Hubby came in the house last night and announced he has the greenhouse all closed in, including doors and windows and the fans were operational and he just planted three seed trays, the first on our next venture. He had started the greenhouse last fall but cold weather and then a lot of rain prevented him from finishing it in time for our spring seed starting but it is finally done and he is thrilled and so am I. I am already planning on the salad fixings I plan to grow in there this winter. One of the reasons for having the greenhouse is we are going to be planting dried flowers this year and selling them at the farmers' market and probably on the web. We have experience with this because we owned a retail greenhouse business before and we raised dried flowers as well as annuals and perennials. The nice thing about dried flowers is that they are not perishable in the way that annuals and perennials are. If you don't sell them this year, you save them for next year, etc.

I just wanted to share a positive event with everyone here at this wonderful forum.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), May 26, 2000

Answers

Thank you for sharing that with us -- it is nice to hear of a project successfully completed!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 26, 2000.

I am SOOOOO jealous! Finally got my hubby to agree to build one, and we have the fiberglass panels (bought used, but in excellent condition), but he wants to finish some of the projects we currently have in progress before we start on it. Boo. Hope we can get it done before winter, so we can use it. About 25 years ago, or more, my father planted a climbing tomato in his greenhouse, and the thing got huge! It had bark on the stem/trunk, and grew up and then spread out over the ceiling, and grew more than a foot a day after a while. It was truly amazing. Got large, flatish tomatoes on it as I recall. They were just seeds my mom sent for from the back of a magazine for 10 cents. I have climbing tomato seeds now, but not sure if they will do the same thing. I plan to try them, though. Enjoy your greenhouse! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), May 26, 2000.

A green house --how fun! Well, when we don't see your name for while on the posts we will know you are in the green house!!!!!! ENJOY!!!!! Keep us updated as to what all you are doing in that green house now. I have a friend who has a commerical greenhouse. Of coarse with memorial week end --she has been really busy! When I have extra time I love to visit with her & play in the green house. I got her started on herbs, & carrying herb books, etc. When she has a question about an herb she calles me. She would love to be able to have the greenhouse for her own pleasure--but it is a family business for now! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), May 26, 2000.

Gelidus Virus!!(that's cool man in Latin...Anyone else here know Latin?) Anyway...have fun with your greenhouse. I'd better go, I'm starting to get jealous!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), May 26, 2000.

What fun you're going to have with it. Congratulations and good luck! Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 27, 2000.

I want one.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), May 27, 2000.

Cooool! A few years ago I built a small, 6'x8' greenhouse out of mostly recycled materials. It works for a hundred plus plants, no fan, and does have an electric heater to keep the frosties away in April and May here in Maine. It also is on skids, and doubles as a roadside stand, and triples as a covered shooting bench. (NOT at the same time, Algore fans!) But can you tell us a little more about your new greenhouse? I'd love to upgrade, but don't care to re-invent the wheel. "Another's experience is always good advice", said some sage, and it might have been me. Maybe not, but I'm certain it wasn't Despicable Bill. Anyway, great going, and give us more. I am especially interested in how I might get my wife to build me a greenhouse like yours! GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), May 29, 2000.

Brad, since you asked, I will try to describe it. Paul built it by attaching it lengthwise to the front of our stable. The stable is three stalls long and has a large tack room at one end. It had an overhanging roof that jutted out in front of the stall doors so the animals could come in under the rain before they went into the stalls. The roof on the front was then supported by columns across the front. Paul attached the greenhouse to these columns and made it follow the slope of the roof so it is like a mirror of the stalls. The greenhouse is 32 feet long and 16 feet wide and the slope of the roof continues from the stable and goes onto the greenhouse. It is kind of a half a greenhouse with the columns w/plywood nailed to them serving as a wall down the length of it. Kind of a lean to affect. He bought two by fours for the construction and he poured a six inch footing first which he put rebar in to to anchor it. Since it is also attached to the stable, it is very stable. (pun intended.) He then used the rigid corrugated greenhouse panels for the roof and in order to save money for now he just stapled plastic sheeting to the sides. We will eventually replace that with the panels as we get more money to put into it. We have so many projects going here that we didn't want to put all the money into the greenhouse. He built the interior shelves and benches from the board fencing we tore down from the front of our house. The posts became the legs and the cross pieces the slats for the benches. We had some left over patio blocks that he used for one of the aisles and he put landscape cloth down first and eventually we will cover that with stones. He put in three fans, one intake and two exhaust and he put vent holes under the eaves. Because we live in Virginia, overheating is the main problem. Since our last greenhouse was in New Hampshire I know what you are saying about heating rather than cooling but we have the opposite problem here. We are also putting up three shade cloths on the inside of the roof which we can pull out or wind up as we need it. We put a two hundred gallon water tank up on a rack and he collects water off of the stable roof and stores it in there and it is gravity fed when we use it. Extra water is then funneled into the garden with hoses by turning a valve once the tank is full. We plan to add another water tank eventually for more storage of overflow. He also strung up three overhead lights so we can work there at night. We will use some space heaters if we need to this winter. We should get enough sunlight to keep it warm enough in the daytime and just need some heat at night. We'll play that one by ear. I hope I explained it well enough to get the picture. I wish there was a way we could post pictures on here. It is hard to describe something in words.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), May 29, 2000.