A few years ago I built a little greenhouse on the back of our house. It was made with scrap 2x4, plywood, and polycarbonate panels. It was like 4x8 feet, only 6 ft tall.
I mostly used it for overwintering peppers, and other delicate plants that can't take our Canadian winters. It was heated with a small electric heater on an inkbird controller, just to keep it above 10C all winter. The greenhouse was quite leaky, so the heater ran a lot, and was consequently expensive to maintain.
I decided I wanted something bigger and better built. I started collecting old windows, then last weekend tore down the old one and started building the new one.
It's not quite done yet but it's functional now. It's now 10x7, 7.5 ft tall, with a proper door. There are two vent windows on automatic openers. There are also two windows inside that go into our basement, which I'll use to also exchange warmer house air in the winter.
Yes the roof is shallow. It's about 3" higher on the house side. So far with heavy rain there was no pooling issues. For snow, I overbuilt the roof and walls to handle the load, and also with it being heated all winter, it will keep snow from building up on the roof. I didn't want to go any higher on the house side as it's aready covering the bottom couple inches of our bedroom window, didn't want any more blockage.
The peppers and tomatoes in there now seem quite happy. The tomatoes are going out into the garden today, and a bunch of the peppers will go later in the week. I'll be keeping a bunch of peppers inside the greenhouse too, in 5-6 gallon buckets, to see how they do compared to their outside siblings.
I have a bunch of stone veneer leftover from adding a fireplace in the house a few years ago, I plan on putting that along the plywood areas you can see on the outside.
I still need to paint the inside as well.
New one:
Old one:
I mostly used it for overwintering peppers, and other delicate plants that can't take our Canadian winters. It was heated with a small electric heater on an inkbird controller, just to keep it above 10C all winter. The greenhouse was quite leaky, so the heater ran a lot, and was consequently expensive to maintain.
I decided I wanted something bigger and better built. I started collecting old windows, then last weekend tore down the old one and started building the new one.
It's not quite done yet but it's functional now. It's now 10x7, 7.5 ft tall, with a proper door. There are two vent windows on automatic openers. There are also two windows inside that go into our basement, which I'll use to also exchange warmer house air in the winter.
Yes the roof is shallow. It's about 3" higher on the house side. So far with heavy rain there was no pooling issues. For snow, I overbuilt the roof and walls to handle the load, and also with it being heated all winter, it will keep snow from building up on the roof. I didn't want to go any higher on the house side as it's aready covering the bottom couple inches of our bedroom window, didn't want any more blockage.
The peppers and tomatoes in there now seem quite happy. The tomatoes are going out into the garden today, and a bunch of the peppers will go later in the week. I'll be keeping a bunch of peppers inside the greenhouse too, in 5-6 gallon buckets, to see how they do compared to their outside siblings.
I have a bunch of stone veneer leftover from adding a fireplace in the house a few years ago, I plan on putting that along the plywood areas you can see on the outside.
I still need to paint the inside as well.
New one:
Old one:
