How to Build a Greenhouse

You are sitting in the doctors office thumbing though a three-year-old issue of Better Homes and Gardens when you notice this ad for a hobby greenhouse. You decide to write the number down and give them a call when you get home. The thought of vine ripe tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers right out of your very own greenhouse really makes sense to you. With tomatoes at two dollars a pound and peppers one dollar each, you are sure the greenhouse will pay for itself the first year.

You hang up the telephone and realize that your greenhouse wouldn't pay for itself in the first year or second or may even the third. Don't give up! The remainder of this article will be used to describe how you can construct a greenhouse for far less than the two to three thousand dollars that you were quoted for that seventy-two square foot greenhouse.

First step in the construction of your own place to grow produce is to decide how much produce you want to grow. Will production only be used by your family, do you plan to share some with others, or are you thinking about the farmer's market. Hey, you may be able to pay your greenhouse off a little faster! I use the following formula for determining how large a structure I want to build. Tomatoes and peppers are given five square feet per plant. This may seem like a lot of space, but when you begin picking tomatoes you'll be glad for the space. Cucumbers only get one square foot. I'll explain all of this later.

When figuring space remember to leave room for one or two growing plants. These will replace those that have reached the end of there production. Now on to how to build your greenhouse.

You will need the following materials to construct a house approximately twenty-eight feet wide by twenty feet long or five hundred and sixty square feet.:

11- pieces 20 foot long of 2" PVC
5-2" PVC couplings
2-2x4x10
3 - 4" square post 10' long
2-2" PVC T's
3-2" crosses
1-box round head screws ¾"
10 T-post 5' length or short
40' of 2x4
10- 2" c clamps.
20 -1/4 x 2 ½ '' carriage bolts
20- Nuts and washers
1 can PVC cleaner
1 Can (large) PVC glue
3 bags quick crete

Tools needed: