Last end of May, we put a small greenhouse in. And I do mean small – it’s 6×10′ – but it works for me. I never dreamed I’d ever get one of these. I used to think about it then put it away because: too expensive. My house was filled with, as my child’s friend say, my jungle. I had put all of my cacti outside for the good weather and I put up a shade cloth to help acclimate them to the sun and while we were at work, winds caught it, broke it loose on two sides, and it knocked almost everything over. My awesome husband suggested a little greenhouse, surprisingly. But he’s my enabler, what can I say?
So the mission began. We are learning as we go, I am going to try and share what I have learned. But also keep in mind that I mainly have cacti and euphorbia in there. All different types. Some of them are happy with me, some of them are not. But we are figuring it out. Over winter, I have also kept a hibiscus, tradescantia, and a couple of other random things that will hopefully go outside once it is warm enough.
Choosing a Site
For me, this was a no brainer. We have a house that is built into the rock hills with another story up top. It’s always been very noticeable that down by the house, on the side we enter at, the wind is much less than on top of the hill or anywhere else. The house does well blocking a large portion of wind. And it’s right outside the door. Even in bad weather, I can pop out the house door and right into the greenhouse; the right wall of the greenhouse is approximately 1 foot from the exterior wall of the house (we’ll discuss this later). One issue I have seen a lot in some greenhouse groups is people lamenting that their greenhouse came crashing down because of wind or too much snow on it. This is always a possible concern, but the chances are smaller for me. In a more windy place or somewhere where I cannot easily control the effects of weather on the greenhouse, I would likely have to choose something more durable/stable. You should also consider how you might be anchoring your greenhouse down, what can your chosen site support?
Choosing a Greenhouse
I searched all over. I read reviews and I compared. Fact of the matter is, I cannot afford one of those beautiful custom built things that comes delivered to you on a big truck and then is set up by a crew. And that’s okay, I ended up with what works for me. I finally chose a Polycarbonate from Lowe’s, sort-of mid-range of everything I was looking at, this one in particular: VEIKOUS Aluminum Greenhouse 6-ft L x 10-ft W x 6.4-ft H Gray Greenhouse. I really wanted to make sure that it had an actual door on hinges (as opposed to a sliding door) as I felt like that would last longer and have less problems overall. I also wanted a roof window and not one on one of the sides. It was a plus that you can choose which roof panel you put the window in and I chose the side facing away from the house and right in the middle. As for the walls, it’s probably not an issue really, but I also wanted one that was clear/opaque and not green. Finally, I had to choose a size: 6×10 ft was perfect for my space. It does not extend past the front of the house and does not block the side door either, just perfect. Of course, you will again want to consider the wind in your space, if this area generally saw a lot of wind, I would need to go with something more heavy duty.
More later! The photo was taken after most of the kit was put up, but we still weren’t done…