Otherwise known as my upcoming adventures with a Harbor Freight Greenhouse. I had a dream the other week about trying to squeeze in a third greenhouse, even going so far as mapping electrical and water in my dream. I woke up and instantly thought that was silly, the easiest would be to just move the empty small greenhouse to behind the garage, and put a larger greenhouse in it's place where we already have electric and water set up.
Then came the deciding on a new greenhouse. I decided since we live in a fairly mild climate I would try getting one of the cheapy HF greenhouses and making some of the upgrades people talk about online to make it more sturdy, I already have a small pile of emt in the yard, and lots of caulk. I looked on line, and low and behold the 10x12 was on sale for $679 from $899, and I had a coupon for an additional 20% off. Out of stock online, and shipping was an extra $100, so I called the Harbor Freight they just opened up the street three days ago to see if they by chance had them in stock. They had 2, and the cashier there also gave me a 25% off coupon to be nice, so the greenhouse came to $550 including tax and we were able to load it in the truck and drive it home, it's like it was a sign I was supposed to get one >.<
So now the fun part, designing it! I've already decided to make the now smaller greenhouse my warm house, which means cranking the thermostat from a max of 80 degrees to 90 degrees. It also means I won't need the giant swamp cooler on the warm one, I will be putting it on the new cool house, and installing my smaller swamp cooler on my existing greenhouse, which can keep it at a comfortable 80-85 if I wanted. There are some small differences with the swamp coolers, mainly that I will have to raise the small one up to reach the hole cut for the taller unit on the 8.5x12, but I can work that out later, a wood platform should be easy.
This will be for housing HL Nepenthes, Cephalotus, Heli's, and cooler growing orchids, along with my ever expanding epiphytic blueberry collection.
I'm still working on possible bench, shelf, and hanging pole ideas for the new one. If anyone has some ideas, or experience working with these greenhouses, please share, the fewer mistakes I make the better
Then came the deciding on a new greenhouse. I decided since we live in a fairly mild climate I would try getting one of the cheapy HF greenhouses and making some of the upgrades people talk about online to make it more sturdy, I already have a small pile of emt in the yard, and lots of caulk. I looked on line, and low and behold the 10x12 was on sale for $679 from $899, and I had a coupon for an additional 20% off. Out of stock online, and shipping was an extra $100, so I called the Harbor Freight they just opened up the street three days ago to see if they by chance had them in stock. They had 2, and the cashier there also gave me a 25% off coupon to be nice, so the greenhouse came to $550 including tax and we were able to load it in the truck and drive it home, it's like it was a sign I was supposed to get one >.<
So now the fun part, designing it! I've already decided to make the now smaller greenhouse my warm house, which means cranking the thermostat from a max of 80 degrees to 90 degrees. It also means I won't need the giant swamp cooler on the warm one, I will be putting it on the new cool house, and installing my smaller swamp cooler on my existing greenhouse, which can keep it at a comfortable 80-85 if I wanted. There are some small differences with the swamp coolers, mainly that I will have to raise the small one up to reach the hole cut for the taller unit on the 8.5x12, but I can work that out later, a wood platform should be easy.
This will be for housing HL Nepenthes, Cephalotus, Heli's, and cooler growing orchids, along with my ever expanding epiphytic blueberry collection.
I'm still working on possible bench, shelf, and hanging pole ideas for the new one. If anyone has some ideas, or experience working with these greenhouses, please share, the fewer mistakes I make the better