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Greenhouse back garden - probably best DIY project
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20-03-2017 12:51am#1Hello,
Journal of how to build a greenhouse in my back garden.
Covering 6m by 4m by 2.5m (smaller when finished) I hope to have it up & running by the end of March.
Major challenge is that it has full Sun coverage from March until December, due to the shade of house roof.
So...
I'm building from wood, normal and not threated(I'm worried about the chemicals in the wood frame).Will sit on some galvanised metal as a foundation, then raised like a normal wooden structure,with supporting walls ands roof.
Exterior walls will have 10mm acrylic plastic supplied from HERE and the roof will be installed by triplewall 16mm acrylic (as most of the heat will accumulate and try to escape out trough the roof).
Digged about 30-40cm deep and I am fitting a 30mm thick insulation on the sides of each four walls, all the way to the top of the hole. Installed only across the walls and none at the bottom, in order to "manipulate" the heat or the cold of the earth as a storage.
Moved around the home about 8mcof ground. Some of that will be reused within the new GH but I ordered 2 tones of compost from the local shop for around €120 so is better to have it fresh and some organic material in it.
On the bottom of the ground, installing 7 pieces of 110mm pipes that will connect to a central manifold of 160mm that will recirculate the air in the greenhouse, summer and winter.CO2 will be recirculated and only one time a day the fresh air will be changed with the outside. The online guys are using only one big fan to circulate the air. I decided to use 7 smaller fans ,installed at the end of the 110mm tubing so that each pipe will circulate same amount, as quantity and quality of the air ,rather than only certain random pipes as the air flows trough the sub piping taking the shortest path.
The outlet of my MHRV will be connected and will supply a troughout the GH a modest 10-15 degrees even in the coldest morning nights of the winter.
PV solar panels installed on the roof will power the fan needed for the ventilation.
Ordered all the parts and working on the piping system this week, hoping to have it done if weather is with me.
Ordered all the seeds online from the Organic Shop HERE . Planted them in the small plastic containers and laid out trough the house, at warm and not so bright places. Hoping that by the time the GH is ready, they can be exposed to the real world.
Keep you posted...
Photo1:
warning about chemicals in the threaded wood...just don't need them in my plants .
Photo2:
Perforated pipes for the floor, best setup to exchange the air (warm / cold) with the earth and evacuate any water from condesantion.
Photo3:
Work in progress...having fun !
A very basic explanation on how the GH will work:
Search online and you will find lots of resources.
14
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So, wheater works with me...
Managed to get the central distribution manifold started,working in cutting the left and right pipes inserted and insulated inside.
Decided to go with central rather than sidewise in order to have a better managed ar/temperature/humidity flow control and a better flow of the inside air,following a path left-right / top-bottom.
Hopefully tomorrow i will have the wooden structure up as well as the magic has happened with my seeds !!!
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Wow and wow againSo, wheater works with me...
Managed to get the central distribution manifold started,working in cutting the left and right pipes inserted and insulated inside.
Decided to go with central rather than sidewise in order to have a better managed ar/temperature/humidity flow control and a better flow of the inside air,following a path left-right / top-bottom.
Hopefully tomorrow i will have the wooden structure up as well as the magic has happened with my seeds !!!
Am going to follow this with interest...
Plenty of photos please...
What are you growing?
Have lots of chillies and tomatoes up and growing well myself0 -
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Hi,
Weather going fine.
Work a bit quiet so i can foxcus on the green greenhouse.
Managed to get the insulation around the main space.
Installed the piping and the manifold on the ground,waiting for the 10 cubic meters of compost to de delivered by Saturday.
Got the wooden structure up and running and ... painted what else,green !
More to follow ...0 -
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Not lastly...
My window plants are in a hurry to go outside !!
Whole family watched,day by day, how the wonders happens inside the compost and how the small seed are pushing their heads above,trough the hard ground !
Its so magic...we are so blessed to wittness this !
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Hi,
Trying to be humil here but DIY proud and excitement takes over !
Got at i'll say near completion,thank God ... having tea and cofee in there and chatting to my little "green" buddies. Nothing wrong with that, as long as i dont have to find out something that i didn't knew before !
Vegetables are having a nice time in the warm wet soil,just put some organic chicken food for them,once a month i think will do it fine.
Ventilation / mHRV works fine,checking temps and humidity,plants looks healthy and happy.
All piping in place so far, i have to focus this Saturday on the electrical side,to be humid / vapour free.
Working next stage at some sort of automation,reporting,alerts on temp,water and so on. I dont want fully automated as it steals the pleasure of doing it and getting dirty myself.
Sharing,with "their" permission,few photos taken now.
Thanks.
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On the back central lane,i planted a miniature family apple tree, two apples variety in a single tree.
Also, tok the risk / chance of a two nice grape branches,i hope they will grow and reward me after 2-3 years with a nice fresh organic taste of their fruits ?
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So,more photos.
I hope that i may succed to "infect" some more people and take on the gardening.
Is a rewarding,peacefull and, with a nice glass of Port,just sitting there around your greenye friends just gives you a well deserved peace,break and recharge your menthal strengths.
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Love the strawberry pipe - can you show a few more photos of the whole setup?
That project started as a joke, as I didn't wanted the sberryes full time inside the greenhouse.
Later, i planned to plant them on both sides of the garden but on one of my walls, i have rasp/black/blue berries and this year, after I fed them with organic chicken manure...they exploded in flowers and I hope fruits so I will leave them there.
The strawberry pipes is easy to build, it takes time.
I used at least 6 or 7 diferent varities of fruits, bought from others shops ,as I want to see which oen performs better.
Also, i didn't want this week to have all the berries ready either,so some plants are earlier than others during the calendar year.
The big ones are nice and juicy, the smaller ones are very very tasty.
If I have to build a second set,i may leave the space inside for the plants longer in the length of the pipe, rather than a hole. Easier for runners but tricky as a structural design.
Also, i will build out of the remaining greenhouse plastic sheet some sort of enclosure, so they will be protected from cold, freeze and heavy rain while keeping lazy and warm.
Advantage is that the fruit is easy to reach, clean, fully exposed to air and sun AND away from any "third party" eaters.
Issue is that the runners are just going to get tired running on the plain plastic pipe so I have to fit them by hand inside the ground holes, where hopefully they will settle inside, as a for next year refresh plant( I use to replace the X_berries every 3 years).
Have fun...
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Hello All,
I hope all out there enjoying the snow and preparing your seeds and planning for the Spring (after the snow,i hope)
As the winter is gone,time to get the greenhouse back to work.
I gave it 2 monts of relax,easy going,to recover the soil and the microbes to go away.
I had major issues with the slugs but after soemone recommended"nemaslugs",bought it online from H E R E and after the first treatment,all go black away ( i deeply hope and pray thats true).
Heating,ventilation and humidity all working ok these days.
I hope that my wife and I will be able to run a full spring clean-up in the GH with cleaning the spiders,painting the wood timber with new layer of protective paint (if i can find based on copper) and refresh the ground / soil within the right natural NPK parameters.
Over the winter,due to lack of sun and ventilation,the soil has developed some sort of green mushy texture that i had to remove it before digging and tuning the soil.
I am planning to get some quality top soil / organic manure and mix it in the existing beds.
I had the seeds ordered online fom the organic seeds centre H E R E,received them last week and already put them in the plastic containers and in the home,nice and warm.They will need to be warm for the next 2-4 weeks and then will require heat and light to grow.Some growers i found will force the seeds the grow with the help of heaters and artificial lights/LEDs but i say, leave it to the nature course !?
I have planted some tomatoes (plummy and some fatty ones),cucumbers (small and big fruits),courgettes,French beens.Once they will come up the ground,i will move the best stronger ones in to a single dedicated organic pot and trans_plant in the greenhouse soil by April.That organic pot (escapes me the name now,allows planting directly in the GH soil without creating any thermal or soil composition shocks to the plant itself).
Last year i had a flooding of tomatoes and cucumbers,all at the same time of the season ...this year,i learned the lesson: i plant few plants of each type in April and wait to develop and grow and give tasty results and then,i guess by June-July,plant again seeds and repeat the process hoping to have complete outputs until late in the year,with a month overlapping of maximum output.
Keep you posted and i wish you same tasty rewarding results...
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My "strawberies_in_pipes" are doing ok as well !
I cleaned up the dead brown leaves and left only the healthy ones.
More plants have resulted as the runners are growing nicey and warm outside (i had to put them inside the GH for the snow cover)
I had a check on my garden,covered by white warm snow...i hope it will create some "damage" to all the microbes that have badly affected my trees and plants last year... ( sorry microbes
)
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And...again,the green wonder hapening for the second year...
Seeds planted just few days ago are trying to get their lovely tiny fragile heads above the secret work going under the soil...
I could share a little "secret" here: i've planted a bit higher / closer to the surface this year and they are doing better and, i guess an easier job (compared to last year when some of the seeds havent made it due to the been too deep in the soil).
In the first stage,they just needs good soil,warm conditions and good watering as well,helping to break the seeds exterior shield and get their DNA "wake-up call" ... that is time ... to raise and shine.
After the tiny heads appears,they will need a good exposure to light as well,beside previous environment conditions.
Looking forward...
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Hi,
Really enjoyed reading your project. Do you have an estimate of the cost for all the materials?
Cheers,
Philip
Hi Philip,
Thanks, no ideea as i bought the parts as i neded.I will guesstimate maybe 3k ?
Most of them were suplied from local builders shop,such as Goodwins then Mulch and some garden centres.
I did most of the work myself so no cost associated except my time off from my work.
I guess the most expensive was digging the hole,then pebbles,then piping and then the top soil. Not lastly a rubbish bin for the left overs.
I wrongly guesstimated the required pebbles and soil,massively under and i end-up with 3 deliveries as i was short first time,then worried that i will have too much,wrong evaluated ending up with a third delivery.
I regret that i didnt digged deeper for a better geothermal exposure and i didnt do the foundation of concrete (as now i can convert in to a living space and charge my adult kids .. .rent) !
Overall,there is no RoI on the unit compared with a local supermarket... as the pleasure of hiding away and chat with your plants is beyond any monetary reach...
If you think in building one,i can help you happily..0 -
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And...my green friends decided to come and meet me but they dont know is too cold outside for their tiny roots...
Today,at lunch time were 30" inside the GH but over night drops to a mere 4-5 only...quite risky for them.
I will keep them close and warm until they will reach at least another few more centimeters...
Also,i have some organic compost from HERE and i hope to mix it with the existing soil,trying to rejuvenate the magical works of the soil...
Anyone wanting to get started on this adventure,i can help you or you can see it live over here.Same,i am open to exchange and sharing of photo / information !
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