Farm Project Journal - Greenhouse Build

[JohnG]

We ordered a 10’x18’ greenhouse kit. Right now our plan is to use it to extend our growing season for some veggies our family eats a lot of, and to house some citrus we hate having to move inside during the winter. Originally, I was not going to run power or water to the greenhouse, but now I’m starting to reconsider that. 

These boxes make my tractor look tiny.

Initial ground prep. We bought a foundation frame that gets partially buried to keep the greenhouse from blowing it away. I used my bucket to peel away the grass and will use it to dig a bit of a perimeter trench. Then I’ll lay down some gravel as a base for the frame before burying it. The ‘floor’ of the greenhouse will be a couple inches of gravel and then probably a top layer of some sort of fine crushed stone.

 

As of yesterday, this area was 4’-5’ tall grass. I used my rotary cutter to bring it down to 6” or so and then used the riding mower to cut it down to 2-3” before starting the bucket work. 

You can see our orchard on one side of the greenhouse, and behind where I was standing is our veggie garden, strawberry patch, and grapes. 

[Tom King]

I'm not letting Pam see this or I'll be building a greenhouse.

[JohnG]

Very slight progress, but no picture. I used my bucket to dig out rough trenches for the foundation. We'll be out of town this weekend, so it will be a bit before I get to work on it more.

[JohnG]

The original shipment of my greenhouse kit was missing the foundation frame that gets buried in the ground. The distributor was very friendly and apologetic and prepped a 2nd delivery. 


Laid down gravel to go under the foundation fame yesterday. I’ll need to level it and make sure the top is about even with the surrounding ground level, attach the corner braces and then backfill dirt in the trenches. 

[Mark J]

The pile of dirt in the middle is confusing me?  Is that for backfilling the trench, or is that to be part of the floor?  Looks like it would be hard to move w/o disturbing the foundation frame.

[JohnG]

You’re right. The foundation frame is just sitting in place to be sure I cut the trenches close to good enough. I’ll remove those pieces and then use the tractor to scoop out all of that dirt. Some of it will backfill the trenches and some will go to my dirt pile. The floor will end up just barely higher than the surrounding ground, to be sure water will flow away from/around the greenhouse. 

[JohnG]

It’s been a while without much work on this project. Busy time at work and winter has put my attention on other things, but here’s a quick update.

I dug out the extra dirt from the center a while back.

Today I connected the corners of the foundation frame and checked for square and level. I say level but I just mean that all 4 pieces are coplanar. I measured across the corners for square and then ran some mason’s line from corner to corner in both directions to get it reasonably coplanar. 

Once I had it where I was satisfied I filled in the outside long sides with dirt to lock it in place. I have to leave the ends and center open for now to attach the uprights.

Looks almost the same, but it was a couple critical steps. 


 

Later on I will put down some dirt, weed block, and gravel in the center and a border around the outside to keep grass/weeds from growing up. 

[JohnG]

And shortly after that last pic is when I realized that the printed instructions aren’t in the order that the steps should actually be taken. The foundation frame pieces are actually supposed to be spread out slightly, instead of all the corners meeting. So I had to dig it back out. Then I burned the instructions and found a youtube video that shows the correct order of operations. 

Following the new instructions, and to not have to look at the foundation frame for a while, I built all of the roof windows, door, and rear window. The first window took a while, but then the rest went very quickly. 4 roof windows, 2 part door, and a hinged rear window. I built these over the course of a couple nights after the kids went to bed. 
 

Then dug out the foundation, added gravel further out where the frame should be and leveled it.

Today was a tricky part, connecting the curved side pieces to the bottom frame and the top middle peak. They recommend 3-4 people for building this model, but I’m hard headed and only called my best friend, Kubota. With a bit of ingenuity and a few close calls, we got the main frame structure up.

Maybe I should get a bigger tractor, or should have put the pallet forks on it. Had to set it down here and then shuffle it over to the right.

Next will be the gable ends, started in the last pic, and installing the polycarbonate panels. 
 

[Chet]

On 3/16/2024 at 1:51 PM, JohnG said:

Maybe I should get a bigger tractor, or should have put the pallet forks on it.

Always go for the bigger tractor. 

[JohnG]

More progress today. Finished assembling the gable ends and attached those. Added corner supports, and the lower horizontal rail. 

Left a gap in the near side so I can dump some more dirt and gravel inside the greenhouse before installing the side panels.

 

On 3/17/2024 at 12:41 PM, Chet said:

Always go for the bigger tractor. 

In general, I’ve been very happy with the size tractor I got. There have been a few times that more lifting capacity would be nice, but there have been more times that a bigger tractor would be a problem. 
 

[Coop]

John, how will it be ventilated? 

[JohnG]

4 roof vents and rear window that can open/close. The door is also split so that the top can be left open but the bottom closed to keep critters out. The roof vents can be manually operated or use oil filled pistons that are supposed to automatically open/close based on temperature.

We typically get a steady breeze in that field, but I will consider adding a fan if needed. 
 

I have no experience with greenhouses, so any tips or advice are welcome. I bought a book on greenhouse growing, and my neighbor (previously a produce farmer) has one, so those are my main resources. We are in zone 7b.

[JohnG]

I haven’t really kept up with this. Most of the time I have available to work on this is at 11pm with a head light on. 

Rear window is lockable in several positions-

 

4 roof vents with adjustable automatic openers-

2 shelves on one side. I will either build some more shelves or planter boxes on the other side. I’ll either out down some pavers or fine crushed stone for the floor.

Split front door-

And I put down a border of weed fabric and gravel to make it easier to mow/trim around-

[wtnhighlander]

Nice greenhouse, @JohnG. Growing food, or flowers?

[JohnG]

Mostly food, but maybe some flowers to fill in free space. Though we still have a lot of space in our veggie garden for cut flowers too.