Today, Gary Foreman joins me with a post on making your own greenhouse! Keep reading.
Would you like a steady supply of lettuce, spinach, strawberries, cilantro, radishes, green onions, tomatoes, carrots, grapes, eucalyptus, flowers, beans, peas, parsley, etc.? The answer is having your own hobby greenhouse.
Growing your own vegetables year round in a personal greenhouse saves money on grocery bills, but buying a greenhouse from local nurseries or the Internet is expensive. Building your own is not only feasible but can be done frugally.
Finding Plans
There are a variety of places to find plans. Your local high school vocational agriculture teacher or the Local County Extension Office may have plans for a variety of projects. On the net you’ll find plans at places such as snapclamp.com/greenhouse.htm and westsidegardener.com/howto/hoophouse.html. Or you can search for “hobby greenhouse contruction plans” which will bring up a variety of plans for different sizes and shapes.
Cheap Construction Tips
Truss kits for garden sheds that use 2×4′s make easy frames to cover with plastic for an instant, inexpensive greenhouse. The overall cost should be around $100, depending on the grade of wood and plastic used. Using recycled wood would make it even cheaper (ask at constuction or demolition sites for their used wood).
Using glass makes the greenhouse more permanent, but adds cost. Check demolition sales and the local newspapers for people selling single glazed windows. The glass will raise the initial cost of building, but will save you from having to replace plastic every two years or so.
To help keep heating costs down to virtually nil (in a mild climate), paint one gallon jugs black and fill them with water, then place them in an area that will receive plenty of light. They will absorb the heat from the sun during the day and help keep the greenhouse from freezing during the night. Double layering the plastic (one layer on each side of the studs) during winter will help too.
Location is the best way to keep heating costs down. Where you decide to put your greenhouse could determine how hard it is to keep warm during the winter months. You may just find that it may be more advantageous to do coldframes against the house instead of a freestanding greenhouse.
If warmth is a concern, consider using a “solar” greenhouse design. The solar greenhouse has superior insulation values and gets more light to your plants than a regular greenhouse. It can be either free standing or attached to your house. If attached to your home, you can get free heat from the solar greenhouse for your home.
The north wall is 2×4 construction with insulation, CDX plywood, and has Therma-Shield glued to the inside of the north wall. If the greenhouse is under 20 feet long, the other walls and roof are double wall polycarbonate. If the greenhouse is 20 feet or longer, the side walls are regular 2×4 construction, just as the north wall is.
Black barrels filled with water line the north wall, so the water heats up during the day and keeps the greenhouse above freezing (with no heater). If you have a concrete walk or a concrete floor in the greenhouse, add black colorant to your concrete mix or paint it flat black. The black concrete also acts as thermal mass heat storage.
Making your own greenhouse can reduce your grocery bills by creating a year-round garden of your own. Building it yourself is completely possible and is much less costly than purchasing one, allowing you to save as much as possible in an environmentally friendly way.
Gary Foreman is the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.com, a site dedicated to frugal living. The site also has more information on how to build a backyard greenhouse.
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nice post. thanks.