| Project by wyndyacre | posted 115 days ago | 743 views | 3 times favorited | 14 comments |  |
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We built my 10×18 greenhouse 6 years ago mostly from salvaged windows, doors and other material. It took us a couple years to collect everything either finding items by chance or having friends donate “junk” out of their garages and barns. The GH was then designed around the best of what we had collected.
Construction began in Sept of that year, with the building being closed in before winter weather began and the final touches being finished in the early spring…just in time to start growing!
Many of the windows are the old storm windows from the old train station in nearby Sarnia, the south roof are wood framed french doors that were all sitting in a friends hayloft, the wooden half of the floor was a deck on someones home and the brick floor are discounted pavers.
We built the benches from folding table legs and 1×1 deck balusters, the potting table is an old kitchen counter unit that was painted and fitted with new hardware. The door beneath the sink was removed and a sliding bin built to hold ProMix. Plants can be potted in the sink and leftover mix sent down the drain to the bin.
I have electricity and a telephone in the GH. A 50 gallon barrel is filled by hose as my water source.
There is an automatic venting window in the roof, an exhast fan on a thermostat and an electric, oil filled space heater also on a thermostat. In the winter I cover the whole building with a clear Pool Cover, tacked to the building with strips of wood which greatly assists in insulating. Any walls that are not glass and the north side of the roof is also insulated with fiberglass batting.
The grow light shelving is used with heat mats to start seeds starting in Jan every year. I bought the unit used at a great price and tho I don’t actually need to use the lights since it is in a GH, it makes great shelving for using my heat mats on.
I held a yearly perennial sale for many years at Wyndyacre and the greenhouse was always jam packed with propagrating plants from Jan til the sale in May. I got a new full time job recently and won’t be doing the sale any more so will have more time and space to propagate material for myself now.
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14 comments so far
dini
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742 posts in 212 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 115 days ago
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.
jroot
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991 posts in 125 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 115 days ago
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
GrandmaT
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3182 posts in 373 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 115 days ago
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 perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b
Damocles
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805 posts in 349 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 115 days ago
I favorited this one! Outstanding job!!
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
Eklectic
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1455 posts in 295 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 115 days ago
Just love it! Beautiful work!
-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a
Gooseneck
home | projects | blog
190 posts in 127 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 115 days ago
this is top notch work!
beautiful, just beautiful!
-- Toronto, Ontario
MsDebbieP
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3775 posts in 495 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 115 days ago
very impressive and it’s so beautiful!!
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)
Bob
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647 posts in 243 days
hardiness zone 3b
posted 114 days ago
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 am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. Alberta Canada Zone 3A or maybe 3B
wyndyacre
home | projects | blog
10 posts in 120 days
hardiness zone 6a
posted 114 days ago
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.
jroot
home | projects | blog
991 posts in 125 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 114 days ago
Welll done. Thanks for your explanations. You have really thought it out to the nth degree. Good job.
-- jroot
Bob
home | projects | blog
647 posts in 243 days
hardiness zone 3b
posted 114 days ago
Good to see you are a step ahead of me.
bob
-- I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. Alberta Canada Zone 3A or maybe 3B
lulugardengirl
home | projects | blog
42 posts in 123 days
hardiness zone 9
posted 111 days ago
this is great…really beautiful
Bon
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1701 posts in 275 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 110 days ago
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
Daisycrzy
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18 posts in 333 days
hardiness zone 6
posted 52 days ago
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