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.