David LaFerney has made a great post on how to build a green house for $50 here http://doorgarden.com/10/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house
He also has a post on how to build a great door for it here http://doorgarden.com/11/building-greenhouse-doors and he also shares he experiances with his new greenhouse 6 months later here http://doorgarden.com/04/6-months-in-the-greenhouse
Enjoy!
You are already halfway through to owning your home greenhouse the moment you make the decision that you want one! Backyard greenhouses are no longer a rare sight, so you probably have seen one in or around your neighborhood. Plan a visit to a couple of greenhouses to get first-hand information on how to go about building a home greenhouse. Visiting and talking to local garden supplies owners could also prove valuable.
Ask questions about location, sun exposure, ventilation, humidity requirements, material for construction and whatever else might help you in getting the best value for money. When you have gathered all the needed information on building a home greenhouse, the next step is to finalize a design. It helps to keep the following considerations in mind:
With all the world wanting to go green, not because of envy, but as a lifestyle choice, you can contribute your bit by thinking up ways on how to build a greenhouse that is, well, green! Of course, when you decide to get a greenhouse of your own you are already making green choices and doing your environment and yourself a great favor. You might ask how. Apart from the obvious health benefits, having your own structure to grow crops of your choice with eco-friendly methods that do not alter soil chemistry by addition of chemicals such as pesticides, chemical fertilizers or fungicides, is a step in the right direction.
The framing you use to construct a greenhouse is not quite as important as the glazing material that you use. You can use wooden, aluminium or galvanized steel framing if you are particular about aesthetics. Wood is most durable in the long run. PVC is used in hoop houses for its ease of handling, low cost and flexibility.
For glazing, glass is the classic choice. You have durable tempered glass that is strong and suitable for use in greenhouses. Glass allows about 94% light transmission and is practically maintenance free. An additional advantage is that as you put it up in the form of panels, in case of damage you need to replace only the damaged panel. It is fragile to transport though.
Building with a design of your own may work for you provided you have done your homework well. Greenhouse construction revolves around a pretty much straight forward set of parameters no matter what kind of frame or glazing material you are using. Whatever your purpose in setting up a unit may be, greenhouse construction is basically done to control the environment for optimum plant growth, especially when climate and weather are not conducive for particular plants.
Building a hoop greenhouse has to be the easiest hands-on carpentry project you might undertake! It only requires you to draw up an easy functional design and a step-wise plan to get the structure up in a couple of hours. The catch is that you have to calculate with some accuracy the quantity of material you are going to need. If you have good math, that would help!
When you are on your first greenhouse mission, what you should do is to build a cheap greenhouse rather than one which requires substantial investment. Although building a greenhouse with inexpensive material like PVC and polyethylene needs you to have only very basic hands-on skill, you would still find it a challenge to meet all the requirements unique to your weather.
You can build a cheap greenhouse with PVC pipes for framework and some lumber for support at the base, the end walls and the doors. The lumber you use should be treated or painted. Schedule 40 one-inch PVC pipes can be used to make the ribs and the central ridge on the roof. Use the same PVC pipe to make purlins that run the horizontal length of the greenhouse on both sides. The height of the purlins should be at the half way mark between the central ridge line of the roof and the ground directly below.
If you have been wondering how to build a PVC greenhouse, rest assured that you can easily build one at a reasonable cost. One of the most types of greenhouses, it is much preferred for its affordability, functionality, and ease of setting up. You have to get down to some hands-on activity if you really want to learn how to build a PVC greenhouse.
You can build a PVC greenhouse with rebars that are driven into the ground at equal distances to act as the anchors for the ribs. You can directly drive the PVC into the ground and then stabilize the structure by attaching a wooden support all along the lengths. Another good way is to use wooden boards to make the base with and then attach the PVC ribs to these.
Building a portable greenhouse might be a worthwhile effort if you wish to prolong the growing season or start plants early. By definition, a portable greenhouse can be assembled and erected in a short period of time. It is a no-fuss structure that meets the fundamental requirement of a greenhouse – that of providing warmth, appropriate moisture, protection and controlled environment to your plants. In this context, building a portable greenhouse revolves around the right choice of framing and covering material, ease of assembly and storage.
The Greenhouse is a structure that is perhaps the most varied in shape, size, style, and appearance, of any that are used for horticultural purposes, and the contents are as a rule of the most heterogeneous character. Apart from the house or plants, the heating arrangements are generally far from useful, and on this alone much of course depends. As it is our wish to give only useful information combined with practicability, we shall treat the subject from the beginning, describing the way to stock various structures for the use of ameturs.
As all our readers probably know, a greenhouse is a rather costly building when puu up by a builder, as generally a lot of superfluous ornamentation is added to the erection, which, while giving a rather showy appearance to the house, tends to obstruct the light, and so reduce the value of the house for horticultural purposes. Ventilation is a subject of paramount importance, as on the method of obtaining this a very great deal depends ; in fact, we may say that more plants are injured from bad ventilation than from any other cause. Illplaced ventilators, and inaccessible swing sashes, are often 30ui*ces of continued annoyance and loss, and in a well-found house or conservatory should not exist, but still it often happens that for some caprice of the builder the ventilation is “badly arranged”; and as a certain consequence the plants suffer. The heating arrangements are the most troublesome of any, as in hundreds of cases some loudly praised affair which is well recommended by the vendor is purchased by the amateur, and before the season is out breaks down, and consequently entails the whole or partial loss of the stock of plants that has cost so much labour to get together. It is therefore the best plan to have a well-constructed affair at first, the cost of which in most cases not being much more than the cheap apparatus.
