Building the Greenhouse

Very nice. Excellent use of recycled material, and looks good, too.
I really like the way you modified the sink for potting.

-- the day you quit learning is the day you quit living.

I am so envious. I don’t have a greenhouse where we are now. The use of recycled windows is wonderful. Like Dini, I also like the idea of your sink.

Is it insulated at all for those cool nights in very early spring?

May I ask the dimensions of the structure? Where I live, we have to have a building permit if the structure is more than 100 square feet ... 10×10 ... 9×11.1 feet … etc. Did you have to have a building permit?

I truly like what you have done. Great job!

-- jroot

Wow!! Lots of hard work and imagination that has paid off wonderfully. As said above, wonderful use of recycled materials. Your greenhouse has so much character, love the way it looks.

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

I favorited this one! Outstanding job!!

-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit

Just love it! Beautiful work!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

this is top notch work!

beautiful, just beautiful!

-- Toronto, Ontario

very impressive and it’s so beautiful!!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Very nice structure. It will be an asset to your property and a lot of fun to use.
One suggestion:
Think about adequate ventilation. These glass houses get extremely hot even in mid winter.
The other suggestion is : Get some Remay cloth or shade cloth for the glass inside . You seedling will do better under diffused light and the temperature will be a bit less at mid day.

Bob

-- I want to believe in a lot of things but, in the meantime I have to deal with the truth

Thanks for your comments everyone.The greenhouse has provided me with many hours of enjoyment and has kept me sane in the winter! :)

Bob-I’ve developed a ventilation system that has worked quite well over the last 6 years. I’ve had the automatic roof vent right from the beginning and the doors and several windows all open for air circulation. With the addition of a 10” exhaust fan on a thermostat this spring, ventilation is finally perfect.

Around the beginning of May, I drop the bamboo rollup shades that are hung in the south facing windows. They are very inexpensive and the bamboo is spaced quite far apart. They wouldn’t provide much privacy in a home window but are perfect to provide the right amount of shade in the summer for the greenhouse.
I also began an espaliared apple tree as soon as the GH was finished. This photo is several years old. The espaliar is quite full now, fills the cable supports and provides more shade for the GH in the summer.

Some summers I’ve also tacked a translucent spun-polyester material to the rafters indoors for a shade cloth. The cloth is sold by Lee Valley as a row cover material but works perfectly as a shade cloth for the GH and is also very inexpensive.
By this time of the summer the GH is empty and I just leave the doors and windows propped open for the rest of the summer.

JRoot-As I keep the GH heated and running all winter long, it is well insulated with fiberglass batting in all the walls and the north side of the roof which is asphalt shingled. I also throw a huge MagniClear solar pool cover over the whole building from Nov to early April. It provides about 10-15* additional insulation. I caulk shut any windows that open and the west door with strippable caulking for the winter, available at any building supply store. Then I hang a thick bedspread over the west door wall (bought expressly for this purpose at the Goodwill). It eliminates any drafts around the west door as that is where the prevailing winter winds come from and I only use the east door for the winter.

Welll done. Thanks for your explanations. You have really thought it out to the nth degree. Good job.

-- jroot

Good to see you are a step ahead of me.

bob

-- I want to believe in a lot of things but, in the meantime I have to deal with the truth

this is great…really beautiful

Wow I just love that greenhouse.Every small gardeners dream.Congratulations on such a well thought out project.You’ve done an excellent job.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Wow, soo very nice!!!!!! I’d love to have a greenhouse like this! I might not ever come in the house again! lol

-- "Where flowers bloom, so does hope," Lady Bird Johnson

wow this is the nicest green house i have ever seen in wood construction… do u have any rough drawing for sharing…

I’m shocked I missed this post, especially since it’s such a nice greenhouse.. Good work!

My father had stacked up the old aluminum windows from their place when he changed out to new windows. Hoping I can get them from PA to KY and do my own greenhouse like this. Been planning it for a while, but they’re too big to fit right in the car.

Maybe I just need to pick up a hitch and rent a trailer. Long drive with it though.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

absolutely georgeous, i envy your talent, i cant even hit a nail straight….gorgeous….

-- south shore montreal, zone 5a, whish it was 9

Thanks again everyone.
Now that I work full time in the winter, the GH doesn’t quite get used a much as it did other years. I haven’t started any seeds yet this year. But I still keep it heated and have all my tender perennials and tropicals stored out there for the winter. I also have a collection of cactus some of which are starting to bloom.

Aside from the practicality of the GH and a major on my “wish list” your Gh shows character, its simplicity is perfect and I think you did a fantastic job of it…..............inspires me to do the same!!!!

Might you be so kind to explain how the other part works, the lower area with just two leanto type windows…....what do you use that for and when do you use it?

You got some really nice plants!!!!

-- Central northish Ontario

The smaller unit with the “lean-to” covers is a coldframe. It is a woodframed unit covered in polycarbonate greenhouse material. I was fortunate to find it in a refuse pile behind the college greenhouse when I was taking the Horticulture Course. They let me drag it home and we did some major refurbishing.

It is used for “hardening” plants off, that have been moved out of the greenhouse and before they get planted in the ground.
Plants raised in a greenhouse are tender and not used to full sun, wind, extreme temp ranges, driving rain etc. This gives them a chance to gradually get used to outdoor conditions before being planted. I can move them out and control when and how much the covers are open for a week or so and then kick them outside when I think they are ready.

I keep some plants in there over the winter also…things in plastic nursery pots that I didn’t get around to planting that need some protection over the winter.

I think I’d live out there if that was in my yard!! So beautiful.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

You and me BOTH, MsDeb … just such a gorgeous place you have Wyndyacre. :-)

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

Did you use pre-fab windows or build your own frames? Tempered glass, or no?

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

GranT, I wish Wyndyacre would put more pics of her place, her gardens, etc. She has really developed her place into a show-stopper since she bought it. But she has dial-up and it takes so long to load pictures.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

Iris, your daughter’s place must indeed be a show-stopper just from the photos we have seen. Beautiful!!! You must love spending time over there with her (although the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”; because your yard is indeed a beautiful place as well!!). But totally understand dial-up and the frustration that goes along with it. Sooooooo, we’ll happily take whatever photos she posts. :-)

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

Scott…all the windows are salvage in their original wood frames. They came from many different sources and were collected for a couple years before we designed the greenhouse around what we had collected.

The south roof is old double-pane, sliding doors and the glass in them is tempered. The rest of the windows are just old, single pane storm windows.

Three sliding glass doors? That’s quite a find in itself and explains why you doubled the rafters in that area.

I’m hoping that I can save the aluminum windows from the old house and make use of those.. Just stuck trying to figure out how to bring them down.

LOL.. I just found your post over @ gardenweb while surfing for greenhouses made with reclaimed windows. Nice.. ;)

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

This is great. You are the kind of person we’ve been looking for. My husband would like to know how you framed in the windows on the roof, mainly how to seal them to keep them from leaking?

wyndyacre, what kind of foundation did you lay for the greenhouse? Having trouble figuring it out from the pictures. Especially when half the floor is brick and the other wood.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

wyndyacre, could you please answer about framing the salvaged door units into the roof? How did you seal them to keep them from leaking? My carpenter says he can bend metal to go between them and silicone it to them. Is there a simpler way?

The rafters supporting the windows are doubled up…two pieces of lumber side by side for each rafter. This provides wood to screw the windows to. Before screwing the windows down, a thick bead of silicone caulking was run down the whole surface of the rafter. The window is laid on this and screwed down. Then another bead of caulking is laid along the top of each seam, where the windows butt up to each other.

The ridge line of the roof has a row of asphalt shingles that overlap over the roof and windows. The bootom edge of the windows is flashed with metal flashing.

The roof has leaked slightly in a couple spots over the years….GH is now 7 years old. We just did a recaulking and staining of all the seams and wood last summer. Leaks disappeared.

I finally have mine complete. I love it. But, it’s too hot in South Mississippi to put anaything in it right now… Can’t wait till the fall. It’s my dream. Thanks, wyndyacre, for the inspiration. I lucked up on some windows from a house that was being torn down, and my son replaced three sets of sliding glass doors with french doors, so all I was going to have to buy, besides framing lumber was an entry door. Well, I went to dinner one Friday night and lo and behold the frame shop next door to the restaurant had replaced a metal 9-pane door with something fancier and had thrown the old one out to be picked up by garbage truck. I retrieved it and voila, my greenhouse was ready to be built. Still don’t have it stained, but I am trying to get that done in the next couple of weeks if the temp dips below 100 again… I’ll post pics when it’s finished.

I absolutely love this green house! I hope you don’t mind but I would like to steal some of you ideas when we get around to building me one after our move.

-- A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

Yeah, that bums me out too. Seriously, anyone who wants a greenhouse should really be able to have one with a bit of effort.

Unbelievable! This is the best DIY greenhouse I’ve ever seen. That includes mine, which I just completed out of recycled windows.

http://rubicongreenhouse.blogspot.com/

a greenhouse is always a sweet kick start to a Canadian Garden.

Its like gasoline

-- Central northish Ontario

That’s my idea of a perfect Greenhouse. Hope to do something very similar soon. What size “windows” do you have on top? Can you post a few comments on setting them into the wood frame.

Best Regards from

Aurora Ontario

-- William (Aurora Ontario)