Makeshift greenhouse against the house?

10 years ago

Cross-posting from the Vegetable Gardening Forum... didn't realize that greenhouses had their own forum!

I've been trying to figure out how to plant 'on-time' without risking freezing my seedlings during this colder than normal Spring. I do have some floating row covers, but it's my understanding that won't help much if the temps really drop.
Both of my main beds are against my house, and I've been trying to figure out how to make something like this work for an early Spring makeshift greenhouse. http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/how-to-make-a-green-house.jpg

The difficulty I'm having is that my beds are only 5ft wide and it looks like I'd need equal height and width for a 'greenhouse' like that to work. If I'm going to spend the money on greenhouse plastic, I'd like it to work in the Fall too so I can extend my tomato harvest (I ALWAYS have green tomatoes on the vine when the first Fall frost comes around)... so it would need to be much higher than 5' high - my tomatoes often grow to 10'.

I'm wondering if it would work to just attach the greenhouse plastic to the house (like, right under the eaves?) and drape it over the garden and secure the bottom without any real frame under it. I do have a few trellises in there that would help to hold it up some, and the beds are narrow, only 5' wide so I feel like it shouldn't need 'that' much support.

Thoughts? Is this a waste of time/money? Will it help my garden grow through a cold Spring? How much frost protection would it provide (at night especially) considering it will be attached to our 'warm' house? How would you attach it to the house? I was thinking of wrapping the plastic and sandwiching it between two 1x2s and screwing that onto the house somehow (and a second set of 1x2s for a bottom rail out at the front of the bed), then just wrapping the sides around back to the house and holding down with rocks or something. When the real risk of frost is gone, I can just wrap it back up until I need it again in the Fall.

Melissa

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Comments (4)

oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)
10 years ago
My vote would be yes, it would be a waste of time/money. Assuming your "warm house" walls are insulated to code, it probably would not provide much, if any, heat to your "greenhouse". A single sheet of plastic will not provide much more than wind and rain protection, and almost no temperature improvement under it after about midnight.
emorems0
Original Author
10 years ago
That's what I was afraid of... is there anything I can do that would be cheap and easily removable (for summer time) that would provide some insulation for late spring frosts?

I don't know if it's because my house is poorly insulated or it's just the nature of gardening up against a house, but I've had fall frosts damage my outer rows of tomatoes, while the rows closest to the house were just fine... I guess I figured that some greenhouse plastic might help trap some of that warmth during this cold Spring to the benefit of the whole bed instead of just the row closest to the house. Of course, (as is probably obvious), I really don't know much about greenhouses!
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The benefit of the plastic is that you raise the temperature around the plants a little bit. The detriment is that you lose fresh air circulation. I would leave some gaps for the breeze to exchange your air inside the plastic. You might also want a very gentle fan circulating air inside the plastic around the plants. Without air movement, your plants will have weak stems. Air movement also prevents fungal disease and mildew. Good luck with everything. Keep a close eye on the plants, and they will be fine.
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You put a two by four between the house and the frame of the greenhouse. It is very tight. We have redwood on our house and it is streight up and down with battons. We used a cement floor. My husband made twelve inch holes on each corner fifty four inches deep. Built little rerod towers for strength. It draws the heat from the ground and keeps the floor warm in the winter. We also used the thick foam insulation around the outside of the foundation. I don't think it will take much to heat your greenhouse. That size you would just need a small space heater. Those little oil filled ones that look like radiater are very efficient. I was going to just put in gravel for the floor but when my husband started on it he said we should put cement.I am glad because there are leaves and blooms falling all the time and it is easy to keep cleaner. We ahve a neighbor that is an engineer and he suggested the deep holes to draw the heat from the ground. It seems to work well. I can go out there barefooted and it actually feels warm. Also when it is ten below outside you can touch the walls and they don't even feel cold. I grow orchids and keep a few tropicals in mine. My little heater keeps it around fifty and my orchids don't seem to mind. That is the night temp.I have two little corner fans at the top of the door to blow the heat from the house into it. I should tell you we use wood to heat our house and my husband takes blood thinner so we keep our house very warm. We have a large stove in the center of our house and use fans to circulate the air in our house. I drag a lot of my pots of plants inside in the fall and keep them over. Like my batwing begonia. I'm getting ready to cut it back for new growth for spring. I will save the ones I cut off and make cuttings to share. Hope this helps. Linda
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I read your description and expected something really dumpy and sad, but then, the photos, wow! You have lots to work with there, and I bet you're going to really come to like it. I'd say just start out by cleaning and organizing it, and see what ideas come to mind that seem appealing. You could start some fall lettuce crops, as Lori suggests. You can just grow them in containers on those benches. I use window boxes for lettuce as well, and it works beautifully. Herbs would work too since they are so quick. And I like to bring some pansies in the GH in late fall when everything else is getting knocked down by cold. Over the winter, invest in a couple of books about greenhousing, like The Greenhouse Grower's Companion by Shane Smith, or one of the Elliot Coleman books. After that, see where it takes you. If perennials are your thing, you can grow really impressive seedlings in a greenhouse and save a bundle. If I were to move, the very first thing I would do to establish my new garden would be to get a greenhouse. Once you have that then there are a million possibilities! Good luck!
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oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)
10 years ago
Don't give up yet... any type of electric heating device- soil warming cable, germinating pad, etc., with the plastic cover, would give you several degrees of frost protection. Anything more than a few degrees would require a more expensive heating arrangement, and probably a double layer of plastic with an air space in-between on the top. (working like double-pane windows)
Your house walls may be absorbing enough heat during the day to give off some help during the night, which might explain the inner rows of plants doing better than the outside ones.

One more consideration with the plastic cover- during full sun days (even in the winter), the inside temp. will probably be very warm, too warm for the plants. You would need to be sure and open it up during those times to keep your plants growing well.
petrushka (7b)
10 years ago
may be this will give you some ideas

Here is a link that might be useful: cattle panel lean-to

Makeshift greenhouse against the house?

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oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)

emorems0
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Makeshift greenhouse against the house?

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oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)

emorems0Original Author

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petrushka (7b)

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emorems0
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