Location of greenhouse????

[lesa]

Okay, now I have the bus stop/greenhouse and I have to decide exactly where I want it. It weighs 400 lbs. This will not be a good time to be indecisive. Dh might drop it on my head!! I am thinking it is important to be near electric and water. Also, the closer to my house the better. It seems like something I would need to be able to check on several times a day? I know a few minutes with my cold frames can make the difference between alive and dead... Maybe not so necessary with a bigger, ventilated space?? I would appreciate any tips!

 

[vfem]

South facing windows are a must... electrical and water is a must... so you have the basic ideas of what you need!

How about to get house some graph paper and make a sketch of the property, where vital things are, and make a little scale cut out of the bus stop/ green house. That way you can move around the paper until you see where it looks to fit well?! I like doing that with a scale of our yard I have. Also works great for our raised beds to do our rotation planting.

 

[patandchickens]

In large part it depends what you intend to do with the greenhouse -- what parts of the year do you intend to use it?

If the answer is "all or most of the winter", I would suggest here in the north that you mash it right up alongside the S wall of a building, under a roof overhang is ok, in a location where early and late sun are not blocked. You will be heavily insulating the N wall of the greenhouse ANYhow because no meaningful light will come in that way and much much meaningful heat will exit that way otherwise, so there is only gain, no loss, from having it against a building this way. The greenhouse can be opened up *and* covered with shade cloth and/or plywood in summer, if you are concerned about heat.

If OTOH the answer is "the earliest and latest parts of the winter, plus some of the rest of the year" either go with the above suggestion or just put it "anywhere" that is EASILY ACCESSIBLE IN UGLY WEATHER AND SNOW -- close to the house, sheltered a bit from the worst weather, with the door to the greenhouse neither in facing the NW winds nor gonna be buried by a drift coming off something else.

If you don't really intend to use it at all during winter -- although that seems somewhat unlikely to me, even if it is just used as an unheated chamber inside which to put tunnels or cold frames of spinach etc -- then put it anywhere it won't get blown over by summer storms or fallen on by a self-disassembling tree.

Wherever you put it, I would suggest a good foundation because you do NOT want it settling unevenly. Unless you are pouring a slab for it, I would suggest putting down a layer of hardwarecloth over the entire floor area before you set the greenhouse in place (or just after, before you put in pavers or gravel or whatever flooring you're going to have), as it will help decrease your midwinter vole-and-mouse problem. Rodents are sadly not stupid and can sense a free Florida vacation as well as the rest of us

Good luck, have fun, still totally jealous ,

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

BTW yes you will have to check on it multiple times a day thru much of the year, even if you pop for those automatically-operated vents. Even larger greenhouses overheat quite readily (or overcool if you opened manual vents and then went to the store and it clouded up or a cold front came through). Small ones like that, doubly so.

I know you did not ask but my two pieces of Free Advice here are as follows: 1) pack as much thermal mass in there as you can, preferably containers of water but rock or concrete is pretty decent too; and 2) consider the first 12 months of use to be experimental, i.e. don't get too attached to anything in there (AND it can be real educational to run it as a totally-unheated house for the first year so you can learn how it behaves (plus that avoids wasting heating $$ on plants that may die from learning-curve events anyhow ))

Greenhouses are great, but the less fancy you try to get with them, the easier they are to operate successfully

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[digitS']

. . . mash it right up alongside the S wall of a building . . . heavily insulating the N wall . . . EASILY ACCESSIBLE . . . sheltered . . . where it won't get blown over by . . . storms or fallen on by a self-disassembling tree . . . Pat

I like the idea of the gravel over hardware cloth, too !

Protect it from the wind as best you can!

Thermal mass is important but growing space may be more important. The "mass" may take the form of a concrete foundation wall and that insulated north wall. That won't be as good as something in the interior but it's better than nothing. I even make use of the space under the benches for plants but that area could be a location for water barrels, or something.

You may find it easier to care for during the winter than the spring when the sun is higher and the weather is so very changeable. Still, glass is poor insulation - even double panes. And, you are losing precious sunlight with any layers of supposedly transparent material that you put on.

And to quote someone (citation needed): "Good luck, Have fun." Yay, Lesa!

Steve

 

[sonjab314]

Mine faces north/south so the windows face the correct way. We screwed the fame onto 4x4s and placed it at the edge of my garden. The winds here get pretty wicked especially in twister season and it hasn't budged. I put a good grade of weed barrier down and covered that with mulch. I have not had one weed grow in the floor and if you spill a large amout of water, your floor doesnt get soaked. It is close enough to my house that if I choose to I can run a drop cord out to it should I need electricity. Mine is only 6x8 so I water moslty using my large watering can but the water hose is always close. Good luck to you. I know I enjoy mine.

 

[patandchickens]

Thermal mass is important but growing space may be more important. The "mass" may take the form of a concrete foundation wall and that insulated north wall.

Yup, put insulation on the outside and as much thermal mass as you can manage on the *inside* of the insulation, ideally for the entire N wall and foundation wall.

And to expand on what Steve said, you can support benches on barrels of water (and still have reasonable room underneath for growing lower-light things), or make raised beds with a foot or so of soil over top of <however much> concrete or gravel-stuffed cinderblocks or whatever.

Pat

 

[lesa]

Thanks for the responses, guys! I am so excited! I don't think it is realistic to expect to grow anything in the winter, out there. I imagine I will mostly want to use it as a replacement for my cold frames. I had wonderful luck with them- started everything except tomatoes in them- but they look awful!! Dh calls it my shanty town. I was thinking about using patio blocks for the floor. I tried the gravel thing under my potting bench- too weedy.
Since it has glass all the way around it kind of faces everywhere... It is very sturdy. It weighs 400 lbs- I really can't imagine the wind picking that thing up...
I think you are right about keeping it simple, Pat. I will certainly count this year, as an experiment. I say that about most of my projects!! I can see trying to grow some lettuce or something until November, and then again in March... The spinach is a great idea. Checking on it several times a day, is what I was imagining. So, I really don't want it out in the back 40!
It has been pouring today- so I haven't spent anytime outside. I'll do some measuring and pondering in the morning. But, I think you have convinced me-closer to the house, the better. Thanks, I really appreciate the input! When I get it moved I'll post some pics.