Wife's greenhouse

[WesTex1]

In my opinion I would use a couple of heat lamps and that will be plenty of heat but I could be wrong, great job sir


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[Texas Grown]

Nice work.

[Beardedbuck]

That's pretty sweet work for sure!

[RifleBowPistol]

In my opinion I would use a couple of heat lamps and that will be plenty of heat but I could be wrong, great job sir


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The plan is to insulate it so it takes very little to heat. Would be great, if we could heat it with heat lamps.

[RifleBowPistol]

I have not had time to do anything with the wife's greenhouse, I started a new project, that I need to finish soon. But I have checked the temps in the greenhouse for the past three days. Three days ago, it was sunny and in the 40s outside, in the greenhouse, it was 74 degrees at 8:45 in the morning, it was sunny that day. Then next day, it was overcast and in the mid 40s again, the temp inside the greenhouse at 9:30, was 59 degrees. Yesterday morning, it was sunny, outside temp was 45 degrees, temp in the greenhouse was 73 degrees. I have not finished sealing up the doors or added then inner paneling to the walls or insulation. So the greenhouse is doing pretty good.

Those temps are with no heater in the greenhouse. The temps in our house have stayed around 68 degrees with the heater on.

[RifleBowPistol]

We did an extreme test on the greenhouse

We like the rest of the state, knew this weather was coming. So Friday, I went to Home Depot, looking for a heavy duty extension cord. Then some outdoor power outlet boxes. I found those easily. Then I planned one making a short extension cord, with two male ends. The plan was to plug the extension cord into the house. Then plug it into a short adapter cable, with two male ends. So I could plug it into a 115 V outdoor outlet on the greenhouse.

But I found a male flanged connector in with the extension cord plugs. So I bought that, installed that in the exterior power box. I drilled holes through a wall on the house side of the greenhouse. Then mounted the box, wired it up, then mounted another box on the inside of the greenhouse, and wired it up.

So we have power to the greenhouse, when needed. We put a space heater in there the Friday night. It only got down to about 45 degrees with the space heater. That heater, never has worked very well, you have to have your hands close to it, to tell it's on.

So Saturday night and Sunday we were turning on my propane heater. 20 minutes of running that, heater, would get it up to 75 to 78 degrees in the greenhouse. So we would turn it off and turn the space heater back on.

So for Sunday night we just had the propane heater on, set on low. Then the power went out twice early this morning. With no power, I could not turn the heater back on. Both times the power was out, for about 45 minutes. Both time, when the power came back on, I went, out to turn the heater back on. It was 40 degrees. Late last night till this morning, it was 10 degrees outside.

After the sun came up and the power went back off, around 8:00. I checked the temp in the greenhouse around 8:30, then again around 10:00. The temp, stayed around 55 degrees, inside. While it was 15 to 27 degrees outside. So the greenhouse is doing pretty good. Could be better. The Hardie Plank, is definitely not the best insulator. So I will eventually, put some type of wood paneling on the inside, of the greenhouse walls. That plugs some insulation, in the walls and then getting the doors sealed up a little better. It should do very well, with just a better space heater, in the future.

[RifleBowPistol]

Pictures of the big test.

[80transam]

Thank you for posting this, perfect timing. Wife wants one and I have been looking for solid ideas - good stuff

[RifleBowPistol]

So what I have found, after close to a week of this wonderful weather. Is when the sun is out, even with 15 to 25 degree outside temps. The inside temp is around 75 degrees, that with no heater on. At night, or when it's over cast, with the temps in the 27 to 30 degree range, with no heater on, the temps inside are usually around 39 degrees. With temps in the 27 to 30 degree range, with it over cast or night time. If I turn on the crappy space heater we have, it will get the temps up to 45 degrees inside. That thing does not produce much heat at all, the heating elements don't come close to glowing red, there is no fan. You have to put your hand directly over the heater, to tell it's on, that's after it has been on 20 minutes or longer. We are definitely going to be looking for a better space heater, so we don't burn through some much propane, when we really don't need that much heat anyway.
The propane heater, is a whole different story. It can be 10 degrees outside at night, I can have that propane heater on for 20 minutes and it will get up to 78 degrees inside. That propane heater is BA.
Even with the power getting turned off and back on, and off and then back on, all day and night. My wife's plants all survived this crazy weather.

Once I get the paneling and insulation on the insides of the walls, then seal the doors up better. This thing should keep her plants safe under any conditions we may possibly see.

[Right_wing]

I will be starting one soon. Thank you very much for all the time spent detailing the build. it looks really nice!

[RifleBowPistol]

I will be starting one soon. Thank you very much for all the time spent detailing the build. it looks really nice!

Thanks. Once I am completely done with it, is should look very nice and should be easier to deal with her plants.

I plan on making something I can hang all of her ivies with. Something like a round ring, with three or four small chains attached, that I can hang from hooks, screwed into the trusses. Last year, we were walking all over her ivies, when we went in there to check on the plants and to water them. So if I can get those and some of the others off the floor that would give us more room to move around.

Then I plan on putting some shelves along both walls. So we can get tomatoes started or other plants for a garden.

Then I made a cart for her huge pencil cactus, I used the bottom of a 55 gallon drum to hold the huge pot on the cart, since the cart is square and the pot is round. But the 55 gallon drum rotted out, it was partially rusted when I cut it up, so it only lasted about a year. I am going to make a aluminum pan to set that pot in, then put the pan in the cart. That plant is way too heavy and bulky to move, by picking it up. With that cart, we can push it around. I need to get that done, then put the ramp to the greenhouse back on the front, so we can move the heavier plants out, once it warms up.

Once I have all of those things done, I should hopefully be done with it. I hope to be done with it, sometime this summer.

[kmack]

How are your hollow greenhouse panels holding up? My Dad is getting started on a greenhouse build at their place in Utopia and he heard those panels can have issues within a few years (cracking, getting brittle, etc.). We've been looking for some of the corrugated fiberglass panels, but every place is out of stock on those.

[RifleBowPistol]

They are doing pretty good, except the panel my wife tried to clean stain off of, with acetone, it melted the inside layer. Overall it's holding up very well.

Last spring we had a storm blow through that blew one of the doors open and broke the frame of the door. That door was warped pretty badly to begin with, but then when it got blown open, it broke the frame of the door at the top, on the hinged side and the bottom on the outboard side. So it broke the door diagonally. But the plastic held up very well. I just made new doors for the greenhouse and reused the original plastic panels.

[RifleBowPistol]

Greenhouse update, the door to the south side of the greenhouse, or left side when looking at the front of the greenhouse, was warped pretty badly. I used a combination of the last of the treated 2X4s I had at the time and then had some very good condition non treated 2X4s in the shed. I chose to use those non treated 2X4s, instead of driving back into town to buy a couple of 2X4s. I was afraid that using two different types of 2X4s would bite me, it did, the wood shrank different amounts, causing the door to warp pretty badly. So we had been making do with the warped door, till I had time to build another door. Then last spring, we had a storm blow in with some strong winds. The wind caught that south side door, blew it open and broke it. So it was finished off, so I had no choice but to find time to build a new door.

Well then my wife and I talked about staining the greenhouse, insulating it better, finishing the inside walls, and adding some more shelving. So off and on for the last few months, I have been working on insulating the walls, then putting wood paneling on the inside of the greenhouse. Then made some window sills, to make it look cleaner and give her places to put decorative stuff. She has old bottles and cans she put out in the greenhouse to decorate it. Then she has gardening tools, potting soil, ECT. out there.

I used some cedar that measure 5 1/2" wide for the window sills. Then used some wider cedar panels in all four corners to make corner shelves, so she could put larger decorative stuff or plants in the corners. Then I added a short shelf to both rear corners of the greenhouse. Then found we had an old cedar shelf, in the shed that was not being used, so I put it up on the back wall of the greenhouse.

After I got that done, my wife went in and stained all of the wood, except for the floor, we will do that this spring, after we move the plants back out. The at the same time stain the outside of the greenhouse, finally.


I don't know if I posted it up here, but I tore down the original ramp into the greenhouse and made a new one about 4 ft. longer, I think. I don't remember how long the first ramp was. My wife complained the ramp was too steep, that she would slip trying to walk into the greenhouse. So that ramp got torn apart and I built a new one.

Then after finishing the inside of the greenhouse, I took the old doors down, and started to make new doors. I found the studs that made up the door opening were warped pretty badly, on the left side of the door opening. A bit over 1/2" of bend, or warpage. It did that, in about 14". At the bottom of the door opening, it measured 6' 1/2", 14" up from the bottom, it measured 6'. I decided to tear that wall back apart, removed both inner and outer panels. Then removed both studs on that side of the door opening, and replaced them with some very straight 2X4s, it took some time to find 2X4s that met my new standards. But I found some. Then attached some 2X4s running horizontally to hold them in place and hopefully keep them from warping also.

I then checked the studs that made up the other side of the door opening, those were warped about 1/4", I took that wall apart, inside and out, then had to take the front end of the north wall apart inside and out. I removed the two horizontal 2X4s that attached the door opening studs to the corner stud. Then I borrowed a buddy's pipe clamp, and pulled those two studs over, till they were straight. I then cut some new 2X4s to go between the door opening studs and the corner stud, and screwed them all together. I then put all three sections of wall back together. I love torque head deck screws, they are a world better than any nail I ever tried to use or remove.

I hung both doors/new door frames. They fit much, much better than the first doors. I decided not to run a 2x4 diagonally for support in each door, like I did with the first doors. know that was a contributing factor in the first doors warping so badly. Probably mostly because of the two types of 2X4s. But I decided this time I was going to use air craft cables strung from each corner diagonally, with a turnbuckle installed in each cable to pull tension on the door frames, and or adjust the doors to square them up, if they start to sag.

After installing the cables, I stained the new door frames and all of the new wood. Then transferred the plastic panels from the old doors to the new doors. I like the new doors much better than the old doors, they are sealed up better. Then my wife's work she did staining the inside of the greenhouse made it look a whole lot better than it did before. It should look great once the outside is finally stained.

The last thing I did was finish the making the doors, I finished those last Friday night, as that first cold front was blowing in. Afterwards, we spent about an hour and a half moving plants into the greenhouse. After we got all of her plants into the greenhouse, again it was obvious, I should have made this thing at least 20'X20'. At the time, the area where I built the greenhouse was the biggest place we had to put a greenhouse, and then where the oak trees were located, I could not go any wider than 10', since the two oaks on the south side of the greenhouse, have since died. They were half dead, when I started building the greenhouse, the drought we were having killed about 20% of our oaks. Any that were not very healthy died. So now, those two oaks need to be removed, along with the oak tree that is behind the greenhouse. I don't think I am going to tear this greenhouse down, thinking about maybe making it larger, extending it back and then somehow it needs to be a about 10' wider.

She has or had a monster pencil cactus, it was in a huge clay pot, the pot alone is heavy, but filled with dirt or roots, it gets very heavy. But then add about 400 lbs. to 500 lbs. of pencil cactus, and it was a royal pain to move. I made a cart to put the pot in, to move it in and out every year. That pencil cactus was named the monster, because it was huge, at least 12' tall, probably more like 13 1/2'. We have talked about trying to get the monster out of it's pot, then break it up and put it in multiple smaller pots, so it would be easier to move around. So this past summer we tried to get the pencil cactus out of it's pot, that turned out to be just as hard as I figured it would be. Turns out there was virtually no dirt in the pot, it was all roots that had formed to the shape of the pot. I wound up rigging up an A frame, with a hoist to pick the pot up off the ground, with the plant laying horizontally. Then got to work trying to pry the pot off of the roots. It took probably three, maybe four hours to get the pot off of those roots, but we finally did it without breaking the pot.

Then once we had it out of the pot, then I tried to cut the roots up into pieces to break up the multiple trunks of the plant. I started off with three different hand saws. My wife kept saying, "You can use the chainsaw, I don't care." Well I tried the hand saws for quite a while, then finally gave up and got the chainsaw out. Once I had the roots cut up in pieces, and we could see that it was a solid chunk of root, that I was trying to cut, I realized I would have been there a couple of days trying to cut that pencil cactus up into pieces.

After getting the pencil cactus cut up into smaller plants, it got repotted into I think five, maybe six large pots. That one plant was a hell of a project, that we avoided for years.

[Old Goat1]

Very nice. My wife's is 12x16.
We have had it a few years no. I have found a space heater give me a 12deg rise over ambient temp. Go ceramic with the space heater. Lasts 4 times as long as the old dairy barn heaters.
I also use a freezer monitor with 2 sensors that will alarm me in the house if the temp goes above or below set points. For ventilation I have a regular floor fan mounted in the gable with louvers. I wired it to a thermostat contactor that is used for attic fans. Comes on at 90deg. You can find them at lowes, HD. Also have a couple of hydraulic actuators that open top vents. You can adjust them to open with a thumb screw. Look for those at a green house supply company. During the big freeze I ran a propane radiant heater but would cut it off during the day. And it was very cold here.
Very nice job.