You must have been a very good girl. I think you will have fun with it.

You were clearly not naughty! Nice!

Instead of "OkieDawn", we're gonna have to change your name to "Hothouse Hannah"!

That is a FANTASTIC Christmas present that I know you've been wanting for awhile.

Susan

bee-u-ti-ful!!!

dody

Ooh! Ahh! Santa did good this year! I'm excited for you!!

Diane

I second the "ooohhh" & "ahhhh"!!! If not renaming you "Hothouse Hannah"...how about "Dandy Dawn"? Oh wait...that was taken by some football player, wasn't it? (RIP).

I KNOW!!! "Hot Dandy Okiedawn"! ok...cheesy & I'll stop.

Santa Tim got extra brownie points, didn't he? This is exciting!

Paula

WooHoo - Lucky you. Don't try to fill it up with spring planting because that's a lot of space. I want one so badly, but we are planning to build a new storage building on an existing concrete pad. I want mine to be built on the south side of that building so it has a solid north wall shared with the storage building. The existing building has electricity so that is a plus.

I think you will be able to grow an amazing amount of food inside eventhough you don't plan to heat it. Love County gets a lot of sunny days, even in winter. That was sweet of Tim to get you that for Christmas.

Thank you all for the kind comments. I know I'm lucky and I appreciate having a DH who supports my gardening addiction. Now, if only we can have a quiet day or two in the next month to get it put together!

Tim is not a gardener. In fact, the garden has to be protected from him when he has any sort of power equipment in his hands....but he's really good about helping me (as long as there is no power equipment in his hands) and he's great about buying me whatever I say I "need", although sometimes he and I have a different idea of what is a "need" and what is a "want".

I have noticed that ever since we started giving his coworkers lovely bags of homecanned goodies a couple of years ago, he is "the man" during the holiday season and that is, coincidentally, a great time to implant thoughts in his mind like "you know, we've been here 12 years now and I still don't have a greenhouse...." Maybe he bought this one just to shut me up! lol

I have tried many times to grow lettuce and salad greens for him but it is almost impossible to harvest them before the animals get them because we are in such a wildlife-heavy area and anything green in the garden in late winter and early spring gets devoured by every living creature you can think of. It is amazing how many hungry animals find their way into the garden in winter but don't bother it the rest of the year....and it isn't like the fence changes with the season. The desperate hunger of the animals is what changes, I think.

So, one of the main purposes of the greenhouse will be to raise lettuce and salad greens, radishes and carrots in a more controlled setting. All of them will be in containers of one sort or another too so that even if a baby bunny or field mouse or vole or whatever finds their way into the greenhouse (and I hope they won't), they won't be able to reach the salad.

I still want a big greenhouse with polycarb walls, a heater and all that, but that's probably still a good ways off. This one will, I hope, keep me happily busy for a few years before I fill it up and start hollering that I need a bigger one. : ) If I can stretch the growing season by 3 or 4 weeks in late winter and 3 or 4 weeks (or more) in late fall, I'll be happy. I think with a cold frame inside or with greens grown under frost blankets, I may be able to keep greens going all winter long in most years.

Dawn, Look how they are growing lettuce in this greenhouse. I think that would be great for winter growing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Montana greenhouse

OOh, so neat. That looks like a really neat greenhouse. I've known people who have built ones like that. Like you I have wanted one for years, but with limited time and money, never got it.
Now that DH is retired, we have been working on ours. It is actually planned as a combination storageshed and greenhouse. It will function as a greenhouse in the winter and storage shed in the summer. So It will have only limited southern roof surface made of polycarb, southern wall of recycled windows and north roof and wall of tin. I too want to be able to grow winter hardy veggies under frost covers all winter. As of now still have lettuce, spinach and a couple heads of chinese cabbage in my small cold frames. I've covered them with quilts and a tarp on many nights.

I am so excited for both of us. Please keep us posted on your experience with it.

nice lookin greenhouse. may i make a suggestion? fashion some screenwire inside the intake to keep the bugs and varmits out while they are open. you'll also probably want to get some shadecloth for when the days get warmer.

you will be addicted before long and will have it overflowing and needing a bigger one. I started with a 10x12 and have added a 16x48 and still ran out of room. it makes it harder to throw out plants.

i never had much luck with water barrels for solar heat. seems they cooled down too fast to do much good and took up precious space.

what a fun present. bet you can't wait for spring.

Carol,

I've seen that one before. As soon as I saw the first photo, I said to myself "that's the geologist's greenhouse"! I love the stone "patio" the greenhouse is placed upon and I love their hanging window boxes. Somehow, at our house, I think the hanging window boxes would become swings for the cats to jump up into and destroy. I've yet to find a way to keep cats out of window boxes, except by putting a "low tunnel" of woven wire fencing in a hoop shape over the box. My cats think window boxes are cat beds. And....for a couple of years I've had windowboxes filled with begonias at the base of each chicken coop window. The chickens, though, think the window boxes are nesting boxes unless I put the same wire fencing tunnel over the boxes to keep them out. What is it with animals and window boxes?

Dorothy, I look forward to hearing all about your greenhouse adventures. When we get around to building a greenhouse, it may be a lot like yours. We have a book of shed building plans and one of them is for a SunShed that is half garden shed (the north part of the building) and half greenhouse (the south part). That's the one we like the most of all that we've seen in terms of it being something practical and useful.

My greenhouse dreams took a hit on that day in May when we had all those tornadoes. I think it was May 10th. Although tornado damage in Love County was minimal compared to what happened in other counties, one beautiful wood and glass greenhouse up near the Carter County-Love County line was pounded by baseball-sized hail. The photos of that severely damaged greenhouse were on the news, in the paper, etc. and it was so discouraging. I could only imagine how I'd feel if I'd had a big, beautiful hobby greenhouse like that just pounded by huge hail. Of course, the odds of hail of that size hitting any specific greenhouse in our state our probably fairly low.

Busy1, Thanks for the insect screen advice. I've been thinking about that, and already planned to get shade cloth. I already use shadecloth to partially shade some tomato plants in the dead of summer. I cannot imagine having a 16 x 48 greenhouse! I would be in hog heaven and probably would spend an inordinate amount of time in it.

I have had luck with large containers of water keeping a couple of low tunnels warm, but that may not translate to a structure this big. However, I'm pretty far south and gets oodles and oodles of sun, so that might work in our favor. Most people here keep shadecloth on their greenhouses almost year-round because we occasionally have days in the 70s and 80s, and even on rare occasions in the 90s, in the winter and early spring months.

Jessaka, You're right! I wish it were spring right now.

Since the coldest winter weather still lies ahead of us, I'll just have to be patient. Patience is a virtue, but I don't have a lot of patience. lol

Dawn

Dawn, I have a little greenhouse that we bought from Harbor Freight, on sale a few years ago. It's unheated and part of the panels I changed out with clear plexiglass, so it doesn't hold heat at all. It's really a place to sit during the winter, when the sun is shining. I grow a little lettuce and greens for a salad or to put on sandwiches, once in a while. I haven't had any problem with the things I grow. I throw a piece of medium weight row cover over the plants if it is going to be below 20 degrees at night and they do just fine. I try to order seeds that are said to stand up to cold. I'll try to attach a picture I took last month.

Dawn, i posted in the unheated greehouse thread, but i post it here too.

I'm in the process of getting dsl at my business and should have it next week. I'll try and get some pictures and post them here to throw out some ideas.

I fashioned some frames on the outside of the greenhouse for the intake louvers. Since mine are motorized and i could'nt think of a better way to seal it.

On one side of the greenhouse i built a frame with a shelf underneath to hold my empty containers. But still have a bench top for starting seeds.

I'm always finding something that helps improve it and is a work in progress. I still have some ideas for the other side, but still requires money.

I have a portable carport that i need to turn into a greenhouse at my business. gonna have to get started pretty soon if i plan on useing it for my plants.

Oh, get ready to battle bugs year round.

Dawn, that is a super gift! I have looked at those for a long time. That is a good price too. I had about $200 in my 12x12 hoophouse (tornado got that one!) I had zero luck raising the nighttime temp with black poly 55 gallon drums of water. Some people toss pool covers over theirs in the winter for insulation. Lots of good ideas over on the Greenhouse Forum.

Funny, I have a similar husband. I have to watch him to keep him from walking on rows of plants.... Once I let him trim around the garden with the trimmer...........he cut down a young nectarine tree. He is now only allowed to mow around the outside of the garden or help me when I am in the garden to watch! He still doesn't know one plant from the other until it is in the producing stage!

You better tear into those boxes soon.....your garden season is fast approaching. I would be doing that myself too! I am the household "handy man".

Glenda,

I am not a handyman type. The larger problem will be that Tim is going to have to run the big tiller (which is so big I cannot control it) to till up the area where I want to put the structure because it is very uneven. (ALL our ground is uneven.) Then, we'll have to rake it out and level it and pack down the soil firmly. Almost every square foot of our land slopes both from south (higher ground) to north and then from west (higher ground) down to the east, so flat land is at a premium. Our house and barn-style garage sit on the flattest area, and then a lot of the 10 acres of woodland are fairly flat but the rest of the "open" land slopes. I've tried to find a location for the greenhouse that has the most flat land available, but we're still going to have to regrade it somewhat.

Once, Tim was near the garden gate arbor that is the entry to my veggie garden and he took the chainsaw to cut down a tree sapling that was coming up through the fence. It was very hard to get to it....but he did. He also took out an entire 5-year-old coral honeysuckle plant that he wasn't supposed to remove. He kills virtually every tree I plant if he gets near it with a lawn mower or string trimmer......some people just shouldn't be allowed around living plants with power equipment.

We had planned to put up the greenhouse next week, but with the big cold front approaching, it may not happen until the week after.

Dawn

Dawn,
Congratulations on the greenhouse. It is nice looking. Know you will put it too good use. I took 2 days off to get started back on mine. But with the cooler temps coming and other projects to do I feel it will be another few weeks till I do. Still changing my mind about what to cover it with. I was in Home Depot Monday. I think I have changed my mind about what I will cover the north top and side with. Will be a solid color and then probably film over the south top and side and polycarbonate on the ends. But that could change. I'm about to the point of putting the top and sides on if I ever get the projects in front of it finished. Installed a new outside steel clad door in the utility room yesterday. I had planned on 2-3 hours. Took over 5. Everything in this house is old. A lot original when it was built in the early 50's. Most projects turn into a full day job. I installed a solid door. The old door had a window in the top and I could look from my computer room to the outside. Now all I see is dark. Have windows to the south of the door I can see out of. Trying to make things warmer and cheaper to heat. Jay

Jay, Thanks. I hope the greenhouse will give me a new place to play on cool spring days. After a dozen years of carrying seedling flats in/out whenever the wind kicks up too strong or whatever, I'm ready to have a somewhat sheltered place for them.

On that horrible wildfire day of April 9, 2009, when all of Oklahoma burned, I carried out my tomato seedlings which were at the tail-end of the hardening-off process. Then, I went into the kitchen and starting preparing food for our firefighters because with winds expected to be blowing around 50 mph by late afternoon, and with a Red Flag Fire Warning, I "knew" it would be a bad day and I wanted to have food ready. My friend, Fran, was at her house cooking as well and we were so proud of ourselves for getting ready in advance. I thought I'd finish cooking, move all the plants inside and out of the wind, and be ready to roll when the pagers went off. My timing was off, though, and the pagers went off while I was cooking and the plants were still outside. I started throwing food and drinks into the truck to head for the station as the fire situation rapidly, rapidly escalated and the call went out to start evacuating homes......

I quickly moved the plants up against the house, hoping it would block the wind enough to protect them. There just wasn't any way I could stay home long enough to carry in a dozen flats of plants. I returned home from the firefield about 12 hours later to many dead or nearly dead seedlings that had been beaten to death by the wind. I hope I don't ever have to go through that again. Luckily, I start way too many seedlings and always have plenty to spare. Still, losing that many of them hurt. That's the main reason for the greenhouse....to give the poor little seedlings some protection from the elements.

If I had that day to live over again, I probably wouldn't have carried out all those plants knowing fire was inevitable in those weather conditions. If the weather had performed "as forecast", it would have arrived a couple hours later and I would have had the seedlings back inside. You know how the weather is though....it does what it wants no matter the forecast.

Tim recently had to replace the walk-in door on the east side of the barn-style garage back in late summer. It was a really hard job. First of all, the door was not a standard size and the door he picked up at Home Depot didn't fit, so he had to take it back and drive to J&I Mfg. in another county to get a door that was an exact fit. Then, it took him and our friend Jesse about 5 or 6 hours to get that door installed. It ended up taking an entire day, a trip to first Home Depot and then J&I, lunch in town with friends, and a long afternoon/evening of wrestling with that door and getting it installed just perfectly. It is odd how seemingly simple projects turn into major ordeals sometimes.

We have a door in our laundry room that has a window, and it would be more energy-efficient to have a solid steel door there, but I'd really miss the light from that window.

Dawn