Starting, building and maintaining a greenhouse can be very intimidating for those first venturing into greenhouse gardening. We share our experiences and information to help take the mystery out of greenhouse gardening and get down to the facts. Learn from our successes as well as our mistakes.
Building a Lean-to Style Greenhouse
The lean-to style greenhouse is actually Greenhouse Version 3. Although I loved Greenhouse Version 2, it was too big to fit in the backyard of our new home in the city. So we recycled a lot of material from the old greenhouse to create the new one. The lean-to style is ideal for our yard because of limited space and the shared wall with the house provides a great insulating bonus at night.
A greenhouse offers the urban gardener greater flexibility when gardening through the seasons. Greenhouses serve as season extenders to grow frost sensitive crops longer into the fall and seed starting earlier in the spring. A temperature controlled greenhouse can even offer year-round vegetable gardening. A greenhouse can go beyond gardener’s fantasy and become a reality, however there are several factors that go into the greenhouse set in an urban environment.
Some people leave their greenhouses unattended in the summertime, simply using them to overwinter frost sensitive plants or to get an earlier start in the spring with seedlings.
The greenhouse need not lie in disuse in the summer with just a few of additions to the climate control.
Just like any large project, we embarked on our journey of greenhouse construction not realizing what we were getting ourselves into. I had done all the research and did all the price shopping and thought we were making the most informed decision that I knew how. I was in for a bit of a surprise.
Rion offers a line of durable greenhouses and very attractive lines. The cost seems to be in the middle to the high end of the spectrum depending on the size of greenhouse and, according to their video, assembly is very simple.
VIDEO: Two Common Materials Used for Greenhouse Glazing
Two materials commonly used as a greenhouse glazing are polycarbonate and Lexan. This video briefly describes the physical characteristics of polycarbonate and Lexan.
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