The ideal greenhouse

The sad story is that my greenhouse burned down, but the happy story is that insurance is covering the cost to rebuild! However, this time I would like to do it better than last time. I thought I would ask anyone who is listening what are the things that you love about your greenhouse and what aspect would you change if you could? I would love to hear your pros and cons to different aspects of greenhouse work. It will be a wood frame with polycarbonate siding. I am thinking I will just cool it off with roof venting. And lighting will be a general ballast with standard bulbs in the center for working and a regular ballast with 2 grow bulbs and 2 standard bulbs along the side where I can adjust the height of the light over 2 flat trays of seedlings and/or starts. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

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Permalink Reply by Darien Payne on February 18, 2013 at 10:27am

Sorry that your greenhouse has burnt down. But as you mention, it is a chance to improve! I highly recommend the book, Greenhouse Gardener's Companion by Shane Smith. I got it after building our first greenhouse, and found many suggestions in it that I wish I'd known before building. It is a very thorough book, covers plant info as well as building issues, lighting, heat, pests, etc. I'd be willing to loan mine to you if the library doesn't have it.

From my own experience, I suggest adding lots of thermal mass—large drums of water, or a large amount of brick or masonry, to help moderate the temperature, both winter and summer. The greenhouse we have now (which came with the house) has an automatic fan (very loud) and high vents, but even with the fan it isn't enough to cool it on a sunny summer day. And in the winter it eventually gets nearly as cold as the outside temperature. Here's a link with a nice drawing of a solar greenhouse:

http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-g...

Darien