My new shadehouse
For over 20 years I've wanted a greenhouse. It's finally the right time to have one but living in Florida it can't be a greenhouse…it must be a shadehouse! We looked at many commercially made greenhouse kits but they're all beyond our means and they have polycarbonate siding which would keep the building too hot, therefore kill my plants unless we installed an evaporative cooler…and they are also expensive.
Lucky for me hubby has an entire workshop of tools and equipment he's collected through our years of rehabbing and flipping houses and he can do pretty much anything with electric and plumbing.
So I designed my own shadehouse! And we built it! It's 12x10 and 8' high at the back, sloping 3" lower in the front to let rain run off. It's made of pressure treated lumber and PT plywood 2' up. The rest is lined with chicken wire to keep the cost down. The roof is polycarbonate sheets. We used 2 sheets white and 3 smoky. The white allows lots of light through but diffused. The smoky also shields my plants from straight sun but allows dappled sun through. My sun loving plants will live under the smoky roof and the shade plants under the white part. Hubby also installed an outdoor ceiling fan to aid with the air circulation which is so important to plants.
I grow mostly orchids and tropical ferns plus other tropical plants so during our 2-3 months of cold weather we will cover the chicken wire sides with plastic. But as you all know, even when it get down to the 30s at night it gets up in the 60s in the daytime. I didn't want to have to be removing the plastic ever morning and re-applying it every evening so we installed two old windows we had on two sides. The door is an old door we also had and we replaced the glass with chicken wire.
And now for the cost. The same sized greenhouses ran from $1000 - $2000, not counting an evaporative cooler, and replacing the sides with fencing material. Our cost, including the ceiling fan, was just over $600 and three whole days of work.
If anyone wants the list of materials I can post it or PM it.
Here are some photos of the building process. We finished building earlier today and moved the plants in it from my plant room. So after I get everything organized in there I'll give you a tour!
Comments (12)
- 9 years ago
Here is the finished building! The chicken wire, the shade from the trees and the fan should keep the temp to the same or a little less than outside. The side with the door is my sunny side so my sun orchids are there. You can see my two blooming vandas. We attached three, 10' 3/4" aluminum electrical conduit rods, one on each side for the hanging plants. Those are up and the plants look very comfortable!
All that's left to do is construct the benches which will be the height of the plywood. I'll post more photos after they're done. BTW we're using two louvered folding doors for the tops. They, the rods and the wood for the bench legs were either given to us or leftovers from other projects.
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- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Top half where the hanging plants are is done.
Starting with the front side, next to the door is the sunny side where my sunny orchids hang. I only have 2 vandas and I love them so plan to buy two more. That's all the room I have for them. Next to them is a Brassavola nodosa and next to that a Dendrobium lindleyi. Sorry the picture doesn't shows these two well. I'll take another one soon.
The cattleyas and other sun lovers will sit below them on the bench.
Next. This side gets dappled sun throughout the day.
That's my monster polypody on the left! And here it is again below. It measures almost four feet across. I rescued it from Walmart two years ago from the trash bin. Paid a dollar for it and it was tiny and very sad.
The back side. All shade. Spiders and another rabbit's foot on the left that was left to die when my neighbors moved out.
The left side (garage side)
More to hang: my staghorn to the left of the boston fern. Then we need to make the benches for more ferns, orchids, peace lilly which is sitting on the floor now … you can see its top above. It's as big as the polypody.
I also have a Ficus (benjamina) and a Duranta, each about 5' tall and easily 4 feet across, a bird of paradise, a hibiscus, a bat plant and a cereus that need winter protection when we get those really cold night. I have allowed space for them too.
All the plants except the bird of paradise, the vandas, the bat plant and the monster plant made the trip from the north with me.
They are happy plants! They have spent most of their lives indoors until now except for about 4 warm months in the summer up north. Some of them are quite old. My cereus was given to me as a stick about 30 years ago. The ponytail which is now planted outside is at least 25 years old.
You may notice shade cloth (30%), hanging on the top half all around except on the back which always in shade. Plan to put it on the bottom half as well. Will leave it up for a couple weeks because even the sun plants can burn if they have not been in direct sun before so they need to acclimate.
Tommys Gardens