Ideas/opinions for using kids' toys as greenhouse

I'd like to get some opinions for using children's playground equipment as a greenhouse.

#1:For example I have a very long metal triangle shaped swing set that we got for free. It's had a long and happy life as a children's toy (5 years with us and probably almost 20 years total!) but the swings are starting to break. The frame is still solid and sturdy so I was thinking could place it over a garden row and use it as a trellis in the summer and drape it with plastic for a cold frame in winter. Any suggestions to make it successful?

#2 I keep seeing this climbing toy at Walmart. It was $99 after Christmas but sold out and now it is $150. It's 5' tall in the center and 10' diameter. I did a little searching on the resale websites and found other versions, used, for $150.  I really like the dome greenhouse and I was wondering how well this might work for a top, like on top of a wall if I built a circular raised bed, instead of wood or pvc pipe. Any opinions about if it would work, or if it would be cost effective? The kids would get to play on it for a couple of years first, especially if I stay their swing set.

#3 What about using trampoline frames for greenhouse material? People always seem to be getting rid of old trampoline frames. I've seen them used as moveable chicken runs. I saw a YouTube video where a guy used one as a base for his pvc pipe greenhouse..

I want to build a wofati greenhouse but that is beyond what I can do at the moment so I'm trying to come up with ways to easily extend the season a little bit without spending a lot of money.

#1. I've tried the "swing set" greenhouse and wasn't pleased. The issue is that it's too narrow an "A" frame, so neither you, nor your plants have useable head room. However, I took a set similar to your picture, put the two sections side by side and put pipes on top connecting the two frames as a trellis. There's a picture posted here:
https://permies.com/t/111184/permaculture-upcycling/ungarbage/Free-Craigslist-playsets#910503
Mine was actually two identical sets I got for free and they were quite heavy-duty ones.  If you did similar, but joined them across the top with curved pipes I could see it working.

#2. I've seen people use similar. If you could score one second hand it might be worth it, but otherwise you might be better to purpose build out of PVC based on some of the videos you can find on the web. I like the idea of doing something like a key-hole raised bed that it would sit on top of, or at least some sort of a fairly vertical knee-wall. It's amazing how tall plants are. Hubby bent me pipes for a low tunnel over my tomato bed. They slide over rebar to hold them in place. I used hose clamps to hold the hoops, which are ~4 ft high, an extra foot above the sides of the bed and the tomatoes climbed out the top.

#3. Someone up the street recently made a chicken run out of a trampoline, so that's definitely a thing. I always thought using them to make a high tunnel would be really useful, but I suspect two things - a) some designs will work better than others, so do your research to find a style and diameter that lends itself to the job and b) I suspect it would be worth trying to score at least two identical ones, if not 3! Personally, as much as I love to not have everything looking like a square box, I think I saw the same video about using it as a base for PVC, and for all the increase in effort to cut panels to fit circular, I'd go for a regular PVC high tunnel myself - it's very high on my wish list. The trouble is that the PVC and the special material for covering greenhouses has gone way up in price and it is *not* worth skimping because it just generates a lot on non-biodegradable waste in a big hurry. I would equally love to build a glass greenhouse and avoid PVC and plastic covers entirely, but the largest we can build without meeting a bunch of codes is 10'x10' which is just not big enough to do the job. We already have some pipe and a heat-bending machine for PVC, so I can at least build 10x12 like our chicken shelters, but with a bit of modification and they're considered "portable" so can break the rules. See the picture - they really can move and we have to stake them down well if there's a wind-warning.

Jay Angler wrote:#1. I've tried the "swing set" greenhouse and wasn't pleased. The issue is that it's too narrow an "A" frame, so neither you, nor your plants have useable head room. However, I took a set similar to your picture, put the two sections side by side and put pipes on top connecting the two frames as a trellis. There's a picture posted here:
https://permies.com/t/111184/permaculture-upcycling/ungarbage/Free-Craigslist-playsets#910503
Mine was actually two identical sets I got for free and they were quite heavy-duty ones.  If you did similar, but joined them across the top with curved pipes I could see it working.

Nice! That's a great idea to join them across the top like that but with a curve..

Thanks for the other suggestions too!

Jay Angler wrote: the largest we can build without meeting a bunch of codes is 10'x10' which is just not big enough to do the job. We already have some pipe and a heat-bending machine for PVC, so I can at least build 10x12 like our chicken shelters, but with a bit of modification and they're considered "portable" so can break the rules.

I hadn't considered a greenhouse needing to be under a certain size to avoid permitting. I'll have to double check the rules for our county. 200sf is the maximum building one can build without a permit. I think it only applies to buildings with a foundation but better safe than sorry!

Oh and there is #4 possibility- A couple miles from me there is a nursery that hasn't been in business for at least 7 years and every time I drive by, I think what a waste it is to have those greenhouses just sitting there and not being put to use. I did some sleuthing and found out who owns the land but...
* I don't know what would be a reasonable offer for a large sturdy and expensive looking greenhouse frame that is just falling into neglect. Obviously free would be super nice 😜 but if they are willing to sell them for a price, then I don't know what would be fair.
*And I'm not sure how to approach the owners without looking like a stalker. 😂

There are places where used greenhouses are worth next to nothing because they are so much work to disassemble and move. About all you can do is look at what used ones are on recycle websites.  I'd have a close look at how they're designed and whether to take one, you have to take the set of 4.

Jay Angler wrote:There are places where used greenhouses are worth next to nothing because they are so much work to disassemble and move. About all you can do is look at what used ones are on recycle websites.  I'd have a close look at how they're designed and whether to take one, you have to take the set of 4.

Ok, thanks for that info! 😀

Jenny Wright wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:There are places where used greenhouses are worth next to nothing because they are so much work to disassemble and move. About all you can do is look at what used ones are on recycle websites.  I'd have a close look at how they're designed and whether to take one, you have to take the set of 4.

Ok, thanks for that info! 😀

If the owners let me have them for free in exchange for clearing them all out, I have enough gardening/farming friends in the area that I bet I could find people to have a big work party to take care of it and each family takes one... Well I'd better write a letter and just find out what the owners think, rather than daydreaming about it, and then take it from there.

Jenny wrote:

Well I'd better write a letter and just find out what the owners think, rather than daydreaming about it, and then take it from there.

Excellent approach! However, may I also suggest that you consider reading the book, "The Chinese Greenhouse" in your spare time also? Those green houses might be easily adaptable to a north bermed wall with the green house top and long side coming off to the south. I've read it and did a book report on it here:
https://permies.com/wiki/143395/Chinese-Greenhouse-Dan-Chiras
I think a *lot* of the concepts in it are really worth considering. When I get to my green house, it will absolutely have the north wall insulated even if I can't berm it, and my current idea will have at least half of the east and west walls insulated. In the cloudy PNW, we do need more glazing than many other areas, but we still benefit from insulation in key areas to help keep the plants a bit warmer at night, not to mention, some sort of thermal mass.

[quote=Jay Angler] ... may I also suggest that you consider reading the book, "The Chinese Greenhouse" in your spare time also? Those green houses might be easily adaptable to a north bermed wall with the green house top and long side coming off to the south. I've read it and did a book report on it here:
https://permies.com/wiki/143395/Chinese-Greenhouse-Dan-Chiras
I think a *lot* of the concepts in it are really worth considering. When I get to my green house, it will absolutely have the north wall insulated even if I can't berm it, and my current idea will have at least half of the east and west walls insulated. In the cloudy PNW, we do need more glazing than many other areas, but we still benefit from insulation in key areas to help keep the plants a bit warmer at night, not to mention, some sort of thermal mass.
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I am familiar with the idea though I haven't read the book. I have read "The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse" book Andi think it explains a lot of those ideas really well. Thermal mass and an insulated north wall, with the insulation wrapping slightly around to the east and west would work really well for me.  The thing that drives me crazy is that we have the perfect North-South slope that would be awesome to dig into and build a greenhouse except that is exactly where the septic drainfield is. 😢

Speaking of greenhouse books, I read Eliot Coleman's "Winter Harvest Handbook" this winter and it is surprisingly lessened my desire for a greenhouse because almost everything he was growing I find grows really easily for me in the late fall and into the winter with little to no protection. I have my raised beds against a southeast wall of my house and that keeps things growing an extra month or more than the rest of my gardens. So I now have some different goals for my greenhouse plans...
#1 Swingset idea- something I could easily set up over my tomatoes and peppers and eggplants to keep them alive an extra month.
#2 Dome climber- grow smaller solanaceae plants in narrow raised beds around part of the edge and maybe a hardy citrus in the center (a little cramped but doable with pruning and training)
#3 Use the trampoline material to build a frame over my raised beds that I could put plastic on in the fall and remove in the spring and grow things even in January... Though this isn't so pressing for me anymore since I feel I should just dedicate that space to stuff that grows well without extra protection like leeks, kale, broccoli, and carrots, etc.
#4 Use the frame and set it up in the "field" where I grow stuff in the ground and use it to extend the growing season a bit in both directions.

So much depends on your goals, needs and weather pattern. I'm *really* close to the coast, so we get the night on-shore cooling effect that makes it really  hard to get tomatoes to ripen, let alone peppers. My family *loves* tomatoes and sweet peppers. They're not so keen on cabbage. We have a fly that attacks carrots, so they're not so easy to grow here, although I thought I'd try some really early ones this year. I'm also surrounded by a lot of very tall trees, so my sunshine is limited. Fruit grows really well, but like you, I'd love to have a heat trap to grow some citrus.

For me the benefit of a greenhouse would be that I could supplement the light for 4 hours split between early morning and dusk to get just enough that plants keep producing. I'd design a system where the lights can slide out of the way when the sun's shining!

#1 Swingset idea- something I could easily set up over my tomatoes and peppers and eggplants to keep them alive an extra month.

If you design it well, you might be able to move it every 2-3 years so that you can plant in different soil. If it will require partial disassembly to move, I suggest you splurge on Stainless nuts and bolts!  

#2 Dome climber- grow smaller solanaceae plants in narrow raised beds around part of the edge and maybe a hardy citrus in the center (a little cramped but doable with pruning and training)

It would likely make a big difference in actually getting more ripe fruit.

There are a lot of people in my area doing winter harvest, but I just don't get enough sun. Eliot Coleman has said somewhere that the "growing" happens in August and Sept, and the green house just "holds" the plants until you want to use them. Doing that without a greenhouse on my land would have most of the crop rotting from the November rains. High on my hit list after getting deer fencing built/re-organized, is some sort of root cellar. That would likely do more to extend my season for crops I could harvest before the rains. That's another huge discussion here on permies, as there are different needs for different produce and some shouldn't be stored in the same area or at the same temperatures.