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.
When you are sure of the site, orientation, style, size and choice of materials, you can get down to making a design. As the saying goes, ‘Well begun is half done’, so the more you plan, the better your chances of success.
For a beginner with a green thumb, you might do well to go for a small inexpensive greenhouse. You have to strike a realistic balance between ambition and feasibility! You might just want to go the whole hog and set up an elaborate greenhouse with a variety of plants with different needs, not realizing that plants would need individual care from you. It is not a good idea to go in for a wide variety of plants with different needs in terms of watering, ventilation, temperature requirement or lighting. Begin small with only a few plant varieties that have similar needs. You can always graduate to a wider range of plants and a bigger greenhouse when you have got more hands-on experience. This way, you move one step at a time. So, losses would be minimized as would disillusionment!
It is good to remind yourself every now and then that the greenhouse has an artificially maintained environment and that you are actually fooling your plants to grow in seasons and months when they normally would not. So, you can stretch the fooling part only so much, you cannot close your eyes and fight nature head on. You can extend growing season, you can start seeds early, but if you are thinking of growing tropicals in the middle of winter, that would be unrealistic because most plants need their dormancy to complete their natural life cycles. You can over-winter your tropicals and get them to come out of their slumber earlier with your greenhouse.
Take your time in deciding on each facet of greenhouse construction. Do not hurry through decisions, do not take impulsive decisions and most importantly, do not make uninformed choices. Greenhouse construction should ideally begin when you have addressed your personal requirements, done substantial research in minimizing operating costs and taken precautions to think of contingency plans in case of emergency – power outage, storms, pest attack, break-out of disease and so on.
With more experience your expertise and understanding will slowly build and you can think of experimenting with greater confidence.
