Sunday, April 22, 2012

Put up the greenhouse

I put up my greenhouse this weekend. I'm late; I wanted to put it up in March but too much was going on in my life. I dug a 2 foot hole and put a 4x4 post in it, next to my greenhouse door for better support. I cut two notches in my door frame to keep the plastic pipe in place. I also put an additional horizontal PVC pipe about 1/3 of the way up one side to stiffen the hoops. If this works as planned, I'll install another one on the opposite side. I'm using my new plastic for the first time. It feels different from the ordinary hardware store plastic. It almost has a mylar feel to it. I plan to set out my tomato plants this week and start some other warm weather plants.

New 4x4 post to support end wall.


I notched the top of the door frame to secure the PVC pipe, which last year kept jumping off the top of the door frame.

I added a 'longitudinal' section of PVC along one side of the greenhouse. This did help strengthen the frame. I plan to put another one on the other side of the greenhouse next time.


I had problems last fall with supporting the other end of my greenhouse. The PVC hoops were not strong enough to stand up to the wind on that end. As an experiment, I installed a 2x3 secured to my greenhouse frame at the bottom, and secured to the PVC hoop with tie wraps at the top. It seems to be helping support that end on windy days.