Apr 10
2

Building a Mini-Green House

I got the idea for building a mini greenhouse from listening to Jack Spirko on TheSurvialPodcast.com. I haven’t really had good results with starting plants inside under grow lights or from placing them in a sunny window sill. The plants come up fine but end up lanky and weak. The look terrible compared to the big (expensive) plants you find at the garden centers.

I’ve always wanted a green house to start my plants in. The problem is the cost . You can drop several thousand dollars for a small one. The mini greenhouse can be built for less than $50 and an hour of your labor.

I built mine out of some left over 2 x 4’s. The greenhouse is 4 x 6 feet and 2 feet tall. It took 7 2 x 4’s . The reason for the 6 foot length was to reduce the number of 2 by’s and to not bee too heavy. The 2 foot leftovers are used in the construction as well.

Steps to building the mini greenhouse.

Cut two 2” x 4’ x 8’s in half to give you a a quantity of 4 pieces of 2” x 4” x 4’
Cut 2 feet off of 5 2”x 4” x 8’ to yield 5 pieces of 2” x 4” x 6’ and 5 2” x 4” x 2’.
Screw or nail together two separate rectangles of 4 by 6 feet.
Connect the rectangles together using the 2 foot sections of 2 by’s
Use some scrap pieces of lumber to add a little height to the middle of the top.
Connect the final 2” x 4” x 6’ to form a taller ridge in the middle (connected to the two scrap pieces in step 5)
Cover the frame with 6 mil clear or milky plastic. I used some scrap lumber to hold the plastic to the frame along the long sides.
Recommended: strengthen the corners or any sharp edges with shipping tape. The rubbing and flexing of the plastic on the corners will eventually cause some tears in the plastic without some reinforcement.

Using a Mini-Green house:

Put your plants in the mini green house and prop up one edge with a brick or scrap piece of lumber. If you don’t prop it up the plants can easily overheat.

Keep the plants watered and bring them inside when there is a danger of freeze or a frost. The green house does offer some protection from frosts (I left my plants in the green house during one night that had an non-forecasted frost and they survived) but it may not be worth the risks.

The mini greenhouse offers a lot of the advantages of a full size green house including increasing late winter and early spring temperatures enough for germination and good growth and increases the humidity. You can’t beat real sunlight to get plants off to a good start. It also prevents strong winds from stressing the plants.

The mini-green house is light enough to be able to open it (I roll it over on it’s side to water or move the plants) but still heavy enough to not blow over in strong winds. It does not have built in temperature control or heat but appears to work quite well in North Texas to help get your plants off to a good start. And best of all, it doesn’t cost thousands of dollars. After the danger of frost is over, it will go in the barn to be used again next spring.

Robert Brock is the facilitator and contributing author of HobbyOrchard.com. An organic gardening and pecan tree enthusiast, Robert spends most of his free time working at his hobby orchard in North Texas where he specializes in grafting native pecans with improved varieties.Robert also writes for Country Consultant, Living the GOOD LIFE in the country.