The Green House is very simple to build, if you have some simple construction knowledge and tools. I will give you some basic ideas on how I did it. First of all, I build two. One with PVC pipe and the other one with Wire Cattle Panels. The PVC Pipe one goes like this. It is 12 by 18. It can be larger, next year plans are in the work for a 12 by 40+. I experience alot of wind, so I made it stronger than needed. First I made a 12 x 18 box out of 1 x 6. Then I dug 4 holes in the corners for a 2.5 foot 4 x 4 post. Then screwed the box to the posts. Then cut 1.5 inch PVC pipe cut 6 inches long every 4 feet on each side. Next take a 1 inch pvc pipe that is 20 feet long and bend it into a hoop. I stress buying 20 foot lengths. I tried to glue 2 tens together and it was just a pain. Two people are nice, but one person can do it. Drill two holes through the pipe and 1.5 inch pipe and attach the hoops to the box with long screws. Optional part, I ran a 3/4 inch pipe down the middle and bolted it to the hoops. It made it very rigid. On the ends is the tricky part. They can be done many ways. I framed up a couple rectangles and mounted some old storm windows that I picked up for free. Then made the door out of a scrap piece of chipboard. Prior to attaching the doors and window, the plastic needs to go one. I used a 6 mil piece that was 20 by 25. It was not fancy greenhouse plastic, just the stuff in a hardware store. 6 mil is the best, I wouldn't go for 4 mil, waste of time. I attached one side of the plastic to the outside of the box with staples. Then sandwiched it on to the side of the box with a 1 by 4. The boards ran the whole length of the building. Pull the plastic over the hoops and pull it tight too, then sandwiched it. Then pull the ends around and wrap them through the window rectangles and sandwiched the windows on and put 1x4 sandwiched on the bottom. I attached two short ropes over the outside of the plastic and attached to the sides of the box, this stopped the "Balloon Affect". Watch the temps, it can get very hot in the sun. One day it was 45 outside and windy. It was 90 plus at 10:00 in the morning. If the plastic rips, fix it with clear duct tape or clear packing tape. Attach it to both sides, if you can. I had a rip in a 45 mile wind storm. I was able to tape it back togther and it held great! The smaller one is the same process. Made a box, set posts, bend cattle panels over, attach to the box (on the inside), put black pipe insulation over the ends of the panels to avoid ripping the plastic, cover with plastic, sandwich the sides, finish the ends and enjoy. A high tunnel can be made very easily. Google "High Tunnel" and you will find out some really good info. These two little building have survived alot. Two tornadoes, 4 hailstorms, 2 weeks fo 30+ mph wind, 5 inches of rain (in 1.5 hours), 50-65 mph winds. I think they are the greatest things ever!

Mine had trouble the first year but after that it seemed to take care of itself. I live in the very rainy northwest. I caged one and did like Sue36 and just shook the water off the last one I bought. I think the nurserys grow them really fast so they don,t get have any strengh to the stems thier first year out in the real world conditions. It will also faint on you when its gets to hot. It will stop doing that after a year or two in the ground.

Thanks for the feedback guys. To address two of your good points- When I said "we never had a problem with it" I meant that there's never been a back-up into the house. The unvented toilet burping is evident only during extreme rain conditions such as the total of 6" fallen over the past few days on top of already rain saturated ground. Also there has Never been any evidence at all of septic leakage coming up to the ground surface, not ever in the 10 years we've lived here and I watch the ground closely, esp inspecting low puddling areas. The ground is very mushy but there's no sign of foul odors. Normal heavy rains = no problem. This type of flooding event which results in burping occurs about once per year. If the toilet was vented and didn't burp I'd probably never know or think that there was a "possible" problem. One thing I know for sure is that absolutely No sewage is coming to the surface, if it were I'd be asking other questions and getting estimates!

Those are exactly the pictures and research we need, so good job on that. If I understand correctly, here's what's up ... It looks like there is a well established swale behind your property running downhill to a catch basin. This is great news! It's possible the orginal grading of the yards in the neighborhood may have never been top notch, but just enough to get by. Then, over the years, the swale may have collected enough silt, that it started to drain slower, to the point that it is backing up into individual yards. If the swale is running slow, it wouldn't be sufficient to just fix the grading and drainage in your yard. You need to contact the city public works departand get someone out there to tell your predicament to, and to inspect the drainage in the swale. It would good if you could follow the swale, documenting in video the drainage flow during a major storm, just in case you need it. More than likely, the bottom of the swale just needs to be cleaned out so that it has more capacity. Meanwhile, carefully inspect the grade of your lot and assess that it has positive pitch running toward the back, likely at a diagonal toward the left side. Drainage from your yard would generally follow the blue line. One thing to note, even if the swale is functioning as it should, or is made to do that, there still exists the possibility that torrential rains can overwhelm it because it has a finite capacity. It can only carry away so many gallons of water per minute, and if the rain exceeds that volume, backing up is going to happen. In that case, nobody would be able to do a thing about it but wait for the rains to cease and for the water to finally clear out. But at least, making sure that you have positive pitch in your own yard will ensure that it will drain when the rain ends. If water does back up, you'll need to raise the shed a a few inches higher and grade the surrounding soil such that it has pitch away from the shed. You might do this just in case. If the city declares that the swale is functioning properly, then your only remedy would be to take care of what you can in your own yard. If the city acknowledges that the swale needs cleaning, but they are in no hurry to take care of it, you might try to encourage your neighbors who share the problem to complain to them, too ... you know ... the squeaky wheel getting the grease.