We have got the main bones of the greenhouse
up and ready to go come with us as we show you exactly how we did it
Hello friends welcome to Gardening with Creekside I am Jenny and I am standing in front underneath
the new production greenhouse we were here just I don't know a couple of days a week ago when we
were putting in the anchor post and we have gotten so much work done in really about three and a half
days so we're going to go through and I am going to show you exactly what we did the process that
it took to get to this point now if you will remember we are building a brand new production
greenhouse here at Creekside Nursery this will house really the vast majority of our annuals
for this year to sell both at the nursery and online this structure is the exact same
size dimensions as the one that we already have that is right next door this is going to be
30 feet wide 72 feet long a lot of you have asked where we are getting these greenhouses from
we get them from Atlas Greenhouses in Georgia they do a fantastic job this basically is what
you would call like a greenhouse kit all the pieces come with it everything is marked we
have great directions so we just really as long as you can follow directions then you can put a greenhouse
together so we love Atlas Greenhouses and we've gotten both of these from them
um here we are so let's just go through and walk through the whole process that like I said that it
took us to get to this point last time we were here we showed you that we were putting in the
anchor post so the anchor post will come over here the anchor posts basically are the footings of the
greenhouse it is does exactly what it says that they do they anchor the whole greenhouse in here
these posts were 72 inches long tall and they are spaced four foot on center all the way through on
both lengths of the greenhouse so we got these in here got them sunk in here Jerry had to pound a
way to get him in here they are all perfectly in line with each other and they are all level that
is just whether you're building a greenhouse or you're building a deck or you're building anything
structure-wise being level is probably one of the most foundational "foundational" components that
you have to have is make sure it is level and it is secure these are very secure because they are
concreted into the ground again imagine this post is 72 inches tall long and this is all that is
sticking up so that much is in the ground and it is concreted so this greenhouse is not going to go
anywhere they are in then what we had to do and we think oh this will be like super easy we'll just
slap it on there and move on to the next thing is the hat base the hat base is this metal
runner that you see that goes down the length of both sides of the greenhouse
this greenhouse will have roll up sides just like the one next door to me the hat base is what
the curtain will rest on when it is in the down position on this greenhouse it
is manual we have to roll them up Jerry has to roll them up manually you see right here so this
bar runs the whole length of the greenhouse this is the handle so he has to manually crank it
to raise them up to here this greenhouse is going to be automated where that it'll be controlled by
temperature we set a temperature whatever we choose to do and the size will raise and lower
depending on that temperature because of that being automated they have the metal hat base
on the other one it is wooden so this is where we thought oh well this will be really simple we'll
just stick it up there nice and easy peasy it was not one I don't first time we've done it so
every time the first time you do something it takes a little longer to figure it out
again because it is metal it has to be perfectly level from front to back of the greenhouse so we
were working with that which is interesting our very back corner is our highest corner and then
the front is lower um elevation wise than the back so back there it was really in the ground we had
to dig out some ground to put it on and then here we have actually some um some space between the
ground and the hat base then they were supposed to overlap because these are in sections these
are probably in 12 foot sections they overlap by three inches and we thought oh well they'll
just lay on top of each other well they didn't they were really hard to do and poor Jerry like
he was kicking it he was using the rubber mallet that we're using for the patio doing everything he
could to get those two pieces when they overlapped to be flush with each other so we struggled
through we got both sides done and then let you know it as soon as we get over to the other side
we were all looking at it and I was like hey guys what is this little notch right here well
lo and behold there was a notch on each end where one was supposed to go on top of the other that
was not in the directions and so we figured it out so we had to take down all of them redo them
then they fit much nicer snugger on top of each other um and so we redid it
the whole thing about putting the hat bases on I think took like four hours to do which we were
thinking oh it'll just slap up and go easy but you know such as life is all right so the hat bases
were on and then after that then we came and we were working on the purlins so the purlins on this
greenhouse there are five of them um the purlins are what runs the whole length they connect all
the um oh I forgot the bows I'm getting way ahead of myself I didn't even talk about the bows y'all
good night so after we got the anchor so forget the hat base okay I got it sorry got all messed up
hat bass hat bass was first and then the bows okay so Jerry's helping me keep straight there's
just so much going on that you forget like it always gets jumbled up in your brain and we did
this in three and a half days we had Andrew he was available so we took him from like
nine to five every day and so the three of us did this together okay so the hat
base did go on then it was the bows so the bows are obviously it's kind of like the um
give the whole greenhouse its structure and they came in three pieces so you have the two arches
on the side and then you have the the peak in the middle this was a whole family event so my mama
came up for a little bit Jackson was up here the girls were up here we were all working together so
you haul them up here you assemble them the three pieces right here on the flat ground
then you have to in order to connect those pieces together Jerry has to use the self-tapping screws
which this is of course is steel so it's really you know really sturdy so those self-tapping
screws you think again oh they'll just go in not so much he really had to muscle them in so those
are screwed together then once they were screwed together we had to jerry was on the far end Andrew
and I were on this end so they're laying down so you have to pick them up and then take them back
and so Andrew and I would be on this side so you have to take them and slide them down into
this pole um the fellas had gone ahead and there is a a nut uh screw and a nut right here
this simply is what this bow rests on so right here Jerry went through and he was
putting the bolts in and Andrew was coming back and putting the nuts in
so this bow sits on top of this bolt so we would put this end in and then Jerry was on the other
end having to lift it up and then once we were in he would take it and put his in so there are
17 of these I think through here that part once you get your rhythm down it goes pretty fast
but yeah we were a little sore the next day on our in our back muscles having to lift those guys up
so once the bows were in then we got to start on the purlins so the purlins are those like I
said those long poles that run the whole length of the greenhouse there are five sets of them
two on each side and one on the roof again it's pretty simple they come in like 12 foot
length sections so atlas does a great job of giving you little
tips on what to do so what we did was we laid the purlins along the base of the greenhouse so
all along the side and then we took a sharpie and marked where the purlin lined up
with the bows so that way we can then disassemble it and then piece by piece take them up hold them
up and there are marks on these bows that have a line with a p so the p means purling so you
take your purlin up again Jerry and Andrew were taking turns on the ladders and screwing those
in I was their assistant handing everything up to them between the clips and the screws and the
and the pipes and so they were going up and down on the ladders a lot so we've got those all in and
then the last thing was the last one to do was the ruth purlin and that was a little interesting um
Andrew was not here his sister got married so he was probably enjoying the rest and doing all
the wedding festivities so Sara was here helping us and this is the one because the
peak of this greenhouse I mean it's pretty tall would you say Jerry is 16 probably 16 feet high
and Jerry's right around six feet so even with you know a tall ladder it was really hard for
him to stretch because you have to get that um the angle on it to really get those screws in
so we tried the ladder for a couple of bows and then we said forget this and then we got the
Bobcat out and I put him in the bucket and lifted him up and was able to take him down the whole
length of the greenhouse while he was screwing in the roof purlins it's really interesting to know
so when we're doing let's back up just a minute so when you're doing the um
the outside on these edge pieces you've got to make sure that your purlins do not stick out on
that last bow because that's going to be covered in plastic and over time if your purlins are
sticking out then it will rub a hole and it will break your plastic which of course in a greenhouse
that is not what you want so the purlins have to be flush with these bows and even on that very top
one that top purlin rests on top of the greenhouse so you have the bow and then the purlin sits on
top of it except for the two ends it actually goes underneath the bow and is flush so again there's
no rub on the plastic they think of everything so the purlins were up once we got those up
poor Jerry's shoulders and arms were killing him just you know just the force it was really hard
to get those screws to go through that steel and it was interesting because some of them would kind
of go in a little easier and other ones were they were a booger and he was really having to work it
so we got the purlins up and then we came along and did the trusses so there are trusses every
other bow throughout the greenhouse so there are eight of them in total the trusses are all one
piece so they came pre-assembled so all we have to do was to um get on the ladders once again it was
Jerry Sara and I all on the ladders on the ends we would lift them up we got our system going
and then we had to use clamps to get them all clamped in tighten everybody up and then of
course when you're going through you have to make sure that those trusses are level going across
that's what those arms are for the kind of those v arms that's where you can level up
those trusses and so once all that is in it really just tightens up the whole greenhouse there's um
where before when the bows were just in by themselves they had a lot of give and
a lot of wiggle in them now it is really really secure you can't do much wiggling
we do have on each of the corners these are wind braces just again it just gives a whole another
support and structure to the greenhouse interestingly enough I know if you will
remember we are in North Carolina zone 7b both of these greenhouses that we have are actually
rated for heavy snow and you may be thinking Jenny what in the world like if we're lucky we may get a
couple of inches of snow in a season but last year when we were picking out this greenhouse
Jerry was talking to the guys over there at Atlas and they recommended that we do a really
a snow arch support greenhouse because of all the hanging baskets that we will hang from the trusses
the purlins and all throughout the greenhouse because if you imagine you know we have a you know
I don't know a couple of hundred hanging baskets hanging from the roof and those are really heavy
especially when they're watered so you've got to have structurally a lot of support to hold all
those hanging baskets so if we ever do get a big huge blizzard here in North Carolina no worries on
these greenhouses they will be just fine so what is next next up will be that we have to frame the
end wall so both the front and the back um this is where it has a it will have a wood frame to it
so Jerry has to spec all that out get that built we've talked about this before the
existing greenhouse has a 16 foot wide roll-up door so it's nice and big that you can just kind
of drive through you can roll it up with you know the seasons this one will be different because it
will have an eight-foot wide sliding barn door for a lack of a better word so jerry's already
put a pin in here we are dead center so this door will be eight feet long and it will slide on a
track whichever way we want to slide it so that will have a door here this will be the only door
we're not going to have shutters on this greenhouse because again if it gets too hot the
sides will roll up and cool it off this will be a heated greenhouse so we will heat this as soon as
the plants come in end of January February they will be heated so they can grow and be nice and
happy so we have got to hurry up and get this done so the the end wall will be framed out and then
along each of the sides we will run attach a track that the plastic can attach to and then once we're
framed in we have the two tracks on this side then we can put plastic in or on the greenhouse and
start to get it get it sealed in that's what we're really aiming for is to get those the plastic on
so that way if it's cold rainy we'll be inside and out of the winter wetness because here in North
Carolina we're infamously wet in the winter and we want to get out of that as fast as we can
but here it is just you know the first couple of days in January we haven't even been into a whole
week of January yet and Jerry and I were looking through some pictures this time last year we were
just getting the four corner post in the ground on the existing greenhouse we were in red mud it was
it was not a lot of fun but it was a lot of character building shall we say um so we feel
like we're about like about three weeks ahead of schedule where we were on this one which is great
the faster we can get this done the sooner we can get plants in here and rocking and
rolling and get them into your hands of course we will keep you updated on all of the progress
with this greenhouse as always thank you so much for gardening with creekside you
all have a fantastic day and we will see you in the next video bye friends