I have a greenhouse!

A neighbor of mine for the last decade has had a beautiful glass Janco Camellia greenhouse in his backyard that sat in the shade, used as storage. I lusted after it. I asked him every time I would see him if he’d sell it to me. He’d say “maybe one day.” Yesterday was that day!

It was originally 10’ x 16’, but he set it up as 10’ x 12’6." Has an automatic ridge venting system and a nice door and a big commercial roof mounted electric heater. Vents and fans are both connected to thermostats, which will be nice. $500 for the greenhouse, $1,000 for a nice gravel pad with pressure treated lumber for the greenhouse to sit on.

I took out the glass from the sides, front and back and made a bamboo and duct tape stabilizing system to minimize flex. Then I gathered friends and family and the neighborhood kids and we just picked it up and walked it down the street to my house. Piece of cake! I’m off to the races.

Already bought a fig, shopping for a lime tree. Just had to share, I’m so excited!

63 Likes

Awesome!

2 Likes

I liked the team effort on the move, looks like an awesome greenhouse

8 Likes

I’m really jealous …

:-)M

1 Like

You are zone 7, will you be able to over winter tropicals in it or is it not feasible to heat it in the dead of winter?

We’ll see about heating it. On the steep part of the learning curve right now in terms of what temp I need for what.

t’s got a 220 volt roof mounted heater with a thermostat, so I can keep it 100 degrees in the winter if I want. But all glass is crap insulation so it would cost an arm and a leg. It’s in a very, very sunny spot, it’s super tight, and it’s oriented E-W so I will get lots of free heat on sunny days. I need to get some thermal mass in it somehow to even out day/night for the winter.

4 Likes

Some folks put bubble wrap on the inside of their glass to help insulate for the heating season. You might look into that, it is supposed to help.

1 Like

Yes I have greenhouse envy! Looks great!

2 Likes

I’m looking into twin wall poly panels to replace some of the broken glass panels. I only broke 5 out of 46, so I felt like I did pretty good. But why not replace them with something with a much higher R value, right? Well, cost. Those panels are crazy expensive. You’d think they make them out of spun gold or something. I think that’s why most stick with glass. Cheap and lasts and looks great.

1 Like

Check out local commercial GH supply and plastic cos in your area. The retail price of Polycarb panels is outrageous at the specialty shops for sure. One guy I know says he got his twin wall at a big box store, special order. Around here, it ends up running about the same as double wall glass panels per sq ft at the GH places. And if you can find used pieces big enough for your use, they can be very cheap. But if used be sure you find out which is the outside face, it has the UV coating.

No doubt, glass makes for a nicer looking GH inside and out (used sliding door panels on one of mine). But poly seems to last longer (tool handles, hail, etc) and is better insulated.

I’m green with envy :slight_smile:

Congrats!
Will you mostly use it for overwintering tender perennials or grow winter veg? I’m lucky to have inherited a 30x50’ unheated hoophouse and there is nothing like picking some carrots or a fresh salad in January when its -10F outside!

Looks like I’ll be doing a bit of both. Will take me a year or two to figure it out I’m sure. Been learning the hard way how expensive it can be to have a greenhouse to fix up!

1 Like

I think this is so late that I am here. Well, I am Dennis and just lurking around here and got this to start with you all.

2 Likes

Does your greenhouse keep out the varmints?

1 Like

It keeps out big varmits, but unless you are careful it can facilitate little ones (e.g. aphids, scale, whiteflies, etc). I love it though, and am very glad I have it. I kind of can’t wait for it to cool down enough that I can start using it again.

2 Likes

Congrats :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

So jealous, too, but really happy for you. How are things going these days? A long time ago in another life, bought a house that was owned by a landscape guy. Had glass greenhouse with water. Glass broke over time with snow load not removed fast enough. Used water barrels and other forms of passive heat, with not much success. Eventually took it down.

These days, new life, looking for a freestanding greenhouse somewhere in the $500-1000 range. Neighbor of mine had one, deteriorating, asked multiple times like you, then one day it was gone…

1 Like

Well, the learning curve is flattening a little! I didn’t know some very basic things at first, like how much it would cost to heat in the winter (a lot) and that despite all the vents it is pretty much useless all summer due to it getting too hot. I do love it though, and it’s such a delight being able to muck around in the soil year-round. Snow is no problem for mine, but high winds are. When the greenhouse vent is open in summer, severe storms sometimes blow out glass panels. Four different times now I’ve come home to find panels missing or destroyed. Once a panel blew out so hard it flew about 30’ from the greenhouse and smashed into a million pieces onto my driveway.

Here’s what it looks like [Greenhouse in the snow. - YouTube](http://these days). I can pick cucumbers, egglplants, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce pretty much all winter. I am picking lemons right now, and will have limes by this time next year. It does an amazing job with starting seedlings in the spring. I’ve gone from doing a few dozen plants indoors to several hundred outdoors. I’m super glad I have it.

7 Likes

I used to keep a greenhouse in Texas for all my sub-tropicals, I’ve been wanting one, but a more permanent greenhouse does come with it’s challenges as you’ve noted. If you have a poly covered GH, the nice thing is that for the summer you can totally open it up and let it vent out, keeping down mold and insect pressure that tend to build up over time long term otherwise.

Greenhouse design and use is almost all centered around season extension, so truly growing fruit year-round or growing sub-tropicals in one is not that well documented except by a few very dedicated hobbyists.

I would love to build a sunken or earth tube GH, but I have a feeling the cost and unknown challenge factor will be pretty high. It’s on my list to build one day though!

3 Likes