From This Dirt Forward

Mr. and Mrs. Stoffel proudly announce the arrival of their first baby greenhouse!

The past few springs I’ve been sowing seeds at our kitchen table, taking over every south-facing windowsill and plugging our sinks and shower drain with potting soil. 

Our kitchen greenhouse of years past

Looking to liberate our kitchen, my handy husband advanced our seed starting capabilities with the 2009 design and construction of “The Pod.” As wonderful as The Pod was, our 2010 garden ambitions were no match for a 2.5′ by 5′ box.

We’ve been drooling over the hobby greenhouses in the Grower’s Supply catalog, but when you’re saving for home improvements like a roof that doesn’t leak and a furnace that doesn’t misfire, spending $1800 on a warm and sunny place for a few tomato seedlings probably wouldn’t be a responsible thing to do. 

Not to be discouraged, my handy husband went to work to build us a homemade greenhouse on a shoestring.  He did a few internet searches for small greenhouse blueprints, but ultimately, he designed his own structure, pulling ideas from multiple sources.

Somehow he managed to transform these man-scribbles into an 8’x 8’ walk-in greenhouse. 

He began construction of the greenhouse in our barn where he could work on it in the evenings and have his beloved power tools close at hand.

After towing it outdoors, he put the finishing touches on it in our driveway and then moved it into place on the south side of our barn.  All said and done, it took him about 12 hours to build by himself.

Here are some of its great features:

• Designing the greenhouse to be 8′ by 8′ meant my husband had to do very little measuring and cutting since all the wood materials came in 8′ lengths.
• The two-part door keeps our kleptomaniac dog and other small visitors out while still allowing for open-door ventilation.
• The plastic on both sides of the greenhouse can be rolled up on extra hot days for cross-ventilation.  We borrowed this idea from my dad who built this sweet little greenhouse attached to his Vermont barn.  Note that his greenhouse is also equipped with a wood stove!  We just have a small electric space heater hooked up to a thermostat for those extra chilly nights.

• The benches are slatted for easy drainage.  To optimize bench space, he added a narrower second tier, which is perfect for window boxes.

• The small potting bench along the back of the greenhouse is just long enough for the two of us to work side-by-side with moderate elbowing.  Being substantially higher than the plant benches, the potting bench let’s us do our sowing and transplanting without stooping over.

• My husband admits that he originally added the sheets of barn siding to the outside of the greenhouse just for looks, but discovered that it added a tremendous amount of support to the structure.  The extra siding took the greenhouse from a little wobbly to quite sturdy.  
• The maximum cost for this greenhouse is about $250 when purchasing all of the materials new and at retail prices.  (It cost us slightly less since we already had a few of the materials.)

As of today, we have 54 varieties of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds sprouting in our little greenhouse!