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The functionality and design of greenhouses is no different from greenhouses. All of them are designed for growing vegetables and seedlings. The only difference between shelters is the size. Greenhouses are large structures that are permanently installed on the foundation. If heating is available, vegetables can be grown in winter. A greenhouse is a smaller copy of a greenhouse and is most often used for early planting seedlings or growing vegetables in the summer in cold regions. Making greenhouses for a summer residence is much easier than building a large greenhouse. We will now talk about choosing a place to install a shelter, developing a drawing, and making a frame.
The optimal placement of shelter for the garden
Among inexperienced summer residents there is an opinion that such a simple structure as a greenhouse can be installed anywhere on your site. The easiest option for shelter is to stick arcs into the ground and pull the film on top. But what is the essence of a greenhouse? Inside, the optimum room temperature for seedlings should be maintained around the clock. The location of the shelter affects the microclimate:
- Some summer cottages may not even be suitable for installing greenhouses. Shelters are located on a flat and dry place. Difficult terrain and flooded areas are an obstacle to the construction of a greenhouse.
- Under the installation of shelter choose a place with good lighting. Shady areas under trees or other obstacles will not work. The sun should fall on the greenhouse during the day so that it is warm inside the shelter.
- It is good when the built greenhouse will be little blown by cold winds. If the site allows you to put shelter up and down, then it is better to turn it to the south in length. This arrangement ensures good lighting throughout the shelter.
- The high location of groundwater can lead to increased dampness inside the greenhouse. Water will stagnate, bloom, which will lead to the death of seedlings. The problem can only be solved by arranging drainage.
Following these simple rules will help you get a good harvest from seedlings grown in a greenhouse.
Heating methods
Before you build a greenhouse with your own hands, you need to think about a way to maintain the optimum temperature inside. Plants love consistency. If there are frequent temperature fluctuations under the shelter, the seedlings will slow down growth. Heat-loving and capricious plants may even die.
There are several ways to heat greenhouses:
- A free and simple way of heating is carried out with the help of solar energy. The rays penetrate through the film cover of the greenhouse, heating the plants and the ground during the day. At night, the heated ground serves as a source of heat. Solar energy heating is used by most vegetable growers. However, this method of obtaining heat is unstable. The heat accumulated by the soil is not enough for the whole night. In the morning, inside the greenhouse, there is a strong drop in temperature.
- The electric heating method is based on laying a heating cable in the ground. Such shelters are equipped permanently due to the complexity of manufacturing. The laying of the greenhouse begins with backfilling of a gravel cushion 20 mm thick. A layer of sand 30 mm thick is poured on top and the heating cable is sorted out with a snake. All this is covered with a 50 mm layer of sand, after which the finished cake is covered with a metal mesh or sheet iron. Such protection will prevent damage to the cable when digging the beds. The advantage of electric heating is to constantly maintain the room temperature inside the shelter, regardless of weather conditions. The disadvantage is the high cost of materials and the extra cost of paying for electricity.
- The golden mean between the two ways of heating the shelter is the use of biofuels. In order to build such a greenhouse with your own hands at home, the bottom of the beds is made with a recess. Manure, vegetation, straw, in general, all organic matter are poured there. In the process of biological decomposition, heat is released from the waste. The method is quite simple and free, but it does not allow you to control the amount of heat generated. With a strong increase in air temperature in the greenhouse, periodic ventilation is performed.
From what materials and what shape can a greenhouse be built
To understand how to build a greenhouse, you need to figure out what it consists of. The basis of the shelter is the frame. It depends on the complexity of the design whether the finished shelter will be stationary or portable.
So, the simplest frames are installed from arcs. More complex structures are constructed from wooden or metal blanks, window frames. Several materials are used as cladding:
- Plastic sheeting is the most commonly used cover material, but it usually lasts 1-2 seasons. Reinforced polyethylene will last longer.
- An ideal option for shelter is a non-woven fabric. The material is sold in different densities. The canvas is not afraid of sunlight and, with careful attitude, will last several seasons.
- Stationary frames made of wood or metal can be sheathed with polycarbonate, plexiglass or plain glass. Such sheathing will cost more, and the option with glass can be dangerous due to the fragility of the material.
Now we will look at the photo of greenhouses with our own hands, made from different materials. Maybe one of the shelter designs will appeal to you.
arc cover
The appearance of the greenhouse resembles a tunnel. Its scheme does not contain complex connecting nodes. The frame of the shelter is made of arcs bent in a semicircle. The more you install them in one row, the longer the shelter will turn out. Arcs are made from any plastic pipe with a diameter of 20–32 mm. The stronger the pipe, the larger the radius of the arc can be made. They are fixed to the ground with the help of wooden pegs or put on driven pieces of reinforcement. For the strength of the tunnel shelter, the arcs can be connected to each other with a transversely laid pipe.
Stronger arcs will be obtained from a steel bar 6–12 mm thick. If you put a rod in a flexible hose, it will be protected from corrosion.
If desired, ready-made arcs for shelter can be bought at the store. At their summer cottage, they will only have to be installed in place of the beds.
Cover the arc frame with a film. From below, it is pressed down to the ground with boards or bricks. It is allowed to use a non-woven fabric instead of a film.
On the video you can see the device of the arc greenhouse:
Collapsible shelter made of wooden gratings
Looking at the photo of a greenhouse made of wooden gratings, we can conclude that this is the same tunnel, only more reliable. Lattices knock down from a wooden lath. Moreover, they can be made in small sections, connected by bolts. A wooden frame of this design is easy to assemble, and also quickly disassemble for storage.
A greenhouse made of wooden gratings is durable, not afraid of strong gusts of wind. Here, plexiglass or polycarbonate may be suitable as a skin, but there will be difficulties in accessing plants. You will have to make opening sections on hinges. The easiest way is to use a traditional cover made of film or non-woven fabric.
Stationary greenhouse made of wooden beams
Stationary greenhouses for summer cottages are convenient in that they do not need to be assembled and disassembled every year. The wooden frame constantly stands in its place, it is enough just to prepare the soil in the garden, and you can plant seedlings. By design, such a shelter already resembles a small greenhouse. Under the wooden frame equip the base. The foundation is poured from concrete, laid out from blocks, asbestos pipes are buried vertically or a wooden box is knocked down from a thick bar. Each summer resident chooses the best option for himself.
The frame of the shelter is knocked down from a wooden beam with a section of 50×50 mm. The roof of stationary greenhouses is made opening in order to have access to plants. A film for covering a wooden frame is not the best choice. It will have to be changed every season. It is better to glaze the frame, sheathe it with plexiglass or polycarbonate. In extreme cases, a non-woven fabric is suitable.
Greenhouse with metal frame
Stationary greenhouses are made with a metal frame. A collapsible design on a bolted connection is rarely done due to the complexity of manufacturing connecting assemblies. Usually the frame is simply welded from a pipe, angle or profile. The frame turns out to be quite heavy and requires the arrangement of a concrete base.
Plexiglas or polycarbonate is suitable as a shelter. It is possible to sew covers from reinforced polyethylene or non-woven fabric. For access to plants on covers provide fasteners.
Using old window frames to make a greenhouse
After installing plastic windows on a country house, you should not throw away old wooden frames. They make an excellent greenhouse. It should be noted right away that the structure will turn out to be heavy and a solid foundation will be equipped under it. The foundation is easiest to make from cinder blocks or bricks laid without mortar. I build a greenhouse from wooden frames as a separate building or adjoining the house. In the second option, there is no need to build a fourth wall.
A box is installed on the prepared foundation from a bar, and one of the side walls is made higher. The slope will allow you to equip the drain of rainwater from the windows. Jumpers are installed inside the wooden box, and window frames are attached directly to them. It is better to open windows from yourself, then free access to plants is provided in front of the greenhouse.
Scheme of a greenhouse with a recess
The elevated part of the greenhouse with a recess can be any. Although more often it is made in the form of an inclined ledge from the ground. A feature of this design is the arrangement of the bed itself, which allows you to save the internal heat of the earth.
At the site of the future greenhouse, a layer of soil up to 400 mm deep is removed. The bottom of the pit is covered with slag or expanded clay. A box is knocked down from a wooden beam around the perimeter of the pit, fertile soil is poured and an upper shelter of any type is organized.
According to the presented diagram in the photo, you can see a similar design of a greenhouse with a recess for biofuels. The principle of arrangement is the same, only the hole for organic matter will have to be dug deeper.
Drawings of stationary greenhouses
It is quite difficult to draw drawings of stationary greenhouses with your own hands, without having experience in this matter. For reference, we present a few simple schemes. Dimensions are shown as an example. They can be changed at your discretion to obtain the frame of the desired dimensions.
Making a stationary greenhouse from a board
Now, using a simple example, we will consider how to make a greenhouse with our own hands from a board 150 mm wide and 25 mm thick. Let’s take the running size of a wooden house 3×1,05×0,6 m.
Let’s get acquainted with the order of work:
- For the manufacture of a wooden frame for a greenhouse from boards, two long shields measuring 3×0,6 m are knocked down. These will be the side walls. For the upper and lower horizontal lintels, only solid boards 3 m long are used. Vertical wooden racks are cut 0,6 m long. A rectangular side wall of the greenhouse is laid out from blanks on a flat piece of land and knocked down with nails. For the accuracy of connecting wooden blanks, nails can be replaced with self-tapping screws.
- By the same principle, two smaller shields for the end walls are made. In our example, the size of the shields is 1,05×0,6 m. A rectangular box is assembled from the finished four wooden shields. To fasten them, you can use bolts or overhead metal corners and self-tapping screws.
- Next, proceed to the manufacture of rafters. For this example, six boards 0,55 m long are taken. One end is cut down at an angle of 60о, and the other – 30о. Workpieces are laid out in pairs on the ground. You should get three rafters of a gable roof in the shape of a house. Between themselves, the resulting wooden squares are reinforced with a jumper.
- The finished rafters are fixed to the assembled rectangular box, and begin to form the roof. With one solid board 3 m long, the rafters are connected to each other at the very top. In this place, a skate is formed. Below the ridge, the rafters can be knocked down with short boards. They are only needed to secure the sheathing material.
The finished wooden frame is treated with a protective impregnation, after which they proceed to sheathing with any material they like, whether it be a film or a non-woven fabric.
The video shows different options for country greenhouses:
The greenhouse in the country is an important building. It will take a minimum of money and time to make it, and the shelter will bring maximum benefits.