PHOTO OF THE WEEK, Greenhouse

[FarmI]

The old 'pineapple houses' in Britain also used a similar system.

[Cheryl Isaak]

My grandfather had a "hot house" that was his seed starting area. He'd bring cow manure (fresh) up to the green house and with kitchen scraps, he'd keep that place toasty from late January in to March when he would start spreading most of the fresh stuff in the that year's fallow field.

Cheryl

[Cheryl Isaak]

Be wary of going the high speed route - you'll never be able to go back.

C

[Ann]

Jack Schmidling expounded:

Oh, the Google armark wasn't meant for you, Jack, but yes, it's true, here are a few links for those interested:

[biig]

I'm not THAT fond of tomatoes....lol... I have a much smaller version of your first one that I'll use to start things in the spring. Sharon, on a pension and a tight budget.

[Jack Schmidling]

In this case, it wasn't so simple. Many of the screws are square heads that fit into slots in the extrusions. There were other odd ball screws that could not be substituted.

The two problems that plagued us was that even using MM tools, the same heads and nuts were all different sizes and I had to grind open end wrenches to fit them all.

There were also many screws that were not completely threaded and if this was discovered after it was slid into the slot and assembled, it meant taking the whole assembly apart to replace it.

At all the corners, the nuts bumped into each other so you couldn't tighten both nuts without making a special wrench.

Peeling the protective wrap from the glazing was a nightmare until we found that soaking the sheet with paint thinner made it a lot easier but messier. Not a word about this in the instructions.

Great fun,

js

[Sheldon]

are in and what it

If you place a desktop PC in your greenhouse you can capture all the heat it expels.... might just pay for your high speed connection. But $50/mo seems rather high... here in NY Verizon charges $30 for DSL and they have an introductory offer of the first three months free, and with DSL you don't need to pay for an extra phone line. Also with DSL for a few more dollars you can opt for higher speed, I pay $2/mo more for almost double speed, the next higher speed (T1 line) is much higher but so is the cost. These days it's a false economy using dial up... the only reason to use dial up is if no other option is available where you live.

[Sheldon]

I didn't write that.

[Lou Decruss]

Sounds like a real pita. But at least now you've got tomatoes

Lou

[Val]

Amen, Mr. Sparebedroom. I don't believe Jack's post even mentioned cost or monetary returns. Do these same "calculating" people haul spreadsheet to every corner of their gardens to justify the time and cost of esthetic value and personal fulfillment? I had a 12 X 26 foot greenhouse when I lived in NW Montana. One end was connected to the wall of the garage. I heated it with a wood stove, back up propane heater and had lights (because of long winter nights). I figured it cost me close to $120 a month to keep it up and running during the winter. For the pleasure I derived working in my "vacation home", sitting on my bench potting things up or grooming and fiddling with my plants in my warm, peaceful greenhouse when the snow was blowing sideways drove away any thoughts of cost. It was money better spent than one week in Hawaii. Some things you can't put a price on. I'm sure you and wife will love your greenhouse, Jack......until you decide you need a bigger one, this is the only drawback of a greenhouse....no matter what the size, soon it's never big enough ;)

Val

[Jack Schmidling]

Sitting there with our beer and peanuts and book on tape this afternoon, we pondered just where we are going to put all our start ups in Spring. It's already far too small.

js