THE CHEAPSKATE RURAL GARDENER: Project Greenhouse - The Finale

The garden center/nursery/conservatory...whatever you want to call it...is complete. The last step was to build a potting bench. If we're going to go whole hog and build a greenhouse, a potting bench is a logical next step. It'll make working on our plants much easier than just sitting on a patch of ground with some potting mix and a pot.

So, now my job is to take these four boards and make a potting bench out of them.

Before I started, I took the plywood boards and painted them with polyurethane to weatherproof them. I also painted an orchid on the board that would be the backsplash. It's an orchid that is named after my wife's grandfather (Catteleya Melecio Huerta 'señor perfecto').

Next, I had my wife stand at a few counters in our house and tell me which is the perfect height for her. 35 inches is what we determined so I laid out a couple of 4x4's...which would be the back legs of the bench...and measured 35 inches from the where the surface of the bench would be.

I cut my lumber using my miter saw, then positioned the back legs and backsplash to the proper position. I secured the backsplash to the 4x4s using 2 inch wood screws, then attached an "L" bracket to the 4x4s, which will be used to hold the larger plywood board that will make the surface of the bench.

I attach the bigger board to the brackets with 5/8 inch wood screws, put on the front legs (which I sink two 2 inch wood screws into each corner to the 4x4s), then put two more "L" brackets on the front legs and the plywood.

The last step is to put a bead of caulk where the two pieces of plywood meet, to keep it waterproof, and screw a big hook into the side where I can hang a watering can.

Put it up against the back fence, next to the greenhouse, and it's all done. Now, the only thing left to do is start using it. 

Darryl Musick
Copyrigh 2022 - All Rights Reserved

THE CHEAPSKATE RURAL GARDENER: Project Greenhouse - Accessorizing

The greenhouse is built but the work isn't done. I've still got a lot to do...

To start with, I'll need something to set my plants on. Just setting them on the ground would not be efficient, I need some benches.

I could go and just buy some. A six foot plastic bench would be $150-200. I'd need 2 plus a five foot bench. I'm a cheapskate, that's getting pretty spendy.

Instead, I'll build my own. I have a nice pile of 4x4 scrap redwood and pressure treated wood, which is resistant to rot, so I won't have to spend any money on that.

1x6 redwood milled lumber board can be $25-40 each but six foot long 1x6 redwood fence planks are only $5 each. That's the perfect size and the benches don't have to be perfect or pretty so I'll get a dozen of these instead.

Time to dig out my trusty miter saw.

I cut my 4x4's into 11" lengths. I'll need 15 of those, the benches will have 2 legs at each end, 1 leg in the middle for added support, a couple of fence posts will be cut into 17.5 inch lengths to provide a platform between the fence planks and 4x4's to be able to attach easily.

I lay out my 4x4's, and put my planks on top. I sink in some 2" wood screws at the end of each plank and through the middle. 

The first bench I make is five feet long so I can turn it sideways into the back of the greenhouse.

The next two benches come together quickly and are six feet long to go on the side of the greenhouse. Each bench is 13 inches high, I can add another level above it easily when I run out of room. Now I have a bench around 3/4 of the greenhouse. It takes me about two hours and a total cost of about $75 to make the three benches.

I like gardening, as you can tell, but I'm not one of those who like to manually water each one of my plants. Over the years, I've gotten quite good at installing automatic drip and microsprinkler systems so I can spend my time doing something else. This greenhouse will be no different so now I have to put in an irrigation system.

You might have noticed in the pictures of the greenhouse and construction that there is a sprinkler at the right corner, just outside of the greenhouse. This is no accident. In fact, that's a big reason I built the greenhouse where I did.

In addition to being a patch of grass that wasn't needed, the location had sprinklers. That means there's a source of water already there that's connected to an automatic timer. I could make this work to my benefit.

Before I built the greenhouse, I capped the second sprinkler by the back fence taking it out of service. Next, I dug the sprinkler in the picture out. I unscrewed the sprinkler, put in a stainless steel extender pipe, and screwed the sprinkler back on as a place holder/cap until I was finished building.

Now, I take the sprinkler back off and replace it with a $2.99 valve that I bought at our local Ace Hardware.

I got a brass hose end repair with a fluted nozzle.

I drill a hole in the plastic glass, thread a 1/2" drip hose, through it, and fit the end of my hose (I've had some sitting around left over from an earlier project) over the nozzle and clamp it on with the clamp that came inside the hose repair kit.

I run the hose around the frame of the greenhouse and attach with some plastic clips that I got from Amazon for around $10.

Next, I'll strap some microsprinklers to the side of the greenhouse. I figure I'll need 2 on each side for a total of four. This will be pretty much all I'll need for water although I anticipate that some plants in the future may need their own drip line...but that's a job for another day. It's also cheap and easy to do.

Now, I just have to go to my current sprinkler system timer and put in the schedule I want for the water to go off. I think I'll go for 4 minutes of water every other day, plus a minute or two during the hottest time of the day in the summer to help keep it cool, to start with and make any adjustment as necessary as time goes on.

I have a successful test and the wet gravel, after the sprinkle, helps keep the humidity up too.

Finally, as you can see the picture at the beginning of this post, I put a high/low thermometer. This will not only tell me the current temperature but also the hottest it's been and the coldest it's been in the last 24 hours.

This is crucial because the plants that will go in here will be too tender to survive outside when the weather gets below freezing. In the winter, I'll monitor this and be ready to either move my plants or put in a heater if it gets too cold. My hope is that it'll retain enough heat to make that not necessary but this is cheap insurance to make sure that doesn't happen.

Alright! The greenhouse is officially open for business, now I just need some plants. I've already ordered a couple of orchids to get started (you can see one on the bench in the photo above). We'll see how this goes.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2022 - All Rights Reserved

THE CHEAPSKATE RURAL GARDENER: Project Greenhouse

The Cheapskate's back! And he's brought his tools.

I have a patch of grass in my backyard that, frankly, has no purpose in life. I also have a goal of growing more plants...especially edible ones but tender tropical flowers too...and the light bulb went off in my head: why not build a greenhouse there?

Slowly, I've been trying to achieve a goal of growing enough fruits and vegetables to supply the three of us for three months. I've got nectarine, orange, lemon, tangelo, apple, pomegranate, and plum trees. I've also got a couple of table grape vines, one red and one white, plus I grow tomatoes, corn, and zucchini.

A greenhouse would allow me to also grow some more vegetables over the cold fall and winter.

I've got the time and, browsing around online, I can find one in a kit that I can assemble for a few hundred dollars under a thousand dollars. In this case, I bought a Palram 6' x 8' greenhouse from Amazon that has a 7' peaked roof.

It's going to be about a week before it's delivered so let's prepare the site where it will go, starting with removing the lawn.

This is probably the hardest part because the grass it very well established with deep roots. It's also in a drier part of the yard so the soil is very hard and the previous owner had installed a plastic mesh under the grass that is another headache to remove.

I measure off a 9' x 6' square (to give me an extra foot of wiggle room) and start digging with a shovel and hoe. I was lucky that it rained the day before, making the soil just a tad looser, but it was still quite a job. It took me two days to dig it out 3 inches deep.

With the hoe, I got the edges to be straight and vertical. This hole will be filled with pea gravel, which will be the floor of the greenhouse. The gravel will help with drainage and have more surface area than concrete which allows the water on it to evaporate more and create more humidity.

A short walk took me to a local quarry where I arranged for this dump truck to deposit a cubic yard of gravel next to my hole.

Next, before I move the gravel into my hole, I have to build a foundation to attach the greenhouse to so I go up to our local mega hardware store and purchase four 8 foot long, pressure treated 2x4s. Two of these I cut down to 66 inches so when they're attached into the long boards, I'll have an 8x6 frame.

Laying out the boards on top of 4x4 scraps...

...I attach each corner with a brace. This will hold the pieces in the correct alignment for the next step.

Now, I sink in two 6" lumber bolts into each corner to hold this altogether with a very strong connection.

When each corner is done, it looks like this.

Next, I lay the foundation frame into my hole and use pea gravel underneath to provide a base and make it level all around.

Once I'm satisfied that the frame is level and where I want it, I put 8 inch anchor spikes through the boards and into the ground.

There are 3 spikes in each 8 foot section and 2 in each 6 foot section for a total of 10 anchor spikes.

The last thing to do is to shovel in pea gravel into the frame, level it, and compact it as tight as I can get it by mashing it down with a hoe blade that I'm standing on.

That was done just in time, two days later the box with the greenhouse arrived via UPS. Now, to manhandle that 90 pound box up onto our patio table to open it up and check the contents.

Everything's there.

Now, assemble the base frame...

...and attach to the wooden foundation with 2" wood screws.

The instructions are not written, they're pictorial, but they're not too hard to follow. Just do it step-by-step for the 60 (!) pages and you'll get there. 

It's time to just put it together, which takes me two days to complete (see finished greenhouse at the top of this post). 

That is the hard part. Next time, we'll talk about the finishing touches...plumbing, benches, etc...but for now, I'm just gonna rest up these sore muscles for a few days.

Darryl Musick

Copyright 2022 - All Rights Reserved