As I briefly elaborated on in an earlier post, our greenhouse was destroyed by Mother Nature last spring.  It hung on through the rest of summer, severely crippled, and was finally put out of her misery by an October thunderstorm with some strong winds.  Such is the fate of most Harbor Freight greenhouses.  Unless they are re-engineered for added strength and stability.  The examples sprawled across the internet are numerous.  There are sub forums dedicated to the subject.  At least Uncle Sam lets me claim it as a loss on the taxes.

So in early 2011 I realized I didn’t have a way to start seedlings and they can only grow in the basement so long under fake light.   I attempted to work with a local greenhouse to use some space but that fell by the wayside as planting time for the first tomatoes and peppers was very near.  Then, as if I had not learned my lesson with Version 1.o, Harbor Freight had the 10 x 12 on sale and I had a 20% off coupon.  Off to Battle Creek we went.  $620 later and far from done spending $…

Here it is mid March and I have been working diligently to erect V2.0.  I have relocated the building site to a more secure location as I learned a couple of lessons the first time around.  First, out in the open, unsheltered, in the Great Lakes State subjects structures to a lot of dynamic forces courtesy of Mother Nature.  The second lesson I learned is that in full sun, greenhouses turn into ovens and even with all of the vents open, doors open and fans running WOT, plants will still cook like an egg on the griddle.  Shade cloth is generally the cure, but even then when it’s 90 F and not a cloud in the sky it’s going to be 110F + inside of the structure… Or more.  Thus for V2.0 I am tucking the new structure between the shop, milkhouse and woodshed.  It’ll be protected on 3 sides, open to the East.  It will receive moderate sunlight from sunrise through mid – late afternoon in the summer and will be partially shaded by a 100 year old Sugar Maple.

I am sure you are thinking that it will obviously be cold in the winter being partially shaded.  My answer is that I won’t be using it during the off season.  Except to store growing supplies. It isn’t really large enough to grow anything on a production scale, it is marginally large enough to handle the volume of seedlings I start.

I’ve built her on a solid foundation.  4 x 4 treated timbers, mitered at the corner with bracing, glued and screwed.  Supported in the corners and along the span on solid foundations.  Rebar sunk 3 feet in the ground and attached to the timbers.  The Frame is screwed and glued to the timbers and there is 9 yards of sand (composted dairy bedding ~ mostly sand) inside of and around the whole foundation.  I’ll be adding some gravel sooner or later as I don’t care to walk in “mud”.   At this time most of the structure is assembled and we are working on the roof.  Before the panels go in and are clipped as well as screwed in place I’ll be taking the time to brace with 3/4 EMT conduit as well as building shelving which will attach to the wall and be tied to the ground.   This thing will go no where and I expect years of trouble free service.

I hope to persuade anyone who hopes to build one of these to not make the same mistakes I did the first time around.  Do your research before ever opening the box.  Take your time, think it through and don’t just throw money out the window with the next 50 mph wind gust.

Maybe next year we can step up to a season extender or two.  If we have the market for the goods.