- If you've been fantasizing
about having a beautiful well set up greenhouse like I have,
then today's video is for you.
Where I'm standing right now is my herb bed,
but in a month or two,
it's going to be an eight by 10 foot glass greenhouse.
But I don't really know how to set it up,
so I'm gonna throw it over to Briana
from Blossom and Branch,
and Chris from Fluent Garden
to show you their greenhouse setups.
- When I was looking at
what kind of greenhouse I was going to get,
I knew that I wanted to be able to start my seeds in it.
Because we grow on a market scale,
which means I start over 14,000 seedlings every season,
I knew I needed it to be a workhorse
but I also didn't want it to be too big
because we have to heat it
in order to start our seeds in there.
So the six by 10 size means
that I can heat it fairly easily.
Now, we do have a solar grid,
so that helps make it even more energy efficient,
but if you go too big, it becomes kind of difficult to heat.
We also had to decide whether we wanted it
to be made out of polycarbonate or glass,
and we decided to go with glass
because we were starting our seeds in it.
We're gonna talk about that specifically.
So first, let's pop over to Chris to hear
about why she went with polycarbonate.
- When I first got my greenhouse up and running,
my main goal was to start a lot of plants
from seeds as well as cuttings.
But as you can tell, this space is kind of multi-use now,
where I overwinter plants
as well as keep my subtropicals happy.
Because I'm trying to do so many activities in here,
I may want to upgrade to a larger size eventually
or perhaps get a second one,
but I really am liking this very manageable eight
by 12 greenhouse, and also it's the maximum size I can get
on my property without needing a permit.
Glass versus poly.
The pros and cons, is there really a right answer?
Well, it's not really black and white.
It depends on the quality and the thickness of the material
as well as a number of other factors.
For my greenhouse, I have a twin wall polycarbonate glazing,
so it's a durable, rigid plastic,
and as you can tell, you can't really see through it.
Pros and cons, some people don't like this aesthetic.
I actually don't mind it because I can kind of stash things
in the greenhouse without people seeing what's inside,
but it does mean that the light transmission is not
as good compared to glass.
Two main reasons why I chose polycarbonate over glass is
because there are large trees around me
that are notorious for dropping limbs during storms.
So really, it's a safety reason.
And second reason is
because it's lighter weight and more economical,
compared to something like double-wall insulated glass.
- The materials this was made out of was one
of the biggest decisions that we had to make when
we were selecting our greenhouse.
So, I knew that I wanted to go with glass
and I wanted to go with glass because number one,
I like the look of glass,
I like that clear kind of floating greenhouse look.
And also, I knew that being in Colorado,
I really wanted our seedlings to get used to the full sun
that they get here.
So because we're at 5,300 feet,
we do get a lot of really intense sun.
With glass, we get almost 100% light transmission
which is really great.
Now, while that is all well and good,
there are some downsides to the glass.
One of the of the downsides of glass is the R-value.
So the R-value
of polycarbonate is gonna be a little bit higher
in general unless you go with a double or triple pane glass.
So ours was a single pane because that's all we could find.
A single pane, three millimeter tempered glass,
so that in case it breaks,
in case we get anything running into it or a hail
or someone throws a shovel or something,
it wouldn't break
and we wouldn't have glass guards all over the garden.
So definitely go with the tempered
if you're gonna go with the glass,
but the R-value of this guy is about 0.96,
so this is definitely lower than you're going to get
with a polycarbonate.
So something to consider.
Now, speaking of impact and tempered glass,
one of the things I do worry about
with a glass greenhouse is hail.
So, we do live in Colorado.
We tend to get a lot of hail.
Usually, we at least get one or two every season,
and some of those hailstones can be pretty big.
So obviously, we'd worry about impact on this,
but it has been through quite a few hailstorms.
It's four years old now.
It's been impacted with one-inch size hail
and it hasn't broken yet.
So fingers crossed that that is going to bode well
for its longevity.
Speaking of longevity, that was the final consideration when
we decided to go with glass instead of the polycarbonate.
So going with glass means that we won't have
to replace these panels so long as they don't get broken.
Polycarbonate usually has about a 10-year lifespan,
over which time it starts to get a little bit brittle,
maybe it can get discolored.
And so after about 10 years,
you should be replacing your polycarbonate.
Glass on the other hand, is gonna last forever
as long as it doesn't break.
And that was a big consideration for us.
There are pros and cons of both glass and polycarbonate.
So really, at the end of the day,
you kind of just have to choose
which one is right for you and your garden.
Let's go inside because my hands are freezing.
Let's look at the inside of the greenhouse
- For the foundation,
I didn't want a permanent concrete slab kind of style,
so instead, I went with three-quarter crush gravel.
So this was very inexpensive and easy to install.
And also, having this flooring allows for any water
that spills onto the ground from watering
to easily drain away,
so you don't get any puddles on the ground.
But it does cause a bit of a challenge when it comes
to longer term maintenance.
But more on that in just a sec.
- In my greenhouse, I decided to go with a brick floor,
and the reason I decided to go with brick was
because we had a lot of bricks sitting around.
So, our house was built in the '30s.
They demoed this garage
and there's just bricks scattered everywhere.
So whenever you can reuse the material
that's a great thing to do.
So the brick does have another great benefit
in the greenhouse,
which is that it helps release a little bit of heat.
So during the day when the sun is out,
these bricks actually warm up
and at night as the temperature's cool,
these bricks release a little bit of that heat
and it creates a little bit
of a warmer ambient air temperature.
So that's a win for me.
Let's pop over to Chris
to talk about heating the greenhouse.
- Both Brie and I use electric space heaters
to keep the greenhouses above freezing.
This is the little one that I use.
It is splashproof and suitable
for greenhouses up to 120 square feet.
And because I have subtropicals in here,
especially, during the winter months,
I try to keep the temperatures above 10 celsius
or 50 fahrenheit, ideally a little bit warmer.
To help keep the space cozy passively,
on the inside wall, on the North side,
I have shiny bubble wrap,
and this is to help reflect some of the light
and heat back into the space.
And under this work bench,
I also have a partition to kind of make the space smaller,
so that the warm air stays concentrated where I want it to.
So, that's normally around the plants.
Now, these little additions and tweaks,
may not make a big difference
but anything that can help me lower my electricity bill,
I'll take it.
- Now, I do have two heaters in here.
I have this one and I have a backup,
and each one is on its own extension cord.
The reason that I do that is
because this happened to me in the past
where a rat has chewed through one of the extension cords,
and the heat goes out in the greenhouse overnight
and I wake up to freezing seedlings.
It's happened before,
so we have a backup that'll kick on in case it gets cold
and this one goes out.
So, I do have this little wifi-enabled thermometer,
so if anything happens and the heaters go out,
so that it'll alert me if the temperatures go too high
or too low, and it alerts right to my phone,
which is really nice.
But there's also a little trick
that we have to help keep,
temperatures regulated for the seedlings
that are germinating.
We like to keep these on a heat mat, and so that heat mat,
especially, when the temperatures drop in the evening,
that heat mat helps keep the temperatures,
somewhat regulated, so we're still able to get germination.
Here, for example,
we're looking at lisianthus,
and lisianthus need a pretty specific temperature.
And they like to be warmer when germinating,
and we are just starting to get germination
and those, so success.
We've talked about heat.
Now, let's talk about ventilation,
because another concern is these guys getting too hot.
Chris, what do you guys do for ventilation?
- So keeping the greenhouse cozy is one thing,
but even during the winter months,
a long stretch of sunlight,
can actually increase the temperatures inside
which isn't actually ideal.
So having a way for the heat
to leave the greenhouse effectively is really important
to keeping your plants healthy,
whether they're young seedlings or mature plants.
My setup mostly relies on automatic vent openers.
So, as the temperatures get hot in here, the hot air rises,
and those arms open up the two large roof vents that I have
and then the hot air can passively exit the greenhouse.
I also have a third one at the back of the greenhouse
and when I open the door on the opposite side,
it really helps to push the hot air out,
keeping this nice and regulated.
And during the warmer months, I have some fans in here,
nothing fancy, just stuff that you would use in the home,
so something like this little guy.
And during the colder months, I also use the fan
to try to push around the cold stagnant air
that may settle in the corners of the greenhouse.
And that just keeps everything nice and healthy,
because you don't want any pests and disease issues hiding
in those corners.
- Now because we're mostly seed starting in here,
we're not really growing
in here too much during the hottest part
of the year, summer,
where it would get up to 130 degrees in here.
So I don't have to worry about ventilation too much,
but I do have to make sure it doesn't get excessively hot
in here when I'm seed starting.
So we also use these gas piston window vents,
and that just helps to regulate it,
so I don't have to come in here and do it myself,
but we'll also open the door.
And in the spring, I'll also pop an extra fan in here
if I need to really circulate the air.
Speaking of ventilation on the roof,
we do make sure that we have a nice pitch
on this greenhouse.
So this greenhouse in particular was made in Denmark
where they do get snow,
so we knew that it was going to be rated
for high snow loads.
It does shed snow really well,
but it's definitely something you want to consider
if you're in a zone that gets a lot of snow.
You definitely don't want something with a flat roof
or even a shed roof if you're in an area
that gets heavy amounts of snow like we do.
- The roof that I have is nice and curved
with a high point in the middle, and what I've found is
that it shed snow really, really easily.
It basically just slides right off.
And what I love about the poly panels is
that it's smooth all the way from the top down,
and I don't think I've ever had
to sweep any sort of debris off of it,
which saves me a lot of hassle.
One of my favorite features are these shelves
that I installed to three of the walls
to make use of the vertical space.
So, using inexpensive bookshelf brackets
and also some cedar fence boards,
I increased my shelf space to fit
at least 20 more standard size 10, 20 trays.
So that leaves me a lot of open space
to do more activities and also store more plants.
On the North side of the greenhouse,
I have my workbench which I built out of two by fours,
and those inexpensive cedar fence planks.
And then on the South side, which gets a lot more light,
I have two of these heavy duty metal shop racks
and this is where I store the heavier items.
And also in the spring, this is where my seedlings go
because it captures the most sunlight
on this end of the greenhouse.
- When we're looking at shelving options,
you can go a ton of different ways
that really the sky is the limit
and the layout of your greenhouse is the limit.
So, what we did is
we actually just used these bakers racks,
they're just wire bakers racks,
and that way we can reconfigure these shelves if we need to.
So some of these shelves,
there's not as much space in between
and that lets us start shorter things in here.
And then down at the bottom,
there's a bigger gap where we can put things like soils,
we can tuck equipment away.
I also did a three shelf system
because we have a small greenhouse,
and I need to start so many seeds in here.
I need all of the space that I can get.
Now, we do also really like these,
because they allow for air and light transmission.
They're not a big bulky shelf
that blocks a lot of light or air
so we don't really have to worry too much about lights.
But you can see we do have lights here on this middle rack,
so let's talk about that next, Chris.
- For lighting, I personally,
don't add any supplemental lights because most of the time,
during the winter, my plants are looking like this.
They are dormant,
and they're just hanging out in overwintering.
But come spring, when we are starting seedlings,
the sunlight actually provides top quality light
for those seedlings at that stage of life.
So they actually stay stocky and healthy just with sunlight.
So, I've never had to put grow lights in here.
- So because we're in a glass greenhouse
that gets really great light transmission,
we don't have to worry much about adding supplemental light.
But I do still have lights in here, and I'll tell you why.
It is because I often work at night in the greenhouse.
So, I have two young kids,
often the only time I have to get out
and actually get some work done is at night,
so I need lights.
And I like to have lights down low where it helps me work
because I usually work on the floor.
So these lights down here are helpful,
but when the greenhouse is very full, so come last for us,
when I have everything in here waiting to get planted out,
then we're usually using every single shelf that we have.
So, if we have all of these top racks here full,
then we have to use these middle shelves,
which usually, I don't use until it's very full.
If we go to put something here and we don't have lights,
then these actually will block some of that light
for those middle shelves.
So we really only use these lights when
we're having to use these middle shelves
or when I'm out here working in here.
And then it is nice to have those lights,
and these are just basic fluorescent lights,
they're really nothing fancy.
Other than that, the sun is enough.
- Throughout the year,
I try to keep the greenhouse anywhere,
between 12 to 28 celsius using a thermostat
which I can plug both a heater
and a fan through just to help regulate the temperatures.
The one that I use is wifi connected,
so through my phone app I can easily monitor
and also adjust the settings, which is really handy.
And in case the electricity goes out,
I've got my handy low-tech min/max thermometer,
and it gives me a reading of both the lowest
and the highest reading of the day.
Since I don't have access to a hose
on this side of the garden, I rely on watering cans.
So I've got big ones as well as little ones,
and for freshly sewn seeds that need to stay hydrated
as well as keeping the humidity up under humidity domes.
For cuttings, I like using a handheld sprayer,
which adds a nice light application of water.
Regardless of materials and setup,
having the space organized and well-maintained,
will help keep the space hygienic,
and that will lead to a better growing experience
and healthier plants.
Generally, maintenance has been pretty straightforward
and easy for me.
So, at the end of the season,
I take a wet rag and just wipe down the panels
with some water as well as go along the inside perimeter
and make sure there isn't any debris piles where insects
or any sort of creatures could be making a home in.
I mentioned earlier that gravel,
although it's inexpensive and easy to install,
it's not the easiest surface to keep clean,
especially, when you're working
with loose materials like plotting mix and random leaves,
because I can't easily sweep off of this material.
That's why tarps are my best friend
because once the work surfaces,
including the ground are covered,
any messy work will land on top.
And then afterwards, I can just take everything outside.
- In terms of maintenance,
there's really not too much we have have to do here
in this greenhouse,
but there are a couple things I do just
to keep it clean and under control.
I take everything out in the summer.
I organize all my suit starting stuff.
I vacuum all of the loose dirt
that's sitting on my brick floor just to keep it clean.
I also do wipe down the windows
with the vinegar and water mixture
to keep them sparkling and just
to make sure I don't have any fungus hanging out in here.
And then I go around and I check
and make sure that all of these little gaps are full.
So, if there's been any cracking
that's happening as we've been settling,
little gaps between the frame and the windows,
I'll go around and I'll take,
you can see there's a little piece right here,
I'll take a little piece of foam,
and I'll just kind of fit it right into that little gap.
And that just helps keep the heat
in here since we are heating it.
That's pretty much it for maintenance.
It's really pretty easy.
If you have room for one, if you can swing it,
I really love how much a greenhouse adds to a garden.
It really gives you flexibility
in terms of overwintering plants, extra room to start seeds,
room to store all of your seeds starting materials.
And so we really enjoyed having a greenhouse.
So Kevin, I don't know
what you are doing over there in San Diego,
why you don't have a greenhouse,
but maybe you should get on it.
- I'm definitely feeling a little jealous
of the greenhouses.
I just saw Briana, but there will be one here pretty soon.
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And until next time, good luck in the garden,
and keep on growing.