Zone 5.
I’d like to buy a hobby greenhouse and have been searching online.
The size I want is about 6 X 10 to 8 X 12.
I’ve looked at Palram, Growspan, Rion, and Riga.
It gets windy around this part of northern Ohio in the spring and fall and I’m wondering how a hobby greenhouse would do.
Anyone got any advice?
The local housing authority was rebuilding the ghetto apartments ablut 10 yrs ago. They had a community garden and greehouse.
I asked them if they were going to rebuild rh greenhouse (several polycarbonate panels were broken or missing and when they said they were going to bulldoze it... I volunteered to take off their hands.
End result is I habe an 8x12 wooden framed greenhouse with polycarbonate panel windows.
I have learned several lessons the hard way.....
Feel free to send me your questions as they arise.
I love in an area with many tall evergreen trees and the gray months can get windy (ignore my Texas location setting. .thatvis for my future planned retirement.)
If you’re wanting free heated space for activity a low thermal mass attached greenhouse is great!
https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sunspace/sunspaces.htm
I can sit buck naked in mine after 2 - 3 hours of sunshine even when the outdoor temps are in the teens.
Not much good for plants though as they get too warm in the day and too cold at night.
We own a Palram brand. 8 x 12. $1,200.00 plus some expense for additional gravel. Labor was free; Beau and me, LOL! Beau made a gravel pad for it, and he staked it down about 2 feet into the ground.
Wind has done two things: one day I forgot to close the roof vent and we got a 45 MPH wind from the East, which is rare for us. We sited it because our weather/wind always comes from the West! Took the roof vent right off and bent it up but good. Still need to replace it, though Beau made a wooden cover for that ‘hole in the roof’ that I take out in the Spring - but I also have to be sure I don’t have anything beneath it that isn’t flood proof. ;)
Then, this past fall - same problem, but with the lower panel in the left-side door. Beau hunts from July through November, so isn’t home much. I patched it up with a sheet of styrofoam and some Duct Tape. It’s held all winter. I have the panel, and that wasn’t cracked or bent, so when it gets a little warmer, we can easily fix that.
Otherwise, it hasn’t blown away, though it easily would were it NOT staked down as well.
We added shelving from scavenged cat-walk aluminum on cinder blocks. I can add another layer of shelves if need be, but haven’t needed to so far.
All in all, I love having it. :)
Here is what we did-it was a prefab kit- One side is the sunroom with a table and chairs for coffee or tea-hot even in winter when the sun shines.
The other side is for starting plants - But it’s often too hot during the day, and too cold at night. Ya gotta regulate it. We were going to put in an automatic thing to open the vent, but first crack out of the box, the wind blew the window off and now that leaks.
Inside the GreenHouse:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3667189/posts?page=17#17
ANOTHER view of Greenhouse:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3667189/posts?page=65#65
Here’s what we should have done:
Pic of Back Porch idea
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3603640/posts?page=20#20