Birch - DIY Greenhouse: How to Build a Walk-In, Ventilated Greenhouse Using Wood, Plastic Sheeting & PVC

Table of Contents

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DIY Greenhouse: How to Build a Walk-In, Ventilated Greenhouse Using Wood, Plastic Sheeting & PVC (Greenhouse Plans Series)

Copyright 2013 by Taylor Birch

Notice of Rights: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, altered, copied, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. If you would like to share this book with another person, we would appreciate if you would please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Trademarks: The trademarks, photos, website links, products and services mentioned in this ebook are copyrighted by their respective owners. Limits of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty : This ebook is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this publication, the author does not assume any responsibility for errors or omissions. This ebook has been distributed with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering technical, legal, medical, accounting or other professional advice. The author shall not be liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, financial, or commercial damages, including, but not limited to, special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Use of the instructions and suggestions is at your own risk. It is your responsibility to educate yourself on the us of use of equipment and safety gear and to make sure that your activities comply with all applicable laws. Thank you for your attention to this message.

How to Use this Book

This Book begins with an Introduction with two short chapters that explain the problems we have growing vegetables in our cold, high elevation climate and how our simple greenhouses solve the problem.

The plans for the 8'x10' Wood & PVC A-Frame Greenhouse are in .

• Section II is divided into 13 short chapters () that correspond to the 13 Major Steps to build the greenhouse.
• Each Major Step (Chapter) begins with the goal and an explanation for that step and lists the smaller steps necessary to complete the major step. Example Steps 3A, 3B and 3C.
• Each of these smaller steps are then explained in detail and when necessary are further broken down into simpler tasks.
• Pictures and/or Diagrams are at the end of each Step.
• Since this book has been designed as an ebook, the Sections, Chapters, Figures and Tables are hot-linked so you can jump anywhere in the book to find what you need. Use the back button on your Kindle to return.

I apologize in advance, because for many of you, this will have too much detail. Many of you will be able to look at the pictures, the diagrams and the cut list and get right to work. I am hoping this will be some people's first DIY construction project so the extra detail could be helpful.

is the reference section that includes

• Results we've had from our greenhouses
• Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
• Additional Notes
• Additional Information relevant to the greenhouse
• Greenhouse related resources

is a list of 93 Figures and 6 Tables.

Time Estimate for Building the Greenhouse

I have estimated the amount of time it will take to complete this project. Some of the "Major Steps" could be completed in 5 minutes (Step 1; Site Selection) and some steps are optional (Step 9; Make Your Own PVC Clamps & Step 13, Optional Removable Side Panels), so you may not do them at all.

Building the Base Frame (Step 3) for example, requires no cuts and only consists of screwing four boards together to form a large box. Many of you can do this in less than 5 minutes, but a first-timer may take 20 or 30 minutes.

Depending upon the slope of your land and how many large rocks have to be moved, leveling the Base Frame (Step 4) may take only a few minutes for some, but will take hours for others. I had to stop everything to rent a hammer drill to break up a boulder that I could not pry out of the way. Except for going to the builder supply store to buy the materials, leveling the frame was the most time consuming step for me.

It may also take some only about 20 minutes to build the PVC A-frame section (Step 9) of the roof while others may take an hour or more.

The time estimates for cutting and attaching the plastic sheeting (Step 11) can also vary tremendously depending upon if it is windy or not and whether or not you have a helper.

For most, this project should be completed in a weekend. I estimate that those experienced with construction will complete this greenhouse in 4 hours. I can imagine many first time DIY projects taking 14 - 16 hours; still "do-able" in a weekend, barring any major problems like I had breaking up and moving a large rock.

Good Luck

If you are reading this, I probably don't have to convince you to grow your own vegetables. So Good Luck with building your greenhouse. I hope this book and the greenhouse design will be useful and that you will soon be enjoying fresh home-grown veggies that you grew in your own greenhouse.

Section I: Introduction

The Problem - Short Growing Season & Low Overnight Temperatures

We live at about 41 North latitude and at 5,700 ft elevation. The minimum night time temperatures here average 40.9F in June, 47.1F in July and 45.8F in August. Combine that with a late Spring and early Fall frosts, you can see our problem. Needless to say, we live in an area that makes it difficult to grow warm weather vegetables.

Many of our favorite garden vegetables do not grow well until the night time temperatures stay above 60 F and we may have only 20-30 nights with temperatures above 50 F all Summer.

Prior to building our first greenhouse, we had very little success growing tomatoes and egg plant and almost no success trying to grow peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon and okra. In two separate seasons, we harvested only a handful of peppers, but never got a ripe cantaloupe or watermelon.

Our funniest experiment was trying to grow okra without a greenhouse. Okra plants normally grow 6-8 feet tall in warm climates, but the few okra plants that survived were tiny bonsai-like plants barely a foot tall and they produced only a few tiny pods, about the size of a large pea. I wish I had a picture.

After trying to grow warm weather vegetables for several years, it was obvious we needed some kind of "greenhouse" to:

1. Increase the day time soil and air temperatures earlier in the spring
2. Raise the night-time temperatures during the summer
3. Allow the plants to survive late spring and early fall frosts to extend the growing season

We have used the PVC A-Frame Greenhouse described in my other book ( How to Build a Small A-Frame Greenhouse with PVC Pipe and Plastic Sheeting for Less Than $50 ) for three growing seasons. The original 5x10 green house solved our problem of trying to grow peppers. The simple PVC A-Frame fits over our garden beds, is easy to set up and to take down and store, and is easy to move from one bed to another.

Since we started using a greenhouse, we have had bountiful pepper harvests every year, and by using a temporary PVC frame and plastic sheeting, we have been able to harvest more ripe tomatoes as well. But it was time for us to build a larger greenhouse to increase our tomato harvest and to try grow a few more of our favorite vegetables.