Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Building a greenhouse over the garden area!

Lets say you have a garden 15 by 20 and you decide to build a wood A frame greenhouse over it! The greenhouse will just have its plastic over it 2 months before the last frost. In pa. here I would start it in the middle of march. I would start my cold crops first then in april I would put less cold weather crops like peas spinach. In may I would put in tomatoes and peppers but leave the plastic on till june then take half the covers off. I would also start climbing bean on the north wall with chicken wire over the whole A frame wall!

Has anyone tried this! I have a areas I am thinking of doing that with this year. Everything would be planted right in the ground or in raised beds inside the greenhouse. In the fall around October I could extend the season 2 months by putting a plastic covering back on! The shell of the greenhouse would be all that is up all summer!

PaulF
Greener Thumb
Posts: 910
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:34 pm
Location: Brownville, Ne

Interesting idea. My wife has given me permission to use the space she now uses for herbs and other plants as a greenhouse area. It is three raised bed gardens 4'X8' with total area of about 10'X20', perfect for an 8'X16' greenhouse. My plan is to have a concrete floor, electricity, heat and water so the plants rather than being planted in the ground would be container grown.

I will have to look into a removable or sliding roof so it would be sort of like your plan. It may take me a while to get this done, so I hope yours goes up this year and you can report back.

Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Things grow better in the ground and a few do grow fine in containers. It ashame to waste the good ground you have now by covering it with concrete. I put chicken wire all over the outside of the greenhouse and have all kinds of vine crops like runner beans! I also plan to have about 100 gallons of water in the new one to keep the chill off in april!

User avatar
digitS'
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 3925
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:10 pm
Location: ID/WA! border

I set up a 9' x 20' high tunnel each March and keep it up until sometime in June. It goes over 2 garden beds which have an excavated path between them. The tunnel is about 5' tall, using 15' pvc pipes, 1/2" set over rebar driven in the ground. Corner stakes hold baling twine running crosswise over the top of construction grade plastic film. A framed door and window provide ventilation and access.

It is in a very protected area of my backyard but gets plenty of sun. Nearby is my 9' x 20' greenhouse. Only in the last two winters have I pulled the benches out and grown anything in the ground in there. It has a natural gas furnace but that's the only automation. Both of these structures have been used for almost 20 years ... altho' the tunnel is disassembled for 9 months of each year.

The tunnel has collapsed a couple times after heavy March snowfall. Luckily, there wasn't much going on it. I've never tried to keep it up all winter.

The last 2 years, I've set up another tunnel in much the same way but attached to a shed. It is in the neighbor's yard and I pass through the fence to enter the shed. It sits over 2 framed beds and is 8' x 12', counting the shed. The pvc hoops are 20' long, 3/4" pipe. The plastic film is pulled off in mid-May.

This year, the neighbor says he does not want to use his small garden so I've said that we can plant it as a flower garden.

Steve



Return to “Greenhouse Forum”