A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 Some Assembly Required

This is what the brown truck brought me today. Looks like my weekend plans are made.

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Cool, MS. Looks like your going to be bust putting it together and then again filling it. Have fun.
~Tina

Very cool...I love those brown trucks, everytime I see one on my road...I hope he is coming to my house and bringing some great surprise.

Now a delivery like that would make me be the Big Brown truck drivers best friend!

I think the brown truck drivers should be dressed in Santa Suits. They are about as close as it gets lol. Great greenhouse MS Can't wait to see what all you grow in yours.

Man, I remembered when mine showed up..
*alllll put together on the back of a truck*
I about fell over...

CONGRATULATIONS.......
Looking forward to hearing allllllllll about it,
and everything you do in it....
I am sooooooooooo excited for you.....

Okayyyyyy, first question, I have to ask...
Where did you get it from??????

And what base are you using for it?????

I think the brown truck went to your house instead of mine!!

Are you sure he had the address correct?

LOL LOL

Hi Weezie13,

I got the greenhouse from yardiac.com

I am in the process now of putting it together. Our lot is on a hillside, so level ground is at a premium. I have a small deck out back where the greenhouse will be located. This might not be ideal because of no ground contact, but I think I can add some insulating material (not quite sure what kind yet) to help with the heating etc.

Once all the parts were unpacked, I look at the directions. The say, "This is a multi-part assembly. Allow 180 minutes to assemble from start to finish." My math tells me that's 3 hours. Well, I'd honestly pay a hundred bucks to sit and watch somebody put this thing together in 3 hours. I've got a little more than a day in it now and it's about half up. I hope to finish it today.

I do think that I'm going to really like it once I have it together. It's clear polycarbonate with double doors, eight roof vents and two back vents. I'm looking forward to starting my tomatoes and peppers in it and experimenting to see just how many things I can kill trying to grow them.

I was able to get my little greenhouse going this weekend. I still have some things to do to it. But for the most part it is ready.

I have been meaning to get back to this Ooops..

That green house is the best...
Wish mine was that one..
You will have a ton of fun in there..
**I have..**

I know learning, for me, in the begining was
long and had to pay attention to the weather,
allllll day... *don't have a heater or automatic venting system..*
but I enjoyed the learning process and is funnnnnn..

I can not wait to hear alllllllllll about your adventures with it.. really!!!!!

Weezie - have you started up any seeds in yours yet this year, or do you need to wait til it warms up a bit since you don't have a heater?

Are you kidding???????

I don't even think about it until the end of March time beginning of April.. really....
Even with the mini greenhouse's inside the
bigger one...
It was 4*'s here this morning...
I have nooooooooo heating..
Got my eye on one but it's $178.00 :p

Day time I'd probably could stretch it..
but never for over night temps without heat.

The greenhouse is up (finally). I have a heater and a controller for it, but I'm still doing some sealing around it to shut off the outside air. Have lettuce planted in it, but I also have lettuce growing in my cold frame, so that's no big deal. I got some greenhouse tomato seeds last week and planted them already. They are Buffalo and Presto. I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about either variety, but if I kill them by starting them too early, I will have learned something. Also plan to start some flower seeds soon to see what comes of that. This will be an interesting experience.

Ooh~Ooh, I hope we get to see pictures???

You're very~very lucky to have a heater in it..
You've written you have a controller for it??
Explain all to me once you figure it out??

My question would be, if you heat in during the night and then comes the day,
*when the sun is bright and HOT* do you then, have automatic openers to your windows/vents to open, if it gets toooo hot?

And I take it came with a heater, correct?
How many wattage or btu's or whatever they would call it for the heater...

Hi Weezie13,

I'll try to get some pictures in the next day or two.

The greenhouse didn't come with a heater, but I bought a small Dayton space heater (supposedly recommended for this size hobby greenhouse) and the controller. The way the controller works is that you plug the controller into the socket and then set it for the temperature you want the heater to come on at. It cycles the heater off and on to maintain the temperature you selected.

The greenhouse has 8 top vents and two end vents. None of them are automatic. The controller I bought also can be rewired to control a fan. In other words, you reverse the wires and the controller turns the fan on when the maximum temperature reaches the setting you selected. If this is easy to do, I'll just rewire it twice a year or if not, I'll probably buy another controller just to control the fan.

I think that greenhouse gardening (at least on a hobby basis) might be the equivalent of bass fishing. You need a 20 thousand dollar boat pulled by a 30 thousand dollar truck to catch 10 dollars worth of fish. Right now, this year's tomatoes are going to run about a hundred dollars a pound. I think that might just be reasonable when you factor in the enjoyment I'm going to get from it. I'll try to keep you all posted from time to time on my successes and failures. I will probably be posting a lot of questions for those out there with some greenhouse experience.

The heating and venting for me was tricky to learn in the begining... *but I'm not heating mine, I was/am trying to build mine up to keep it warm over night...

I don't think you'll run into that problem with the heater, what I think might, emphasize might, is having too much heat, and venting properly...

I have that problem during the day when the sun shines realllllllly bright, it can get up to 100*'s *with no heater* so that's when the venting comes into focus...

So, I have to watch the sun, *and cloud cover*
and whether or not it will stay sunny or stay cloudy... to keep heat in, or vent it so I don't roast the baby plants...

I am laughing quite hard with that one..
Don't you know it and have hit the nail right on the head...
My husband says to me, "Why don't you just go to the store and buy tomatoes"?????? :p
It IS the enjoyment factor out of it, the excitement of growing something, and harvesting your crop/produce and eating it...
And there is nothing finer than a outside temp/in the sun tomato fresh off the vine..

quote:
"Why don't you just go to the store and buy tomatoes"??????

I agree Weezie:
It is the enjoyment factor, and then the excitement factor as those seeds then turn into seedlings and then produce the fruit of our labors that is rewarding us by giving us wonderful things to eat or look at or smell. And to add to that, compliments from friends, family & neighbors on our efforts.

You know I've always said,
"We have to be masochists, us gardener's"
Who in their right mind

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by weezie13:
<strong>starts a plant in springtime, do all that work to make it grow.. then stand back
"AND WISH FOR FALL TO HARVEST THE TOMATO?"

Here are some pictures of the completed project if you care to look.

Greenhouse Pictures

I have two tomato plants that came up today. (Started in the basement on a germinating pad.) They have no idea at all that it's January, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tell them. Hopefully by the time they figure it out, they'll be big enough to move to the greenhouse!

Looks Great!

It does Look gray.



Thanks for sharing the pictures!!!!

Man Mike, Very nice to meet you!!!!

You're a guy after my own heart when it comes to improvising and experimenting.....!!!
I love to be frugal.. and you've done an awesome
job...and experimenting is my middle name...

Great set up you have there....

(I didn't have any shelves either, and got an awesome deal on 6 of those zippered mini~greenhouse's..
so I put those in, start the seeds in those, and once it comes into warmer weather, I pull off the plastic covers and just continue the use of the shelves..

****Question???????????
Do you have a thermometer in them to know the temps?
I might just have to steal that idea...


Love the garbage pale composter...

**I have a nieghbor that put theirs, same concept of the bucket as yours, *but smaller holes* and they put them on two poles on either side, and put a metal stick like and it spins on it, like one of those compost tumblers...
***I really have to scoot over there and get a picture of it someday***

Walmart has a small thermometer that has min and max temps plus a reading for humidity. I bought one for about $6.

I will check it tonight and see how it is working.

Hi Weezie13,

I can't really tell that the "solar heaters" work well. I expected the water in them to get much warmer in the daytime than it does, so I'm not sure that they are much benefit. I'll look into getting a thermometer to see what the actual temps evening and morning are.

Oh well, if all else fails, I can always use them for......................trash cans!

The spinner idea for the composter is interesting. I might have to try that.

Mike

Please keep me posted on the temps..
I am very interested in your findings..
Realllly..
If I could just get some heat in mine, a couple
just 2 or 3 weeks earlier, is all I need...

What growing zone are you, did I ask???