A greenhouse extends your growing season by providing an optimal climate for your plants. Greenhouses are a great addition to your garden if you have the space for it, but buying one new can be costly. Luckily, there are plenty of DIY greenhouse ideas to inspire you to build one from scratch. You won't even need a large garden — DIY ideas come in a wide range of sizes and can fit on a balcony or even on your kitchen windowsill.
Put the ''green'' in greenhouse by constructing an ecologically-friendly structure from used plastic bottles. This is one of the most affordable ways of build a greenhouse while putting your recycling to good use. Thread the bottles onto a tall, thin wooden stake stick or a piece of wire. Cut the bottoms off each bottle so that the top of one bottle will fit neatly inside the bottle next to it. The bottles will interlock with one another to form long bottle tubes.
Making a greenhouse out of old windows is a great way to upcycle old building supplies. They can usually be found for a very good price and will create a unique structure that will be a statement piece in your garden. Collect enough windows to create the size of construction that you need and lay them out as you would a puzzle to construct the four sides of the greenhouse, making detailed drawings to plan the full structure.
Hoop greenhouses are some of the easiest types of greenhouses to construct and are much more cost-effective than glass greenhouses. They are usually made from PVC pipes that are bent into arches, with large pieces of clear plastic draped across them. A hoop house can be made to fit in any size of garden simply by adapting the length of the PVC pipes to make a larger or smaller tunnel structure.
There are numerous wooden frame structures that you can construct out of wooden pallets. Use whole pallets for the base of your greenhouse walls, then disassemble more pallets and use the wood to create the frame. Pallets can also be used to build raised garden boxes, which you can then cover with a basic plastic canopy. The sturdy wood from pallets offers a ton of versatility in incorporating pallets into your greenhouse plans.
If you don't have enough space for a traditional greenhouse, a mini-greenhouse could be just the solution. They are becoming increasingly popular with those who have green thumbs but not enough garden space to showcase their talents. Mini greenhouses come in a wide range of sizes, from tabletop-sized units, carts on wheels, and even inverted mason jars. There are also many mini-greenhouses available for purchase but creating your own personalized version for your own specific needs is a lot more fun.
A cold frame greenhouse is a small type of greenhouse that is created by building a wooden garden box with one side higher than the other. The box is positioned against the side of the house that gets the most sun and old windows are attached with hinges to one edge so that it can open on one side. The box is then filled with potting soil and compost and the seeds planted inside it.
An item that usually isn't very easy to re-purpose is an umbrella. However, a transparent bubble umbrella makes a very simple and effective DIY greenhouse. The umbrella can be placed on the top of a round container like a wine barrel or directly on top of the soil to form a perfect protective cover for plants.
Terrariums are enclosed miniature, indoor gardens, usually made of glass or plastic. They need little to no maintenance and can last almost indefinitely with very little water. All you need to make a lush mini garden is a glass vase or bowl, pebbles, potting soil, moss, and your choice of plants. Get creative by adding a variety of colors and sizes and even a few miniature figurines to create your own tropical paradise.
Strength is one of the best features of the geodesic dome, as the triangles that form the framework distribute the weight equally across the structure. They are also very resistant to wind and other elements, making them suitable to almost all climates. The size of the dome is very easily adaptable by adding or reducing the number of triangles in the structure. The shape of the dome also provides a large volume to a small surface area while at the same time maximizing exposure to the sun.
The purpose of a greenhouse is to garner the sun's warmth and insulate from the colder climate outside, so the greenhouse needs to be placed in a position to receive the most sunlight. Aim for morning sunlight by placing your greenhouse on the south or southeast side of the property. Placing the greenhouse on the south side will give expose it to at least 6 hours of daylight as the sun travels from east to west.
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