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How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

This post outlines how to build a custom greenhouse for your garden with easy and simple steps. Using inexpensive, but durable materials, you can build a fully functioning, weatherproof greenhouse which will fit into your specific garden space and needs. The greenhouse will provide a beneficial environment for your plants, extending their growth season and allowing you to manage air temperature, humidity, and other environmental components that influence their development. With guidelines on how to install the walls, windows, and doors, as well as how to maintain the temperature and humidity conditions, anyone can create their own little sanctuary.

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Window sills can be adapted for planting seedlings, some place containers with seedlings on insulated loggias or balconies, and some seedlings are grown in greenhouses. In the article we will talk about what you can use to build a greenhouse and how to maintain the temperature necessary for young plants in it..

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

To grow seedlings and early vegetables, gardeners use three main protected ground structures:

  • insulated soil
  • greenhouses
  • greenhouses

A greenhouse is an expensive structure, the construction of which not everyone can afford, and greenhouses and insulated ground are simple, but at the same time effective structures that everyone can build. We talked about what kind of greenhouses are, and what materials are best used for their construction, in the article โ€œDo-it-yourself greenhouseโ€, and you can read about insulated soil in the article โ€œHow to grow early vegetables without a greenhouseโ€. Now letโ€™s figure out how to quickly and cheaply build a greenhouse on a personal plot.

What can you build a greenhouse

Ease of manufacture is one of the main differences between a greenhouse and a greenhouse. You can build this protected ground structure alone from the inexpensive materials available at hand.

The base (frame) of the greenhouse can have different shapes โ€“ triangular, โ€œhouseโ€, arched and the like. The frame can be assembled from wooden blocks, metal or plastic pipes, fittings and even window frames. As a base covering, polyethylene film is most often used; glass or non-woven covering material (lutrasil, agryl, spunbond) is also suitable for these purposes. If there is a financial opportunity, then you can use polycarbonate.

Arc-shaped greenhouse (tunnel shelter)

This building is familiar to everyone. In this case, ordinary plastic pipes are ideal for the frame, and polyethylene or agrofibre can be used as a covering material.

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

Plastic pipes are bent in an arc and fixed to a wooden frame. You can also simply stick them into the ground. The arcs are placed at a distance of 50 centimeters from each other and a covering material is pulled over them, which is pressed to the ground with the help of bricks.

To make the structure more rigid, you can use wooden slats, which are attached to the arcs horizontally along the entire length.

Some gardeners additionally use vertical supports placed under the extreme arcs โ€“ such a design keeps its shape remarkably all season.

Greenhouse made of wooden grates

This design is even simpler than a tunnel shelter. If you have extra wooden grates on your farm, they can be used as a frame for a greenhouse.

Greenhouse made of wooden grates

On the site where it is necessary to build a greenhouse, the gratings are installed โ€œhouseโ€, fastened together with self-tapping screws, nails, or connected with ordinary tape. The design is quite reliable, since the gratings rest on one another and do not move apart. After that, the โ€œhouseโ€ is covered with polyethylene or agrofibre โ€“ the greenhouse for seedlings is ready.

Metal greenhouse

The frame of a greenhouse for growing seedlings can be built from thick metal wire (wire rod) with a thickness of at least 6 mm, metal pipes or corners. This, of course, is not so simple โ€“ you need a certain skill, a special tool (a drill with a drill for metal, a grinder or a welding machine) and the ability to work with it. On the other hand, you will succeed in building, as they say, โ€œfor centuriesโ€.

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

It is a little easier to work with wire rod: arcs of the required height are bent from it, and then everything is done in the same way as when building a greenhouse made of plastic pipes. From metal pipes or a corner, you can assemble a single-slope or dual-slope greenhouse.

Glass or polycarbonate is ideal as a coating for a metal frame, but you can cover the structure with polyethylene or agrofiber.

Greenhouse from window frames

This type of protected ground structures is probably used most often, especially now, when many are actively changing old wooden windows to metal-plastic ones..

To build such a greenhouse, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the optimal dimensions for you and correlate them with the existing dimensions of the old window frames. The height and width of the greenhouse in this case will depend on the source material. The only thing that should not be forgotten is that a greenhouse that is too long and high should not be done โ€“ it will be extremely inconvenient to operate.

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

The frame for the structure can be made from the frames themselves (such a greenhouse will be as light as possible), or from ordinary boards. If you plan to use the greenhouse for many years, then you can make a capital frame by laying it out of bricks using cement mortar.

Note:during construction, it must be remembered that the frame must be made with a slope to the south, then the seedlings in your greenhouse will receive the maximum amount of light.

On the assembled frame, window frames are laid on top, which are best fixed on one side (the one that is higher) with loops, and on the other โ€“ to make a hook. You should also come up with supports that will keep the frames open while working in the greenhouse..

It is very important to pay special attention to the tightness of the structure, reliably sealing all the cracks with a sealant in order to isolate the interior space from environmental influences and create a microclimate favorable for young plants in the greenhouse.

Ways to maintain the required temperature

When growing seedlings, it is very important that the temperature in the greenhouse is kept constant. For this, you can use several heating methods..

Solar heatingโ€“ the simplest and cheapest way, based on the fact that the air is heated by the sunโ€™s rays falling through glass or film. In order for the plants to receive maximum light and heat, the coating must be constantly kept perfectly clean. The main disadvantage of this method is temperature drops during the day and at night..

Heating with electricityallows you to maintain the required temperature both day and night. For its organization, special heating wires are used, which are laid with a snake on the bottom of the greenhouse, previously sprinkled with a layer of gravel (2 cm thick) and a layer of sand (3 cm thick). From above, the wire is also covered with a layer of sand 5 cm thick, its ends are brought to the surface and connected to a regular network (220 V). To protect the wire from accidental mechanical damage, a thin metal sheet is laid on a layer of sand, and it is already covered with nutritious soil from above. The main drawback in this case is the high cost and relative complexity of installation..

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

Heating with biofuel is the most efficient and inexpensive way to maintain the temperature..

Biofuel use

To use biofuel for heating, the greenhouse must be buried fifteen to twenty centimeters into the soil. The earthen walls are lined with insulating material on the side, which is ideal for foam. After that, manure and any other organic matter, for example, dry foliage, hay or straw, are layered into the recess in layers. The soil mixture is laid out directly on the laid layers.

To heat the greenhouse, you can use the manure of various domestic animals (horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits).

Horse manure is considered ideal. Already a week after laying it in layers, the temperature in the greenhouse rises to 25โ€“30 degrees and stays stable for 2โ€“2.5 months. Because of the high heat generated, horse manure is ideal for heating early greenhouses where seedlings are grown.

How to make a greenhouse with your own hands

Cow and pig manure produces much less heat. The temperature in greenhouses after laying them as biofuel does not rise above 20 degrees and lasts no more than one month.

Goat, sheep and rabbit manure is practically not inferior to horse manure and emits the same amount of heat after laying.

When organizing heating with biofuel, it should be remembered that the substrate settles over time, so its layer must be made high enough when laying.

Thus, with a little imagination and spending a minimum of time and money, you can build an inexpensive and convenient structure for growing not only seedlings, but also early vegetables..

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Comments: 1
  1. Colton Anderson

    Could you please provide step-by-step instructions or a detailed guide on how to build a greenhouse from scratch? Iโ€™m really interested in creating one myself, but Iโ€™m not sure where to start or what materials to use. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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