A dream is just a dream, until you do something about it.
I have always loved having a garden. When we first bought this house, it started out small (okay, to us it was small – I guess it wasn’t really in retrospect) and over the past year it has grown into, well…something bigger 🙂
We put so much time into it that when it came time to think about clearing it out for the winter…I just couldn’t do it.
So hubby did what he does best…figured out how to make my ideas into a reality. He spent countless hours researching the best way to build a greenhouse…and then, he DID IT!
So this is the story of how we transitioned our “typical” summertime garden into one we could utilize year-round!!!
**All of the supplies we used will be linked within the post, so make sure you check them out so you can build your very own garden!!**
We moved into our house in November, and by February we were ready to start building the garden. Hubby started with 3 raised Garden Beds…in a “U” shape, so we could get to every side of it. Once we saw how it turned out, it quickly changed shape and we got right to work planting…
The garden beds were built from Pressure Treated 2×6 boards, fastened with exterior screws and nails. (We will put up the DIY Plans for this at another point…as well as the greenhouse plans!!)
We added in concrete pavers between the sections of the garden with crushed rocks as spacers. We found the ground was getting too soggy; the grass was too hard to cut with the plants as they began to grow and it was much cleaner (and prettier) to have the path there instead. (there is landscaping fabric under the pavers to help control the weeds)
The total area of our garden is somewhere between 300 and 350 sq. ft. We have a great spot on the side of our house that is out of the way of everything else, and gets almost a full day of sunlight! Location, location, location!!!
Because the beds were raised, we needed to fill them with soil. We ordered around 7-8 yards of 1/2 Mushroom Soil and 1/2 Compost (check out your local Soil/Mulch/Nurseries for more information on what will work in your area). I truly believe that the mushroom soil was a game changer!! My mom always kept a garden while we were growing up, and the crops turned out so much differently with the change in soil type! It is definitely worth putting the time in to figure out what will work for you, in order to get the best harvest possible!!
We started the garden at the beginning of March, thinking it was going to be just warm enough. We quickly realized we had over estimated the temperature, and that if we didn’t do something to cover the plants, we would lose them all.
We started by covering the baby plants with moving blankets, tarp and burlap. (if you need something in a pinch, this will work!!) After a few days of this, we realized it wasn’t something we wanted to have to continue to deal with – so hubby started the search to build our own greenhouse.
PVC pipe seemed to be the way to go; they can be bent to create a shape that would discourage water retention at the top and they are relatively inexpensive to work with. We used 1/2 in. PVC piping and connectors (though he says he were to do it again he would use 3/4 in. pipes) and built an arch over the entire bed, leaving gaps so that we could still get to the plants.
Next came the hard part – figuring out how to make the tarp work. After a good amount of trial and error we used 2 sheets of 20×25 ft. of Clear Sheeting, so that light would be able to get through to the plants. The back of the structure was put up first, making sure that it was pulled around the PVC as tight as possible and secured with PVC Snap Clamps. (these are key!!!)
The 2nd sheet of tarp was placed over the remaining, exposed frame and pulled over and down the front side. Once these 2 sheets were put up, the entire garden was covered and secured with the snap clamps.
Next came the door, which was made from PVC and Tarp (with a cute little PVC handle). This was attached to a frame he had made from the pipes (see picture above, to the right).
In order to have a swinging door, he built a wood frame, from 2x4s, and used hinges to connect the door to it. We realized we needed to be able to get into the garden and cutting a slit in the tarp allowed us to do just that. The door would then keep the air from getting in, when closed.
There are some pieces of wood around the edges to keep the tarp in place at the bottom (there was excess tarp, so we wrapped the wood around it a few times, and placed it on the ground – super simple)
And there you have it!! The most time consuming part of all of this was actually planning it out, and we did a lot of the legwork for you right here!! We will also be putting up more in-depth plans on the DIY Plans page soon 🙂
I will also post about what we actually have in the garden and any tips/tricks I have figured out along the way!! As always – comments, questions, suggestions and any feedback is more than welcome!!!
Happy Planting!!!