DIY budget greenhouse - design & location.

[Vanisle_BC]

I want to design a budget greenhouse to build myself. It would be clad in 'vapor barrier' PVC. I already have one, 8 ft square, made with 2x2s connected by a kit of plastic brackets. The floor is wood chips and some plywood pieces over landscape fabric. The sidewalls are sloped which I seriously dislike. I want to build an inexpensive one from scratch, a bit bigger with vertical walls and pitched roof. Having said that, a range of options & possibilities present themselves. It would be nice to have a clean wood floor, possibly suspended but inaccessible to animals underneath. Also a strip of 'garden' along one side - maybe a raised bed over original soil, where plants like tomatoes & peppers could be grown, but not in containers. I'd also want a workbench plus shelves & storage space for potting soil, peat moss, seed meals small tools etc etc; and racks for dehydrating fruits & veggies.

It wouldn't have heating or piped water.

I wonder about location & orientation. My present greenhouse gets sun from late morning till sunset. Even before noon, with the door open, it gets unbearably hot inside. I've never tried to grow anything in it except seedlings in the cool of early spring. Is it a good idea to site a vegetable greenhouse where it gets less, and less fierce, sunlight?

I'd be interested to hear others' experience & ideas on the whole subject, but my project will have to be inexpensive - say $500 max and preferably less.

[digitS']

Do I understand correctly that you already have what might be called an A-frame greenhouse, VanIsle?

Perhaps, a "sunshed" would work for you.

I have something of a sunshed type. However, the entire south wall above the foundation was built at an angle to best allow as much winter sunlight as possible to enter the structure. It has a small furnace and was built over 20 years ago. It's interesting how plans change. The furnace has never been turned on before mid-March.

The structure has a wood-frame roof and north wall. Part of each east and west wall are also built that way. It is 9' wide so that there is a center bench with room to walk on both sides. I can imagine that the reason you do not like a sloping wall is for the very reason that I must be careful walking near that south wall so that I don't bump my head. If there was a short vertical wall of, say, 3 or 4 feet - a bench could be built there with storage space beneath it.

My center bench (about 30" wide) is partially shaded by the wood roof by May. It doesn't matter much because most of the plants are out of the sunshed by then, either in the garden or hardening off somewhere in the yard through daylight hours.

By summer time, about half of the interior is shaded by the roof because the sun is very high in the sky through summer days. However, the interior becomes very hot even with the door propped open.

Steve

[Vanisle_BC]

Hi Digits' - thanks for your comments.

My greenhouse is not A-frame; more like the shape of a mansard roof. Shallow-sloped side walls and a steeper pitched roof. It's made of 2x2s connected with a kit of plastic brackets or sockets that were popular on the market a couple of decades ago. All covered with PVC vapour barrier - very lightweight, very cheap. I seriously dislike using plastic but I can rationalize it when I must; another discussion for another time.

What I don't like about sloping sides: Although the base of my greenhouse takes up an 8ft width of real estate, there's only about 6.5 ft width at bench height, and at shoulder height a scant 5.5. And because the 'uprights' slope, you can't hang anything against them on a nail or attach 90 degree brackets to support a light shelf.

I see that you raise plants in your sunshed only until you are ready to transplant outdoors. That's what I do too, although in my imagination, If I had a bigger greenhouse with a soil bed I'd grow some of the more tender plants inside it; like tomatoes, peppers, maybe some summer heat lovers I wouldn't otherwise try. But I wouldn't heat it or provide piped water. Eliot Coleman has written a lot about winter growing in 'cool' greenhouses - very interesting and it would be fun to try some of his techniques.

But when it comes to the bit I may just build a bigger, vertical-wall version of what I have and keep doing what I already do, a bit more conveniently .

[digitS']

VanIsle, I have done both in the sunshed.

Here is a thread about winter growing from several years ago:

viewtopic.php?p=373381#p373381

The narrow bed on the south was filled with pepper plants one summer. They grew famously, as have 1 or 2 tomato plants. I have to say that it is nearly painful to go in and water or harvest on summer days. A very early morning job.

The sunshed is about 20 years old and will need some repair work on that south wall at sometime. I thought that it could be done piecemeal but realized that the entire south wall will have to be pulled down and be replaced. I'm not ready to do that! But, having plans for the piecemeal work kept me from using it during the off-season in recent years. Pulling out the benches is a necessary first step and a commitment. We will see if I do that in about a month from now ...

Steve