Building a greenhouse has always been on my project list, so when I came upon this article entitled “How to build my $50 Greenhouse“, I put my other projects aside.
If you add the fact that it’s currently spring and that I live in the Yukon, you’ll understand why I really want to build it. Here, we only have a few months without a risk of frost so plants have to grow quick. But we also live north of 60, which means that we have plenty of daylight in summer.
Here in Whitehorse we can get heat from about 20 hours of direct sunlight in June.
The structure is quite simple. It is made of 2×4 treated wood to prevent fungus, 6 mil plastic cover and 3/4” PVC pipes.
I won’t explain the details of the construction because the original article already has lots of information and pictures. Instead, I will tell you what differs from the original plans.
First of all, I used 2×4 lumber instead of 1×4 because it will be more sturdy in winter.
I also made the hoops from two 10 feet PVC pipes connected by a 45 degree connector. This design was chosen because I could not find any 20 feet PVC pipe. I also realised that using an angled connector would give more strength to the whole structure. Finally, I did not glue the pipes to the connector. Instead, I used pins to keep them tightly joined and I can easily dismantle them whenever I need to.
You can notice the red tape across the plastic cover. This is because the greenhouse measures 12 feet long and I could only find a 10’x100′ plastic roll.
Lastly, I did not staple the cover all the way to the bottom as I want to be able to roll the sides up whenever the temperature rises too much.
I really encourage anybody to build a similar greenhouse. It was fun to make and it didn’t require too much time.
NB: The original article calls for a $50 bill of material. It was more $400 here in Whitehorse as I had to buy pretty much everything at the Hardware Store.