Greenhouse Dreams

[beautress]

This thread is all about a greenhouse in the backyard for the fun of growing something your climate does not allow. Fun? Profit? Eye candy? A Tropical environment in the dead of an arctic winter? Is your growing zone too hot or to cold to grow certain trees, fruits, herbs, or veggies? Are you fascinated by greenhouse architecture? Do you want to grow pineapples but don't live in Hawaii? Citrus but you don't live in Southern Cal, the Florida Keys, or the Equator? Let's jam!

Firstly, I just like the look of a stunning greenhouse, large or small... eh! So I'll start with one from Finland ...

Denmark has some too:

 

[beautress]

Found these by loading "Maine Greenhouses." If some came from Main Street, Anywhere, well, you know how search engines go...

 

[beautress]

Wyoming produce possibilities

Alaska solutions...

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

I really wish I could afford to put in geothermal tubes to heat a greenhouse. My neck of the woods has been down to -15° at night lately and I'd love to grow some little citrus trees.

Thanks for the great photos beautress

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

My favorite -- Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. I've spent many blissful hours there.

 

[beautress]

I really wish I could afford to put in geothermal tubes to heat a greenhouse. My neck of the woods has been down to -15° at night lately and I'd love to grow some little citrus trees.

Thanks for the great photos beautress

Sometimes people pass away and their interests do not match those of their heirs. Why don't you run an ad saying you're on a fixed income and would like to have geothermal greenhouse tubes or even a heater. I attended a college years ago, and stumbled onto a science area that had 4 greenhouses each suited for a different climate--arid desert, equatorial jungle, summer mountain, and heard the man in charge explaining how they copied daily climates of particularly productive years for each greenhouse that was anything but local weather. That's the short, fifteen minute lecture that made me a fan of greenhouses ever since then. I hope you get what you need and the help of some friends you can reward with lemon pie from your dwarf lemon tree someday... I wouldn't mind having 4 greenhouses to protect exotic fruit trees. Where I live, you can expect to have a peach tree to grow for 10 years tops, but you can't grow an apricot or apple tree to produce, because it's too cold to grow apricots and too hot in the summer to coerce an apple tree to produce. I don['t know about plums but they may not prosper due to local molds, ants, bugs, microbes, or what ever. And I could be totally wrong, what's my problem. I live 50 miles from one of the best agriculture schools in the world... lol.

All of my pictures (above) came from bing.com. I'll see if I can come up with a specialty (below), starting with the orange blossom special:

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[Dogmaphobe]

I have a collection of several hundred different cactus and succulents I keep in my greenhouse. It's as much to keep them out of the rain as it is to keep them warm around here, since even the ones that would take our relatively mild climate here would rot otherwise.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Sometimes people pass away and their interests do not match those of their heirs. Why don't you run an ad saying you're on a fixed income and would like to have geothermal greenhouse tubes or even a heater. I attended a college years ago, and stumbled onto a science area that had 4 greenhouses each suited for a different climate--arid desert, equatorial jungle, summer mountain, and heard the man in charge explaining how they copied daily climates of particularly productive years for each greenhouse that was anything but local weather. That's the short, fifteen minute lecture that made me a fan of greenhouses ever since then. I hope you get what you need and the help of some friends you can reward with lemon pie from your dwarf lemon tree someday... I wouldn't mind having 4 greenhouses to protect exotic fruit trees. Where I live, you can expect to have a peach tree to grow for 10 years tops, but you can't grow an apricot or apple tree to produce, because it's too cold to grow apricots and too hot in the summer to coerce an apple tree to produce. I don['t know about plums but they may not prosper due to local molds, ants, bugs, microbes, or what ever. And I could be totally wrong, what's my problem. I live 50 miles from one of the best agriculture schools in the world... lol.

All of my pictures (above) came from bing.com. I'll see if I can come up with a specialty (below), starting with the orange blossom special:

View attachment 588271View attachment 588269View attachment 588284View attachment 588286View attachment 588275
View attachment 588281

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Well, I am retired and although I'm on a fixed income it's not subsistence level. I probably have too many assets to qualify for help. I just can't justify spending the money on a few orange and lemon trees. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I will investigate the practicality of a heater for my greenhouse, which I know I could afford.

Beautiful photos.

 

[beautress]

Just found a how to build a reasonably-priced greenhouse at youtube with the hope it would work for someone here:

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[beautress]

And another...
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[beautress]

And another...

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[OhPleaseJustQuit]

And another...
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This looks like what I plan on building. My town allows greenhouses to be 10x15 feet, which is a little larger than the one in your photo.

 

[beautress]

View attachment 588267

My favorite -- Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. I've spent many blissful hours there.

That's just beautiful, OPJQ! Really fantastic!

And one more for the road...

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[beautress]

And I'm gonna try this one today... If I didn't kill the seeds in the fridge, that is.

Holy cow! After walking through the plant nursery and seeing lemon trees (little ones) starting at $50 or more, what's a year to wait to get the same thing for simply taking those seeds from the lemon pie you are making and get a dozen for next to nothing except a little smart work with this guy's genius! Almost free trees!!!​

 

[beautress]

I have a collection of several hundred different cactus and succulents I keep in my greenhouse. It's as much to keep them out of the rain as it is to keep them warm around here, since even the ones that would take our relatively mild climate here would rot otherwise.
View attachment 588297

Dogmaphobe, that is fasinating. Succulents? Where'd they come from? ....Just wondering...

 

[beautress]

In 2006, my late husband and I took his University Alumni Association's Baltic Sea tour, and when we got to Bergen, Norway, the first stop, they loaded us onto a cruise ship headed for one what they said was one of the largest fjords in the world. I vaguely recall having seen a greenhouse up at the top of the extended cliff. So I put Denmark fjords greenhouse into the search engine and found only this one, which is not remotely what I remembered, because this one is a most pleasant scenes of workable greenhouses, but it's at the bottom of the fjord, not the top. Credit to the dreamstime.com folks. Wow. Looks like a community effort, but for some reason it just takes my breath away.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

My building skills suck, but I keep trying.

There are tons of easy green house plans out there and can be as basic (and cheap) or as elaborate as you're willing spend for it. You can repurpose old lumber and/or materials, including using pallets and old windows. If you don't have those things, or able to find them, check your local Habitat for Humanity or leftovers from construction jobs.


This may not be a good year round idea, but it will atleast get your seedlings off to a good & early start

As for those lemons??? I tried that, except I didn't peel the seed. Just stuck them in a wet paper towel, into a sandwich baggie and in my windowsill. They sprouted, so into some dirt they went. I now have 2 lemon tree starts about 6 inches high, in my livingroom. Along with 2 avocados about a foot high.

A large enough greenhouse, of some sort, will be on my to do list

 

[beautress]

My building skills suck, but I keep trying.

There are tons of easy green house plans out there and can be as basic (and cheap) or as elaborate as you're willing spend for it. You can repurpose old lumber and/or materials, including using pallets and old windows. If you don't have those things, or able to find them, check your local Habitat for Humanity or leftovers from construction jobs.


This may not be a good year round idea, but it will atleast get your seedlings off to a good & early start

View attachment 588322






As for those lemons??? I tried that, except I didn't peel the seed. Just stuck them in a wet paper towel, into a sandwich baggie and in my windowsill. They sprouted, so into some dirt they went. I now have 2 lemon tree starts about 6 inches high, in my livingroom. Along with 2 avocados about a foot high.

A large enough greenhouse, of some sort, will be on my to do list

What a great idea and good picture, too. J.A.N., thanks!

 

[JustAnotherNut]

What a great idea and good picture, too. J.A.N., thanks!

I need a greenhouse but I don't want to have to heat it thru the winter and need to figure out a good location, that will help keep the natural heat in winter, but not be an oven in the summer, even with windows open. .


In the meantime and until I can figure something out, I am tempted and really considering buying one or maybe two of those cheap plastic covered shelf units. I've had one before, but they don't hold up well to weather for long. Mine was good for the first year, after that the plastic and zippers gave out...then the hard plastic connectors broke. And they don't stand up well in the wind unless you put some heavy stuff on the bottom shelf to anchor it.

 

[beautress]

Backyard for one's vicarious greenhouse.

^^^^^ You could plant all that stuff from seed packs or cuttings from green thumb friends, then plan something really pretty like ^^^^^
Not sure where you could get the white flagstones, though...​