It sounds like you started out with the same kind of greenhouse as I did. The plastic cover held out well through the winter, but our first hailstorm totally destroyed it even though the hailstones were really tiny. Those covers clearly aren't able to cope with the sun's UV rays. My stands lasted about three years and I was really lucky that I noticed the rust before they collapsed. The consequences could have been quite serious as I use my greenhouse for bonsai and I'd have been devastated if any of them had fallen and been destroyed.
Yeah, that was hubby's second try at getting me a greenhouse. I must say, he's gotten better over the years.
The One Stop Gardens greenhouse lasted me two years because I took it apart the first summer and stored it away from UV. The second year, I started to disassemble it and the plastic started flaking and cracking as I moved it. It was clear, I wasn't going to get another year out of it so I just left it up. By fall, I had a green plastic mesh over the frame with no plastic coating left on the top of the 'greenhouse'.
The first try got me a single upright shelf unit frame that had clear, solid black and mesh net covers that could go over them. This unit lasted about a year before it started failing, but I used it for storage until this winter. I tried using it in the greenhouse (it's in some pictures I posted
https://www.gardening-forums.com/threads/my-hfgh-and-the-benefit-of-reading-forums-first.4321/ here) but after so many years in the weather it came apart like tissue paper.
I have one of those metal ones also. I could not figure out how the water got in it. I took it apart and stored it in the basement for the winter. I think I will apply Rust Check spray before setting it up again.
That’s a good plan. I should have done that when I pulled these shelves apart the first time, but hopefully they’ll stay together long enough for me to build something better.
Your greenhouse looks great, Ariel!
How big is it? What plants do you grow in it? I'd love to have a greenhouse too, but I don't even have my own garden yet
I live in an apartment, so all my plants grow in pots indoors.
It’s not big, only 8’ x 6’, but I am packing it with everything I miss about summer and it seems way bigger.
Pots are how I started. In fact, I used to kill every plant I tried to grow until I found the one species that even I couldn’t kill, it was a type of aloe, not the one you normally see, but sort of a weedy thing that had a pretty red flower. Somehow, keeping that plant alive opened up the door for me to keep other kinds of plants alive too. So, don’t knock yourself down about starting with pots on a window sill, we probably all started that way too.
