Greenhouse in the foothills

[MitchM]

Hi all,

My wife and I moved out to the country and added on a greenhouse to our workshop.
I started building it in the in the spring of 2008
The greenhouse is from BC Greenhouses in British Columbia. It measures 32' x 14'.
I put in a fireplace to help with the heating along with in-floor radiant heat.




Added a porch to the front



and it's a nice to be able to work in it in the winter



Every now and then the wildlife comes and has a look



Anyways, I haven't had a greenhouse before, so I'll probably have lots of questions and would welcome advice.



Thanks!

 

[sissy]

gosh that is a nice green house .I thought about one here but quickly learned that in the summer no matter how much ventilation they over heat and just built a couple of ground boxes and hinged old windows for covers for the winter

 

[MitchM]

Shade cloth is a necessity. For blocking the sun I'm using some extra landscaping cloth I had left over from my pond liner.
Old man winter is still here though so it's not a problem yet.
Here is a picture from a snowstorm this past weekend.

 

[MitchM]

In order to accommodate my koi and goldfish in the winter, I'm setting up an aquaponics system in the greenhouse:
I built this stand for the grow beds up top and the sumps down below.

 

[taskeinc]

When I first read the subject line, "Greenhouse in the Foothills", I immediately assumed you were referring to one of those smaller, Home Depot, Lowes, or Amazon.com greenhouses. After looking at the pictures, your Greenhouse is in a class by itself, now that's a GREENHOUSE... with it's own DEER!!!

Hopefully the deer will continue to come around as I'm sure they will. Their presence adds to the ambiance of your surroundings... Absolutely GORGEOUS... Keep us up to date on the progress..

 

[Shellyann36]

That is a great greenhouse! You have plenty of space. Can't wait to see what you grow.

 

[DonnaIReilly]

Wow, this is a beautiful greenhouse, I love greenhouses, some of my best childhood memories were spent with my dad in his greenhouse. It's watching lots of different things grow.

 

[lemonzest]

So very jealous right now

 

[scotkat]

Wow this is some amazing greenhouse

 

[MitchM]

The aquaponics system has been coming along, but has not been without it's challenges.
I'm finding that the Hydrocorn media bed material I use has been really contributing to keeping the PH above 8.0. That makes it hard to grow vegetables.
If I had to do it over again, I would be looking for a media material that allowed for a more neutral PH, around 7.
For this winter, I put up some extra lighting - 12 X 54W T5 bulbs.

 

[claudine]

MitchM, it's a wonderful greenhouse! It's so big and pretty I wish I was able to build something like this too. Keep us posted, I find this thread very interesting!

 

[MitchM]

Thank you Claudine.
I'm actually more active on the sister site, Garden Pond Forum, but I'll try to update here when I can.

 

[justusforus]

That was a most incredible tour and thank you for allowing us in! Loved the pictures of the warm glow of the greenhouse and the snow. No wonder the deer are jealous! Beautiful property all around...looks so wonderfully serene.

 

[MitchM]

Thank you justusforus.

It's a little cool here today -17C/1F. The roses in the aquaponic system are blooming, plus the celery, other herbs and melons are doing well. Aphids have come back to one of the basil plants. It looks like that's going to be an ongoing battle.
The sun is very low on the horizon at this time of year, and even nonexistent on some days, with the cloud cover.
Nice to the plants doing well under those T-5 lamps.

 

[RedNeckCowBoy007]

Very lovely greenhouse. Your little tour leaves me with some questions though, as I'd like to add a similar space onto our house. Now, obviously, near Calgary, Canada, it gets a little colder than Northern Ohio, but do you get any solar heat for your house out of your greenhouse? I see the woodstove to help regulate the heat, but my parent's sunspace (before a not completely thought out remodel that needs to have some fixing done ) provided a good deal of heat for the house in the winter.
Second question is, do you have any problems will leaks in the overhead slanted glass panels? My parents sunspace was remodeled because the glass panels were slanted and they had trouble with leaks. Dad said he read that a lot of people have had problems with slanted panels leaking, so most walls are straight up and down instead of "lean-to style".