Greenhouses & Garden Sheds

Inspiration, Information & Step-by-Step Projects

Pat Price, Nora Richter Greer

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781616739195
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Orticoltura

Advice & information for choosing, designing & building a greenhouse or potting shed

Few outdoor structures are as rich with romance and promise as greenhouses and potting sheds. Inspired gardeners appreciate them for their utility as well as their charm. Even homeowners who are not avid gardeners enjoy the unique ability of these structures to lend a taste of English countryside to any property.

Greenhouses & Garden Sheds contains hundreds of beautiful photographs featuring the finest examples of these structures. It presents clear choices and design features in a way that inspires as it educates. Readers will find a wealth of information to help lead them through the design and selection process. The book also includes step-by-step photos and instructions for a host of building projects involving and related to greenhouses and potting sheds, including start-to-finish construction of a lovely example of each type.

CHAPTER ONE

Greenhouses

ENTER A GREENHOUSE AND YOU’VE CROSSED THE THRESHOLD of an extraordinary place. You’re greeted by a profusion of flowers and the rich textures of foliage. Sweet fragrances mix with the earthy smell of soil. Diffused light shines through the misty air. In the silence, you can almost hear the plants growing. Traffic rumbles by unnoticed, and the distractions of the “real” world seem miles away.

Once the province of the wealthy, greenhouse gardening is now practiced by almost two million American homeowners, according to the American Horticultural Society. You’ll find greenhouses on city rooftops and tucked into suburban gardens. No two are identical, even if they’re constructed from the same kit; the contents of a greenhouse make it unique. Some house vegetables (tomatoes and cucumbers), some shelter tropicals (scheffleras and dieffenbachias), and some are home to flats of germinating begonias. A select few protect rare orchids and plants imported from exotic tropical locales. But they all serve a common purpose: a place where gardeners can lose themselves among green and growing things.

GALLERY OF GREENHOUSES

Custom designed for author Amy Goldman, this greenhouse is completely at home on its upstate New York farm. Goldman documents the beauty of fruits and vegetables in her books Melons for the Passionate and The Compleat Squash.

The sun’s warmth prompted the thermostatically controlled roof vent to open on this freestanding greenhouse, which is almost lost among a profusion of flowers and greenery.

A gothic-arch-style greenhouse rests on a brick knee wall in a lush garden. Inside, shelves and a paved brick floor provide a showplace for plants.

In Sussex, England, a brick wall covered in “Penelope” roses fronts a Victorian greenhouse, which could be easily missed by a passerby.

Painted a wild-grape color, this garden greenhouse is hard to miss. The structure is small in scale but large in attitude.

Once you catch the greenhouse bug it’s hard to keep from getting carried away. This roomy, L-shaped greenhouse rivals some commercial models in area.

Interior doors and wall frames offer the option of tacking sheet plastic to separate a large greenhouse into different climate zones. Note the lovely floor created by setting a combination of cobblestones and pavers into a sand base.

The intense humidity of a greenhouse in full bloom, coupled with the brilliant colors, creates a tropical environment that can be a genuine treat in colder seasons.

A beautiful custom-tile floor is the highlight of this gorgeous greenhouse, although one could argue that the swing-out double doors are equally inviting.

CHOOSING A GREENHOUSE

Greenhouses can take many forms, from simple, three-season A-frame structures to elaborate buildings the size of a small backyard. They can be custom designed or built from a kit, freestanding or attached, framed in metal or wood, glazed with plastic or glass. Spend a little time researching online greenhouse suppliers and you’ll discover almost unlimited options. Although it’s important to choose a design that appeals to you and complements your house and yard, you’ll need to consider many other factors when making a decision. Answering the following questions will help you determine the type, style, and size of greenhouse that suits your needs.

How Will the Greenhouse be Used?

What do you plan to grow in your greenhouse? Are you mostly interested in extending the growing season—seeding flats of bedding plants early in the spring and protecting them from frost in the fall? Or do you want to grow flowers and tropical plants year-round?

Your intentions will determine whether you need a heated greenhouse. Unheated greenhouses, which depend solely on solar heat, are used primarily to advance or extend the growing season of hardy and half-hardy plants and vegetables. Although an unheated greenhouse offers some frost protection, it is useful only during spring, summer, and fall, unless you live in a warm climate.

A heated greenhouse is far more versatile and allows you to grow a greater variety of plants. By installing equipment for heating, ventilation, shading, and watering, you can provide the perfect environment for tender plants that would never survive freezing weather

How you plan to use the greenhouse will also determine its size, type, and location. If you only want to harden off seedlings or extend the growing season for lettuce plants and geraniums, a small, unheated structure covered with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheeting or even a cold frame—a glass- or plastic-topped box on the ground—might be all you need. If your intentions are more serious, consider a larger, more permanent building. A three-season greenhouse can be placed anywhere on your property and might even be dismantled in the winter, whereas year-round use calls for a location near the house, where utilities are convenient and you don’t have to trek a long way in inclement weather.

The Cost Question

The cost of a basic freestanding greenhouse can range from the very economical (plastic sheeting and PVC hoop frame) to the surprisingly expensive (custom-designed and built). It all depends on your tastes and aspirations, and on your budget. The following real-life samples will give you a sense of the cost variations (remember, though, that prices can vary widely, depending on features and accessories you choose to include):

A 5-ft. by 5-ft. pop-up mini greenhouse from one mail order source sold for $165.

A small, 6-ft. by 8-ft. greenhouse with rigid polycarbonate panels sold for $795.

A more spacious 8-ft. by 17-ft. rigid panel kit with motorized windows sold for $4,970.

The most elaborate polycarbonate kit greenhouses we found, available by mail order, sold for $7,900 for an 11-ft. by 24-ft. structure.

For a custom-designed and built greenhouse of the same size (11-ft. by 24-ft.), one homeowner recently spent $23,000—a price that could have been much higher for a greenhouse designed with ornamental metalwork or stone foundations.

A 20-ft. by 30-ft. hoop kit using plastic sheeting and PVC tubing was recently available for $1,600.

A full-featured lean-to greenhouse kit, 10-ft. by 10-ft. in size, sold for $5,724.

The ideal greenhouse has flexibility, combining some built-in features (like the shelves in this greenhouse) with ample open spaces so you can adjust the way the structure is used as your needs and interests change.

Attached to the exterior wall of the house, this lean-to style greenhouse has all the features for complete growing success: running water (A); electrical service (B); a heated plant-propagation table (C); a heater (D) for maintaining temperatures on cold nights; ventilating windows (E) and sunshades (F) for reducing temperatures on hot days; drip irrigation system (G) for maintaining potted plants; a full-length potting bench (H) with storage space beneath; paved flooring (I) to retain solar heat.

Do I want a Lean-to or a Freestanding Greenhouse?

Greenhouse styles are divided into two main groups: lean-tos, or attached, and freestanding. Lean-tos are attached to the house, the garage or an outbuilding, usually on a south-facing wall. An attached greenhouse has the advantage of gaining heat from the house. It’s also conveniently close to plumbing, heating, and electrical services, which are required to operate a heated greenhouse.

On the downside, lean-tos can be restricted by the home’s design: They should be built from materials that complement the existing structure, and a low-slung roofline or limited exterior wall space can make them difficult to gracefully incorporate. Siting can be tricky if the only available wall faces an undesirable direction. In cold climates, they must be protected from heavy snow ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Greenhouses
• Chapter Two: Garden Sheds
• Chapter Three: Greenhouse & GardenShed Projects
• Conversions
• Resources & Credits
• Index
• Copyright Page