My mom's friend had a
greenhouse that I loved when I was growing up. It wasn't fancy, or super big. It was your basic
greenhouse with opening windows starting about waist high, a glass roof and a wooden bench on 3 side. I always wanted one. I live in California now ( grew up in Washington state) so a greenhouse is a luxury, not a necessity.
a few years ago my daughter bought me a small walk in green house for my birthday. The metal kind with the plastic cover. I enjoyed it very much. unfortunately the sun ruined the plastic cover in one year. I built a cheap
wood frame around the metal and attached plastic. made a door and a window. It lasted 2 to 3 months. I had used heavy plastic, but not greenhouse plastic. I was trying to figure out a fix that I could afford, because, even though I didn't need it, I really enjoyed it. My son said to me lets build a real greenhouse. I said this one was fine for my needs, and I just couldn't afford it. Not to mention I don't know hot to build a greenhouse. He said he would pay for the materials and knew
enough that we could build it.
One weekend he brings home the materials to start the greenhouse. (a couple of years ago) It was so exciting. The frame went up super quick. It looked good to me, and I enjoyed working on the
project together. He wanted quite large and I reeled him in. It's a luxury, so keeping it small was less expensive, and
should be faster to build. It ended up being about 6 1/2' long, by 5' 10" wide and 6 1/2' tall. My son got a used aluminum window from my nephew, so we made a place for it. The plan was to use the highest quality greenhouse plastic we could afford. The dream was to use old windows, but I guess that's a lot of peoples dream, because I had a very hard time finding any, and the ones I did find were quite expensive. About the time I was going to order the plastic my sister-in-law comes over and seeing my greenhouse offers me some glass no one wants at her work. I'm so excited, now this is more like it. Once I get the glass, I have a new problem. It's not regular glass. I think it's the stuff you use for making
shower doors and such. It's like a 1/4" thick and patterned on both sides. It's all different sizes and cutting it is going to be a major problem. In the mean time my son and I make the roof frame. He wanted to make it straight up from one side and slope down to the other wall. I didn't want that kind of roof I wanted a A frame roof. I got my way, but I didn't get much help. I learned a bird beak looks very simple to do when watching on youtube, but I totally suck at it, no matter how hard I tried. I paint the frame, and it sit this way for quite some time. I'm trying to figure how I'm going to cut the glass, and life gets in the way, and a project I don't need keeps getting put on the back burner.
At some point I realize I'm not going to have enough glass, and put up corrugated steel on the bottom 2'. Then my nephew offers me a set of sliding glass doors. At first my son didn't want to use them because he was sure they weren't safe, but they had the safety glass mark. They made a great roof, almost like it was made for them. My nephew ended up giving me 3 sets of glass doors. One set for the roof and one set on the south and one on the north side(I removed the steel, because I didn't need it). My youngest son rigged a circular saw with a tile cutting blade I bought on clearance years ago and a tube attached to a garden hose. He put the glass on foam and I was able to cut the glass. It wasn't perfect, and I would be soaked by the end of cutting, but it did the job. I made 8 small window frames. Two that can open. There are lots of mistakes, but I'm very proud of them just the same. My sister-in-law bought a glass door for her other sister's house at habitat for humanity. She didn't want it so I got that too. At this point it's finally starting to come together.
My husbands very tall and my kids are all tall, so my oldest son likes to tease me. The space under the window frame was a large square and he asked if that was my hobbit door. So of Couse I decided to do just that. It was a challenge, but a great deal of fun.
The inside needed shelves. I started with waist high and a shelf between that and the ground on the south side and one waist high on the north side. They are made out of 2X4's on the south and 2X3 on the north (I was going to use 2X3 for everything, but my son felt it wasn't strong enough) and 1/2" hardwire cloth. I wanted another self above, because it seemed like a lot of waisted space, but I'm short and didn't want to have to use a stool. The solution was a narrow lighter built shelf on a pully system. My son was sure it wouldn't work, but it works very well and I'm so glad I did it. I can get 3 10/20 trays on them perfectly. I made one for the north and south sides. My son bought
pea gravel to put in the bottom of the greenhouse. I used weed cloth around and under the greenhouse. It sits on a small cement foundation. It started out just the 4 corners, but was problematic to fill the space from the ground to the bottom, so we ended up filling that space with cement.
A lot was learned on youtube and by trial and error. If your a builder I'm sure you would shake your head and say these people did not know what they were doing. I learned my son can do so much more then I knew. He also is amazing on a weekend project, but not great on a long term project. This caused me a great deal of frustration, but it also pushed me to do things I never would have guessed I could do. Everyone in the family lent a helping hand now and then, and that meant a lot to me. Sometimes you look for a solution and someone else sees it right away. I was trying to figure out how to fill the gap between the roof and the frame, and it occurred to me a 2X4 would fit, and it did. I was trying to figure out how to attach them and my husband said I should make a handle and not attach them and then they can be removed for ventilation. I did, and it works great.
There is one last thing that needs to be done. I was waiting for my son to do it, but I may have to recruit my younger son to help me finish it. The peek of the roof needs to have calking, and the metal needs to be installed to shed the
water down and protect the frame from rain. Other then that it's done, more than two years later, and too many plan changes to count. I use it to over winter peppers successfully for the first time. I started a bunch of summer veggies/fruit/herbs in the house and took them to the greenhouse once they had a second leaf. I even started a bunch of seeds. It worked great and I especially enjoyed spending time in it on the cold rainy days.
I'm incredibly proud of my greenhouse flaws and all. It's not at all what I dreamed of, but it's exactly right.
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