We are thinking of building a home “greenhouse” – need advice?
Wondering if you have any advice on problems to look for when constructing a Home "Greenhouse" – We are considering attaching a fairly large greenhouse to the back of our Southwest facing home.
The goal is to grow veggies and perhaps even save on heating costs for the winter months using passive solar.
If you have any ideas, suggestions, experience or links to good websites for construction and maintenance of a home greenhouse we would love to hear it.
We live in southern Michigan where the winters can become very cold,but the location of the Greenhouse would be on the South/west exposure of the home that gets at least 5-6 hours of intense sunlight during the shortest days of winter.
During the rest of the year it gets anywhere from 7-9 hours of sunlight.
Any insight would be most appreciated
Thanks
As a person in the greens industry a greenhouse can be a challenge.
Will this greenhouse use glass or lexon? Glass allows in my light for the passive solar heat but there is much more cost and maintenance. Lexon will last much longer but does not allow as much light through.
Will you grow these veggies directly in the ground or will you have a floor and grow in containers? If you are pouring a floor have it stained very dark brown. This will collect much more heat than a normal gray concrete floor. Regardless of what floor you use make sure that is has adequate drainage. Make sure that water is brought inside the greenhouse. Make sure you have proper ventalization for the size of the greenhouse. A greenhouse will also increase the humidy will can destroy certain materials used in greenhouse construction and especially to the room your are connecting to which was probally not built for the level of humidity that this greenhouse will create. Make the greenhouse as beautiful as you can if it is attached to the house, for this will effect the value of your home. Any other quetions e-mail at bfuhrman@midwestgrounds.com
try looking into this link . its has some ideas
http://gardening-tips-idea.com/Green-house-gardening.html
good luck