A few years ago I posted about the greenhouse we built at our place and how we used it. We moved to a new place last year, and really missed the fresh greens throughout the winter, so this summer one of my projects was another one.
I designed this one to fit the windows I got from a renovation I was working at this spring. All these windows were removed from a cottage and were just going to the dump, they’re only about 5 years old and worked perfectly for what we needed. Quite a bit of the materials were recycled from other projects, like an old lean too shed that I tore down and some leftover stone from a job I did ( I’m a stonemason so I have lots of stone kicking around ).
About the only materials that we purchased was insulation, soil and random odds and ends like wiring, receptacles etc.
Started with pouring a reinforced concrete slab with built in drain holes for where the raised beds were to be later built. They’re made if 4” concrete block that’s been parged.
Walls and ceiling are all 2x4 stick framed, with R14 rock wool insulation, and R6 styrofoam panels installed on that. There’s 4 windows that can be opened for ventilation, as well as two solar powered vents. I also added three 120v plugs at different spots for fans, a heater and possibly lights in the future.
We planted about 8 different types of salad greens and lettuces in September, and today picked our first bowl of fresh greens. Some of the lettuces are slower growing, so they’ll be another 3 weeks or so till we’re picking them, but once they get going we’ll be able to fill a large bowl with greens pretty much every day, all winter long. We’ve also got some peas, which are currently about 2’ tall and doing well, hope to get some fresh winter peas to snack on when it’s -30 outside!
We built a shelf above the raised soil beds, that we currently are housing a bunch of tropical plants that my wife will take to her new job next week, and in about late Feb to early March we’ll start our summer veggies from seed in pots there to transplant later. We also have a bunch of hanging baskets along the ceiling that my wife will start her flowers in as well.
The greenhouse has a small 120v space heater that is set to about 15C , and will only kick in a few times at night when it’s real cold out, but once the sun is up, it’ll get as warm as 40C if we didn’t open any vents, and even with the solar vents it’ll still get close to 30C, even if it’s -30 outside!
Nothing beats opening the door on a super cold, windy day to have your sunglasses instantly fog up, and that wave of heat and smell of fresh dirt hit you. If you sit there in a lawn chair with a beer in your hand and your eyes closed, you can pretend it’s July
Our latest greenhouse build, Year round veggies!
