Sounds like a wonderful gift! I'd be interested to hear also, I'm wondering if heating in the winter would be as expensive as I fear it might be.

I think it might be expensive depending on how it is done..I've read on the greenhouse forum about some people using wood stoves to heat their greenhouses. Any other novel ideas?

Depending on how you intend to use your greenhouse, I suppose, there can be a great deal of water splashed around, so we find a gravel floor (over compacted soil) to be very practical...the runoff waters an area around the greenhouse too. The interior of our greenhouse gets washed down in spring with a brush on the end of the hose, and the pots in it are watered daily with pails of rain water, mostly, or with the hose; a lot of water gets slopped around too in the semiannual filling/emptying and general maintenance of the ponds (for tropical water plants), so gravel suits our usage well.

Wood is very slippery when wet, and I could imagine it might also be prone to rot prematurely in the high humidity (if not downright frequent wetness) of a greenhouse (even with thermostatically-controlled ventilation).

I'm thinking about possibly doing some sort of brick floor. I think because of the huge slope in our yard the gravel might run off. The greenhouse is going to have to be dug into the slope somewhat. Here are some photos of the greenhouse in process as well as our sloped yard.

thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: greenhouse & yard

WOW-
What a great building! I don't know which I like more- your green-house or his shop!!!
I wonder what my hubby would do with a shop like that! I better not let him see this.... Or he may go on "strike" till he has something that grand to build in!
You have a lovely yard- a beautifull green house- and a very sweet husband! You are quite blessed!
I do hope you find the right solution for keeping it HOT! Remember to think Green- solar- wind- it may cost more at set up- but would be so much affordable in the long run!

The house is a wow too. Where will the green house go? It is beautiful by the way. I too have a house on a slope as well as hills. Makes for some interesting gardening.

Totally different question. How did you post the photos? I still have yet to figure that out.

zen... you have to host the pictures (upload them to a photo site or your own webspace) somewhere first. Some of the forums here allow you to upload a photo to this site, they are indicated with a camera icon on this page: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Watch out for the full-screen, motion picture-like ads! bleah

Oh my Gosh!
I just remembered- I recieved a catalog with several strucure kits- hoop houses and such- but they were also advertising black "plastic" bags filled with water as heat sinks- there were many ways to use them- on the ground, along the walls- in the center of the structure ect. all to best optimise their solar heat absorbing qualities....
Maybe you could add copper tubing to permanent planting beds/tabels and have a passive radient heat system hooked up to a very efficient wood stove that would only need daily tending.....
just thinking ....

I know I'm very lucky to have such a sweet husband. He actually is building it in the shop he rents out for his business. He did it all on his own. I had no idea how great it was gonna be. (i thought maybe a small little thing)

He is talking about somehow using the heat from our hot tub outside to heat the greenhouse. I have to admit I don't really get it but I brought it up on the greenhouse forum and no one has said it's crazy yet.

I am a complete greenhouse novice though so I'm sure there will b quite a bit of trial and error. I'm hoping to do tomato, herbs, peppers etc. Also maybe Dahlias as I'd like to grow some of those really, really big ones.

Those of you who grow in greenhouses, what do you grow and what time of year do you grow it?