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Our Mini Green House Under Construction.

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*Barracuda_45*

*Barracuda_45*

Norhtern Michigan Dragway Mama
Well told hubby I NEED A MINI GREEN HOUSE!!! Well do to not having the material things we need to build the BIG ONE i wanted this yr its gona wait till next yr, anyways we use whatever we can find around the wood pile and barn, so far its comming along nicely for making do with CRAP scrap wood.. LOL!! I will post pics as it all comes together, its gona be big enough for me to slightly bend over to get thru the door and enough room for me to stand up and atleast turn around in or have your basic folding chair in:-D , tables go along 3 of the walls, gona use white rock for the bottom and ceder-SP? mulch along the bottom outside of the green house, i will be able to have some hanging pots from the inside top and also gona have a mini lift window for air exchange in the top back on one side. Had to make the roof pitch pretty tight due to how wonderful our nasty winters are, need that snow to slide right off it, hes not done yet with the frame work nither. I know aint much and looks wierd but HEY gota do what ya gota do with whatever materials you can use from around the home and yard.. LOL!!!
THANKS HUBBY!! :hug: NOW GET TO WORK PRONTO!!!!:censor: :poke:
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More pics to come SOOOOOOOOON!;)
 
Looking good, hey when you get your bigger greenhouse you could move that one inside and use it as a hothouse. If you have wind you might try weighting it down at the corners with sand bags.
 
looks great! i'd love to make something like this, so make sure you take plenty of pictures!! are you following any plans or just kind of making it up as you go? also, are you going to have it heated?
 
Thanks everyone!! I will have more pics posted later on this evenning.

D_muscipula, we plan on anchoring it down with holes drilled in the bottom frame and long metal hook pins pushed down into the ground kinda like those things ya get with tents that have a hook on one end and then there long and ya push them down into the grown. Its gona be up against the back side of the house, if i desisde i ever want to movie it then i can just pull up the pins and go from there.. We dont have any place out here that gets full sun for more than 4 hrs and then the rest of the day its spotty between the trees.

droseraguy, thanks and thats the plan to help give people ideas on how they can construct a mini green house even if its outa crap scrap wood.. ;) :bigthumpup:

trek623, when it comes to hubby building things for me its always under my plans. :-D I draw a quick sketch and show it to him, sometimes he disagrees with me till i hit him in his noggin and tell him :censor: MY WAY OR ELSE!! :-)) What mama wants mama gets.. LOL!! Anyways he dont need a pic or drawing after that and just goes to it from memory and or what he thinks he can do.. Its all junk scrap wood that we had laying in the fire wood pile for the pit and whatever we had around the barn that we saved that we knew someday we could use.. I had rolls of plastic already from when we cover windows durring winter, hes doubling that all the way around the green house, my tables will have a layer of plastic protecting them from moisture. Im not sure about having it heated, i can just as easily move plants that dont go dormant back into the house and the ones that do go dormant will either stay in the green house and i will end up using a small heater just to make sure the temps dont get that bad to where it will kill them off or they will be moved to the barn. I will however have a small light in the green house. If it comes down to it i can always improvise and hang lights above the plants, i gave that much thought befour even getting this built.. Gona find a small fan to also use for days when i need it..

I will update this evenning...
 
:-( :-( Well today turned out to be a real drag, just after we got all the tools and everything outa the barn to get to work on my green house, we managed to get the door finished, and the venilation window completed sure enough boom bang it started lightning and it has been down pouring ever since, its so black out right now it looks like its 10 pm at night.. :0o: Had some hail and big gusts of wind to.. Will try again tomarrow to get this mini GH done we wont have time to do much work on it friday or saturday got drag races to attend.. I will get pics posted as soon as we get more work done on it..
 
Something to think about is the plastic covering on your greenhouse too. Check with any local large grower of flowers under poly and see if they are replacing theirs anytime soon. You can pick up what they discard for free and it's still a better quality than what you might find in a Lowe's or Menards. It doesn't hurt to ask !
 
Tracey. Yes just to warn you. Using the drop cloth plastic from Lowe's will only get you one winter out of it before it needs to be replaced. It is not UV stable and the sun will destroy it. I know because that is what I use on my GH. I did that on purpose because I have to remove walls in the summer to keep the temps down and because I was still prototyping the GH plans too. Now also how are you planning to heat your mini GH? I have a 12 x 16 GH and it has double layer plastic with an air gap the size of a 2x4. I use two 1000 watt space heaters to keep the temps around 50F. I am telling you my electric bill hates them running all night. With you being up in Mich with the temps getting colder than here in Ga, I would be almost betting your going to heed a butt load of heaters or your just not going to be able to keep the temps up with just plastic. Also the structure will not be able to handle any snow sitting on it. The plastic will rip. Even the thickest you can get from Lowe's.

I don't mean to be a downer, but I don't want you to get your hopes up and loose plants. What minimum temp do you plan to keep? Do you plan to use it all winter? Do you get snow and how much?

Recycled wood is not a problem, I used that to build my GH too, in fact I recycled my deck for a lot of the wood, and I even have a floor in the GH because if it! He he he I used the decking to make a floor.

Greenhouses are great, but simple plastic houses are not good for extreme cold climates if you planning to use it all winter.

It would be good to ask local GH's and find out how they are heating and what they use for glazing. I would be willing to bet you do not find many plastic houses that far north. I would be willing to bet they use polycarbinate as it is stronger and better insulation.
 
Some good points Josh, but there should be plenty of GH in Mich. that use poly as roofing. It's expensive and only lasts them about 3-5 years but would still have plenty good life left for Traceys use. The polycarbonate and glass are gonna be expensive and when you have another hobby called Drag Racing I'll bet her hubby will opt. for the used GH film !

As far as the heating goes your right $$$$$. What are your winter plans Tracey ??
 
Oh no doubt on the film, but It is just going to be a Booger to heat in the winter. It is for me down here in GA and we don't get snow. Plus it sag regardless of how steep you have the pitch. So unless she is going to have a blower inflating the two layers of plastic, she is going to need something to support the plastic. I use chicken wire on my roof to keep water from accumulating on the top layer because no matter how tight i pull it it always stretches a little and I have rain accumulation. In MN all the greenhouses I have seen used polycarbinate as glazing. I did not see any with the film because it does not hold up to snow very well, but there might be some there. Who knows.
 
More pics to come tonight of what we got done so far, hey guys i will get to your questions as soon as i get back home tonight got a club meet at 8pm and being the president I HAVE TO BE THERE...:-D Will be back soon and with pics..
 
*Barracuda_45* said:
You got that right maneatingmoo, i dont think we have had one solid week of sunshine yet. Half our races have gottin canceld due to flippin rain, its getting to be a real pain in the arse.:censor:
Click to expand...

unless you're like me and love rain because it can save me like 50cent everytime it rains.
 
Ok JB to answer some of your Qs, one most the bigger plants that have to go thru dormacy will be put in the barn, 2 the smaller ones will of course go to the fridge, the ones not going thru dormancy will be brought into the house like normal. Now as far as the plastic goes trust me i have used this plastic since i was younger for many things and yes i agree with a load of snow sitting on it its not gona be able to handle it, one with the pitch and 2 with us using a tarp over the green house and 3 with me cleaning the snow off it i wont have a prob with snow load, Im not gona worry bout using a heater in there for the winter because the plants are not gona be in there. Remember this is just a make shift GH for now next yr hubby is gona build me a big one with the right materials to with stand the elaments and make it thru winter and will will be able to heat that one, there are many green houses/nurseries up around us, they use some sort of heavy heavy duty milk white plastic or whatever ya call it hubby and i will be finding out what that is or we can go with a diffrent sort of GH and build it with these see thru panels, i dont know what its called but hubby does. Right now this is just a quick toss up GH for me to use till winter. We are gona paint the frame work outside and still have alot to do yet, We have lived and delt with the super harsh winters up here for more than 25 yrs and we know what we can use and what we cant use. Im glad you brought up all these points of view and thanks for the awsome input i apreciate it JB, you to droseraguy..;) :bigthumpup: You know im open to any and all input, but we didnt have much to use and i wanted something built to get me thru the rest of the season even though our season is getting shorter quickly. :-( JB you and i and droseraguy will get together on something for next spring and maybe we can all chit chat about building the right GH. Sound good guys?? Total investment in this so far guys about $10.00..

Heres what we got done today we finished plasticing the 3 sides and i still gota trim the plastic from the inside window frame so that it dont look crappy, yes its not the best job but when your in a hurry it happens that way.. :blush: :blush: Anyways we still gota finish the front get the door on and get the tables built and get the GH put where i want it to go. Still gota get the paint tomarrow and the rocks plus the ceder. I will get more pics tomarrow and then once everything is in place and finished i will take more pics..
And droseraguy, hubby would definately go for the drag car befour investing more into my projects.. LOL!! Unless i get out the whips and chains then its another story all together... :rookwoot: :D
anyways heres whats been done so far, looks like crap now but wait till we are completed..
air vent side,
DSCF3182.jpg

back and other side,
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