Since the area you live in is the perfect climate for it you might want to think of using Kudzu instead of shade cloth. You will have the ability of adjusting the amount of sun the inside gets daily since it will generally cover an area that size overnight. No worries about drought or insect pest either. LOL you know of course that I am only kidding and that I love you to death. I just could not resist. I will send you a private email showing my efforts toward a GH.

Love from the Dawg and 1eyedJack.

The Dawg made me do it.

This pic was take a few months ago. There are now 3 of these "island style" tables on the right hand side and they're packed with plants. I'll post the new pics taken last week in another post. (scroll down)

The gray bins are now holding swiss chard and the second two bins have 2 tomato plants each. Where you see the fan are 3 pepper plants (1 wood table was removed) and the wood table in the corner holds last years Poinsettias.

OK......Now to the fun part huh??? Planning the layout. I didn't make any permanent beds on the outside......I planted a lot of stuff, but I'm still looking that over. I have left it so I could add to or pull out without disrupting a "flower bed" ......I think I like the natural "this always grew here" look. So things are kinda planted willy nilly I guess you could say. On the inside of the GH I wanted to be able to plant things in the ground under the benches. My under the bench beds are 2 ft. wide on each side, a 2 ft. walk on each side, and then the center bed. It has worked out really well. At first I was going to make the center bed go all the way to the back (north wall) but I am now glad I left a walk around kinda thing. Here's a few pictures I took today.............I think we know my camera came over on the Mayflower ....but maybe you can get some ideas....good luck!!!
Pat

west side bed
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east side bed
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center bed
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closer to fountain - center bed
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Pcan- I Love the built ins inside...exactly what I'd like to have...I guess since we have such HOT HOT summers, it's not too likely that I'd be able to grow much during that time, at least not until I have a much better handle on maintaining a GH (heating, cooling, venting etc)...but I suppose there would be a reasonably way to keep that ground covered? maybe a mini lasagne? anyone ever do the lasagne inside a GH?

Greenhouser, I had a similiar idea of extending out around the perimeter of the GH so I could plant stuff up close to it...and the plastic bins make sense to, since you can move around as needed. hmmmm, decisions decisions :)

Jack- you are a bad boy and I'll deal with you later ;)

I saw something very cool in a GH locally that I thought would be neat to try to do...it was an overhead mister made from PVC (straight pieces and corner pieces to make a box/square shape). It was attached with brackets to the roof and it used basic sprinkler fittings I think..and had a section of a hose also connected to it that ran down the wall near the door. and had a cut out on one of the front panels running to the outside...which I'm sure had a way to connect to another hose/faucet.

Anyway, lot's of ideas...one day at a time :)
I also have some metal shelving units as well as slatted wood benches to use. And I have a really cool thing I got from someone on freecyle that I need to take a photo of and post here. I'll have to work on that.

It's 2 big (some kind of fiberglass-like) scooped out basins, probably like 10 inches deep and easily 3 feet long by I'd say 2 or 3 feet wide....and they have a lip around them so that they can sit down into a frame made out of pvc pipe...the guy who gave them to me used them in a GH he had on his farm and he would start his seeds in them...what I dont remember is how they drain....but they are pretty cool. I sure wish I were more artistic so I could sketch something out...I may just take a shot at it and see what everone thinks... I know that there are so many ways to make it work...I'm just trying to be practical as well as creative...It will come together :) thanks to all for your thoughts thus far.

I don't have much to add to the good ideas here (well, I'm still thinking about that kudzu one.) Sigh, I still go weak in the knees over Pat's greenhouse.

I'll also have beds around the outside perimeter, because I found the rain beating on the bare dirt splashed up mud on the bottom of the polycarbonate panels...and that scratched the panels when I tried to clean it off. (I just have sharp desert sand around the greenhouse, no grass like you civilized folks.) Right now I have gravel mulch piled up around the outside foundation, and that solved the dirt splashing problem. I think any kind of mulch is a great idea.

I did my benches like greenhouser has hers, peninsula style, on one side. I drew out other plans with a big U-shaped bench and a small central island, but I found I got a few more square feet of bench space by placing the benches this way. The north side is just one long bench, but the south side has three perpendicular benches in addition to the long one:

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The space between the peninsula benches is about 20" wide, enough room for me to turn around and easily access all the plants. No room for a lovely fountain, but I knew I needed lots of table space!
Sheri

I just love your GH. :) Now that's what I call a place to sit and relax. Mine looks more like a commercial GH but I did squeeze in the chair for coffee breaks.

Sherri!!! that's where I had seen that design for benches!!! DUH...and that is perfect, very functional and looks nice too. Of course, I'd have to build all that instead of using what I have, that may be a consideration for a later date :) I'm going to try to find some of the pics I have seen on here a long time ago...see if I can round them all up. I know that designing the inside does not have to happen overnight, (of course I also realize that the GH has to be errected FIRST..(coming this Saturday, I've hired a handy man to help me do it) I"m really hoping we can knock it out in one afternoon...and I'm also hoping that it wont take the entire day...since I'm paying him by the hour. This (albeit an extra cost) seemed like the best option to get it put up correctly from the start). plus I only have limited power tools...(christmas is not far off, so maybe my DH can add to my PT arsenal then...he never thinks of getting me power tools, I wonder why that is...lol

rjinga wrote-
"Pcan- I Love the built ins inside...exactly what I'd like to have...I guess since we have such HOT HOT summers, it's not too likely that I'd be able to grow much during that time, at least not until I have a much better handle on maintaining a GH (heating, cooling, venting etc)...but I suppose there would be a reasonably way to keep that ground covered? maybe a mini lasagne? anyone ever do the lasagne inside a GH?"

Hmmm .......I'm pretty sure I'm missing something on the lasagne(a?) thing. I always do mine in the oven .....in the house ......hmmmmm..................

When I started out I made up my mind early on that I wanted a year round GH - something I could use and enjoy no matter the time of year. Heating - not a problem (one dinky little electric heater did the trick on the nights it was needed). Cooling - welcome to the sub-tropics. Heat is the big deal here. Keeping in mind what I wanted to grow (tropicals and orchids) I placed my GH so that I am shaded by very tall trees by 1-2 pm, heat problem over for the day. I have the full east sun, and overhead sun at noon. Cooling - believe me when I tell you I tried it all LOL.....the key is moving a LOT of air. My exhaust fan turns over the air inside the GH a little better than twice a min. But I really saw a difference when I got a fan blowing into the GH at about the same rate. You can see the fan in this pic. I have mounted it under the arbor now and up out of the way.

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Misters mounted high in the GH come on at around 11am most days, and go off around 2pm or so (thermostat controlled). Smaller fans mounted at different areas inside the GH then dry the plants before nightfall. Shade cloth? - good grief - that's a whole book all by itself. The important thing to remember is that you can read read read here and other places, it's great for ideas, but you will still need to find what will work for you. You have a niche that is unique to as to GH conditions. So it takes a lot of tinkering ......IF you want to "live in there" year round ..........BUT, it is indeed WONDERFUL once you get it all worked out. Let me know if I can help!!

And, thanks, for the nice comments on my GH from all you guys!!
Pat

I think that is great advice. Read read read, and then jump in and try stuff. Tinkering is right! I am another stubborn "year-rounder" and I'm determined to find the way to make it work in my climate.

rjinga, you have probably already thought of this, but to save time I'd suggest laying out all the GH parts ahead of time...grouping them by number. Maybe put all the little fiddly parts in a plastic shoebox so you can grab it (and not drop parts in the grass/dirt.) I'd go over the manual a lot too, so you're not paying your helper to stand in the sun and read the manual over and over. There is a good chance your guy will be better at intuitively grasping the instructions than we were, but we did stand around and do a lot of head-scratching and looking for parts. Many of the parts look alike when they are in a jumble, and sometimes you have to flip them around five times to find the darned little number sticker!

Let us know how it goes!

Pat, your greenhouse is an inspiration!

Pat,
Will you come to WI and design my GH. Thanks everyone for posting. Great Ideas!

Pat,
nice set up...something to aspire to :)

Mudhouse,
thanks for the advice..I will definitely try to get that set up ahead of time...he's coming on saturday :) (I'm like a newly expecting parent, hee hee)
question though...we've been getting rain about every day here, and if I do this ahead of him arriving (say Friday) do you think that there is any risk of those numbers stickers falling off the pieces? I guess I could always cover it over in place with a big tarp...(silly how you dont think of the obvious until you are asking someone else ;) of course I will cover it with a tarp!!!
I've still got ALOT to do in getting the spot prepped before he comes too....I'm making a Lowe's run today for stuff. I tried going over all the posts I saw to get a "list" together, hopefully I wont duplicate a bunch, but it can always be returned.
Did you put anything down first on the ground (like a weed barrier or black plastic or anything) the reason I ask is two fold...one, as you might recall, this area is my weed prone area...a constant problem...where I have covered with lasagne layers, the weeds are all but gone!!! this area has not been covered...I'm going to spray heavy with round up...then probably put a bunch of newspaper down and then heavy plastic...I am not even 100% sure what material I will use on the floor...sigh....
But if I put down a heavy plastic or weed block stuff...will that affect the areas I plan to use as planting beds inside? I guess I'd have to build them up with good soil and not necessarily depend on the soil underneath the greenhouse? I think putting down chicken wire on the ground level (on top of the black plastic) is also a good idea, just in case someone wants to try to dig underground to get inside.
I better get moving...yikes....

I did not use weed barrier or chicken wire, BUT I live in an area with no digging varmints, and the place where we put the GH is hot barren sand with almost NO vegetation. Based on your site photos, I'd sure put down something before you put down whatever you use for a floor. (I think you could do that later though, since you're in a time crunch.) Here is a good thread about plastic vs. weed barrier:
GH floor: plastic or landscape fabric

I have read many comments about the benefits of chicken wire to keep critters out (birdwidow had some good posts about this, but I can't find them right now.) jba3fan did a fabulous foundation and here's that thread with pics: New 10 x 12 HFGH. As I said, this is a billion times better than what we did, but it might give you some ideas.

rjinga, I think you've probably already read this elsewhere but I really think a couple layers of overlapping cardboard would do the trick for your weed problem. You and I are not that far from each other....I'm on the West middle Georgia/East AL state line. Several months without any sunlight is usually enough to kill any weed no matter how tough it is. It'll be free plus once it gets good and wet for a while it'll soften to the point you can dig through it easily for your planting beds without having to remove weed barrier or plastic sheeting. And it will eventually decompose in a few months and by then the weeds should be long dead.

Just a thought.

Also, I'll be constructing a PVC overhead misting system similar to what you described in my greenhouse. I've done them for outdoor nursery beds before and they're very inexpensive and easy to do. The system you're describing could also be divided up into smaller sections to make it portable or able to be easily moved and reconfigured if plants on some benches have different watering needs than plants on others. Something else to think about.

Good luck with your greenhouse and when it's done can I come visit and steal your ideas??
Danielle J.

I primarily use the GH in the early spring for vegetable plants and annuals, in the summer I use it for propagating cuttings of perennials and landscape plants. From late fall to early spring I use it to propagate hardwood cuttings and storage of tropical plants, tubers and bulbs. I don't know which GH you will be installing but if its one of the smaller ones, with limited height, I would dig out the foundation 12 to 16ins. I am just finishing replacing my old GH and don't have everything moved in yet. John(Zone 5)


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Danielle,
I think that (cardboard layers or newspaper?) could work, I also can put some sheets of plywood on top of lots of cardboard. at least until I decide what I want to do, my neighbor has offered me his left overs from a new house he's building next door, there would be enough of those big sheets to cover the inside floor.

I think that along with a douse of roundup? should do it. Would be a major bummer to have weeds come up inside!!!

I tell you I was out in an area where I did lasagne layers on one of the weed areas...and the weeds are sure gone, but that *(%@! Bermuda grass almost THRIVES on growing up through it...so sad..who ever invented Bermuda grass anyways? HE (sorry guys) should be flogged in a public square and tortured slowly. (JK of course, sorta)

PS: I'm going to do my best to make a photo journal of the assembly process.

John what size is your GH ? Is it a Rion? I like the windows at the bottom and the color of the frame. Nice job putting it together.... Barb

John, I like your greenhouse too. The adjustable shelving is nice...I considered those strong brackets and the track at Lowe's, when I was buying my closet shelving, but my wallet made me chicken out. Nice set up!
Sheri

It is a Rion GH44 (8ft X 8ft). One of the reasons I went for the Rion, is that it is expandable, (who knows?). The adjustable shelving only makes it look like there are windows at the bottom, they are only the side pannels. John

LOL mudhouse the first thing I saw was those ajustable shelves!! Nice John!! The Rion is a nice looking GH. When you get all moved in send more pic's!! I love the pictures!!

John, I think I may have left an element out...I need a desk/work area in my GH and then I never have to leave ;)

My next GH is going to look like this one :) A girl can dream.....(I know Jack, you told me this one was too fluffy, but it sure is pretty to me) (listen to me already planning the NEXT one and I have not even put the first one up...wonder what one like this would cost.....hmmmm

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You are going to have to make a hell of a lot of Kudzu jelly to pay for one of those. Better to use the old sliding glass doors.

1eyedJack and the Dawg

RAIN, RAIN RAIN for two days now, no more than two days.

I love that greenhouse also. It costs $$$$$. BUT IT SURE IS BEAUTIFUL.

If you are worried about critters install chicken wire barried around foundation about 8" deep. The top edge of the wire should be covered by the floor. I would lay down weed barrier first, no matter what the floor covering. No weeds! If you are worried about too much heat in the summer the best and cheapest bet is to make your poly easily removable. The less poly the more air circulation. Without knowing how your structure is configured I can't tell you if seasonal poly removal will be easy for you or not. It does beat paying fot electricity for fans. The panels can be replaced with framed screens. Pretty easty to make yourself to size.

So this is the newest pic thread?

I will post some. GH from the yard in summer.
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Some plant photos, starting with Candy Cane Curcuma.
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I have 4 TR Hovey papayas, all about 5' tall, but this is the only one with female blooms:
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Breynia rosea picta:
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Juanulloa aurantiaca
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Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury'
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Passiflora 'McCain'
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Passionfruits from same:
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Washington navel oranges
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Ficus 'Panachee'
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Sorry, rjinga, I read the first line of your post but ignored the title. This really wasn't the most appropriate place to post flower pics. I will see if I have a layout pic or diagram.

Sorry. :-(

I found a diagram in my files. The GH is 20x23.

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stressbaby, I enjoyed your pictures :) and thanks for the diagram, there are obviously so many great ways to set up the inside benches etc. I'd like to have flexibility to move stuff around if I get the urge too....I have a neighbor who has offered to build me a big (long) potting bench...how cool is that? I told him that I'd put in the stuff I have and we could see what will still be needed and go from there.

I am spending the whole day tomorrow prepping for my Handy Man guy to come and start building on Saturday...(I procrastinated)

Rjinga,
I will think about you working you butt off tomorrow while I watch a group of 1st graders. OMG poor me with no experince with the little one being childless myself.
We both should have a trying day LOL

1euedJack and the Dawg