My diy greenhouse build

Hi lodon.

Being inexperience in these matters and still is initially yes, I only had the doors for ventilation as in mothers old greenhouse I think it was about 6x4 foot, there was only 1 sliding door it soon dawned on me the door wasn't going to be enough, so I purchased 3 automatic openers and made and fitted 2 windows in the roof and 2 windows in the end opposite the double doors one of the end windows is still a manual opener. Seems to be doing the job at the moment I did last year if it was going to be a really hot day, was run my shade out across the roof in anticipation.

What was I going to grow???? well my only thoughts at the time was chillies but the year turned out quite different, but that's a later post.

 

Carrying on from previous

I though I am going build a grow box with lights in, to sit on top of the hotbed, no no no its not for growing stuff like that, its for growing chillies. Anyway I knocked up a timber frame

I wrapped it in some silver foiled sheeting that I found in one of the sheds.

To insulate the box I added some 50mm insulation board


I wrapped the whole lot in some really thick rubber sheeting, father said it was a MOD fuel bund used in the gulf war, its really heavy stuff.



I made up a couple of doors as the first attempt at a roll up door went pair shaped.I made some cooling and exhaust vents one side at the bottom and another the opposite side nearer the top,



Now, for the lights once again utube research, wow those lights are expensive, lets see what do we have about the place, I found 4 double tube strip lights that didn't work, the lecy thingy inside had packed up, ok 6 foot lights they are to long,

no prob remove the lecy bits cut them down to make shorter, weld them back together, brill. Off the top of my head they finished up lengthwise about 1000mm long just right for the box,


I then folded some stainless sheet to house the 4 light fittings,


I bought new lecy bits and I first purchased and fitted 8 white tubes

but after further research I bought 3 red ones, fingers crossed utubers are right, I didn't go for led ones.


I fitted a couple of chains to hold up the lights so they can be adjusted to what height I need as and when.

It fits in the corner a treat



Lets go grow some chillies.

To be continued!!!!!

 

Here are the results

Because of the build and lock down we started a bit late into the growing season, so mother got on with her growing tomatoes and cucumbers, while I purchased a selection of hot chilli seeds, these were Habanero orange, Habanero red, Caloro, Jamaican red and Mushroom yellow and sowed them into trays.


I only sowed about 50 seeds thinking if I get half I would be very happy my sister also sowed 20 Jalapeno seeds. I used what I call the hot box and what a result 46 chilli plants and 19 Jalapeno plants the greenhouse was over run with them.



I also grew some Charentais melons they were not great big ones about half the size of a football



and my sister grew loads of peppers by the end of the summer the greenhouse was bursting with plants.



We were all very pleased with it. My friends now all had a chilli plant and we had some many chilli’s and peppers




we put a load in the freezer and my sister made some chilli jam. I think we nearly overdosed on salad where mother got carried away with the space she had,


any excess went round a few old people in the village, which was nice. The greenhouse worked well although there are still some things that need addressing for the next season the roll down shading worked great the automatic windows saved a lot of stress checking the temperature constantly,


I have to say I have made a few useful things in my old 27years but to see the whole family doing something in the greenhouse I made, has to be one of my best yet. Father even got in the greenhouse and grew some strawberries now thats a first



That it from last year good bye 2020

Now I have to bring you up to date this year.



To be continued!!!!!

 

Being that the greenhouse had an earth floor the weeds and nettles in there grew tremendously, also when any water was on the ground it became almost welly time lo. There was also ground slope of approx 6-8 inches from one end to the door way. Whilst the greenhouse worked well I new these issues had to be address before this years season. I wanted to put a brick floor in but was unable to find any at a reasonable price. Mother found a load of used driveway block pavers quite local to us, I told her they will do the job and these were collected November-ish.



Waiting for some better weather I managed to make a start a couple of weeks ago, I dug out the high part of the slope and filled it with hardcore, then compacting it



I added 50mm of sharp sand and compacted it again making it as level as possible.



Then laid the block flooring and added kiln dried sand in the joints followed with the compactor again.



What a difference a level floor makes mother is chuffed, I am hoping the floor being brick-ish will hold some heat and let it out over the night. Fingers crossed. We got the hot bed and box along with the staging in place. No more levelling blocks under the legs .



Through the summer I intend to remove some of the obscure glass pains and add clear glass to give a bit of a view out, but that will be done as and when I have learnt how to cut glass I have bought the glass scriber tool.

The hotbed was turned on a couple of days ago and yesterday in it went mother tomatoes and some cucumbers.



From what I have learnt I am a bit behind again but I think will do a couple of chillies plants again this year.

Now to do some reading in the forum to find out what seeds to get and grow this year. Once the weather improved I will get mothers veggie plot ready.

Cheers for all the comments and likes

Jord

 

@Jordhandeson Wowser! Just read your thread. fantastic work youve been doing. I bet your parents are really proud of you.

 

Cheers Snorky I think they are, they often say Jord your a handy son hence my post name

 

ha ha I was thinking it was a Scandinavian name.

 

I did a bit of digging in mothers veggie plot on Sunday



mainly levelling out and tidying up an area where there was a poly tunnel that got blown apart a few years ago.
Moher has some block pavers left over from the greenhouse floor and now wants an area outside of the greenhouse paved so she has a seating area, I have started building up the ground outside the door with stones and rubble. Today I picked up another trailer load of manure off one of my friends,



I'm no a garden poo is poo to me, but mother said its beautiful stuff, now I have to go back in the week to get some more while its free,

 

Today I found a couple of old half plastic barrels and having a bit of that lovely manure left over I made a couple of movable beds, not sure what I am going to put in them yet but my thinking is they should be useful. I first cut a 4 lengths of 3x2 timber and these were screwed to the base to stop them rolling about, then drilled in some drainage holes in the bottom. Bored 2 holes each end to threaded some rope through. then chopped up some pipe and threaded the rope through to make a handle so the hands don't get pinched. All in all about 30 mins works. I have put some manure in I think I will add some general purpose compost and some earth and see how it goes.

 

This morning I moved the plants out of the hotbox onto the staging, I think things are doing ok the cucumbers are great all the 4 types of tomatoes are up, there are also some lettuce, cabbages, cauliflowers and brussel sprouts. The strawberry stack is doing ok but as I am not sure if its warm enough during the night for the seedling, the last three nights it not gone below 49F, so I decided to put the trays on some 100mm thick insulation board then made up a bubble wrap tent like structure over the top.



they will look ok in the morning, I need to get some more things in the box on the heat tomorrow for mother

 

Not a lot done this morning after feeding the animals and chickens apart from I had a bit of luck in the week, Ive been looking for some railway sleepers to build up the ground a bit for mothers seating area outside of the greenhouse, but at 25 quid each locally and being tight I started to look at other options. The luck arrived when the electricity board started removing some old poles for new right outside of our place, result I bought 5 my thinking at the time was they are real handy for gate posts. When I started moving them last nights I was amazed how long they are laid down, 9 metres and , perfect to build up the ground. This morning I drilled some 1 inch holes through to take some rebar, before driving the rebar in the ground I gave the pole a good coat of creosote.



Job done now need to sort out some more hard base but that's enough for this morning. I also made up a few buckets of 50/50 compost and manure mixed into tubs and buckets ready for when mother and I need them.



After quick check to see if there was any sign of the hares, nope that's me done for this morning, well until I have to do lunch for the chicken and collect the eggs and lock away tonight

Now looking forward to the sunday roast.

 

Running out of space on the hotbed I decided to make a mesh shelf in the cupboard



it seems to hold temp well so thought I would give it a go, my understanding is the lights dont need to be on until germinated.I will probable be in a state of panic if everything germinated and have not enough light

 

You certainly come up with some clever ideas Jordhandeson, I'm impressed!

 

Thanks Sheal, adapt and overcome that's one of our motto's

 

Mother is well impressed with the hotbox I built her, mid Friday afternoon she sowed some geraniums, broccoli, and french marigolds and this morning they were up, mother couldn't believe it. Pictures are abit dark my settings were a bit off.