have homeowners type models.

http://www.poly-tex.com/pages/greenhouses/greenhouses.html

[Paul Grothouse]

Norm had a two show greenhouse design on New Yankee.

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?911

[Ryan Mooney]

My experience tells me this is something everyone should think of when building or planing a greenhouse. It is amazing at how much lift wind can create and how far it can move things that are not well anchored.

Heh and I might add from unfortunate experience that it would be good to also consider putting all vents so they open on the DOWN wind side of the structure.. Otherwise that opening can have unfortunate side effects on the structural integrity of the whole assembly.

The PCV structures do work real well. I'm partial to putting logs down the sides with holes drilled into them for the pvc to set in for larger variants (row cover sized ones work great just stuck in the ground). Makes it fairly stable and if you drill into the holes+pvc you can drop a nail in to pin it in place...

[Larry Edgerton]

I'm going to build one in the next year or so, but I want it to be more of a permanent structure, wood of course. It has to be in keeping with the reproduction one room schoolhouse I am building. I kind of like the ones I have seen with the celestory windows, but I need to bone up on the science behind them. I'm 60 miles from Canada, so it gets cold here. I'm not looking to grow all year, just to extend the season on both ends.

If anyone runs across some plans that you would not mind looking at out your bedroom window I'd love to see them. Cost is not a huge issue.

Larry

[Ryan Mooney]

Larry:

For real cold areas there are a few things that help a lot:
- Add a cold sink. This is basically a big ditch under the main greenhouse, preferably on the south side.
- Have a water wall or earth sheltered back wall. The phase transition for water to ice takes a tremendous amount of energy so this really buffers the temp (and earth is a great insulator - you can combine the two even..).

A good layout is:
south<- glass wall | cold sink with bench over it | water wall Basically kind of like the picture here from the front of this book http://www.amazon.com/dp/0960446400/ - no idea if the book is any good, but I know that basic idea works pretty well. The back/north wall can be just a insulated stick wall as, covering it with shelves filled with water jugs (old milk jugs work well) helps a lot.

You'll probably want to glaze with glass if you want to run all year long up there (and if you get lots of snow its stronger). If you have a local rebuild it / surplus building supply area you can often find double pane glass sliding doors cheap which are fantastic for repurposing as greenhouse windows. Build to the materials not a plan in that case :D

Another option to add heat is to put a compost pile along the back wall. If its a good hot one (lots of poop; you/neighbors with horses/cows/chickens?), you'll get several degrees of temperature rise out of that all winter long.

[Myk Rian]

For real cold areas there are a few things that help a lot
The OP is in Texas.

[Ryan Mooney]

The OP is in Texas.
Yeah but Larry isn't which is why I addressed that response specifically to him.

Although I haven't tried it, I suspect the buffering of an earth sheltered greenhouse might work well in southern lands as well. Be interesting to try anyway..

[Larry Edgerton]

Ryan.

I am a contractor, so I can do about whatever I want, just has to look good when I get up in the morning.

Could you suggest a good book that covers all the bases? I looked onlineb and like Tom said, there is just too much..... I'm not afraid to read, so I would like just one book that covers the subject well. I'll buy what you suggest.

Thanks, Larry

[Jim Koepke]

The PCV structures do work real well.

We only use them for making row covers.



The OP is in Texas.

Aren't there places in Texas that get cold?

jtk