Homemade Greenhouse - Build it For Less Using Local Materials and Basic Tools

By Clair Schwan

Now is the time to build a greenhouse -- a quality homemade greenhouse. Start growing vegetables year round and free yourself from the ever rising cost of produce. That's exactly what I have done.

A quality homemade greenhouse isn't difficult or expensive to build -- I've constructed three different designs with no previous experience. All are well built metal and wood structures that will last a lifetime. If you are serious about growing vegetables and you want to save money, then you should seriously consider building a quality homemade greenhouse.

Here is how I built my second homemade greenhouse. It started as a large patch of weed infested ground, and now it's a nice strong hot house that serves me year round. The idea was to create two 3 foot wide by 36 foot long raised beds with a sunken walkway in between. A metal and wood frame greenhouse would then be built on top.

I dug it. The first steps of the process involved creating the sunken walkway that would run between the large raised beds. This was done with a backhoe and skidsteer. The backhoe dug out most of the walkway, and the skidsteer was used to do the final digging and smooth out the floor of the walkway so it would be level for the walls of the raised bed.

The walkway was dug plenty deep, about 5 feet, to allow for high walls and a deep bed of sand to cover the walkway. It also had to be excavated a little bit wide so the walls could be installed and lined with corrugated metal to keep the power poles from touching the soil in the raised bed. Outside and end walls were also constructed in a similar manner.

The upper story. The basic design of the greenhouse is similar to a single car garage. The walls are vertical and 5 feet tall. The roof is 10 feet from eave to ridge with a 45 degree pitch to capture light and shed snow. Metal tubing is used for the walls and rafters, with 90 degree EMT conduit elbows used at the ridge to connect the rafters. Metal tubing is also used to create purlins, angle bracing for the walls, and diagonal bracing across the structure.

Chain link top rail serves as the primary metal tubing for construction. It is light, easy to work with, inexpensive and readily available at the local home improvement store. Chain link fencing end clamps are used extensively to fasten together walls, top plates and rafters. Walls are secured to the power pole foundation by drilling holes and pinning them in place with lag screws. Diagonal bracing is secured to the power pole foundation with large spikes.

The ends of the building are constructed from 2 by 4 lumber painted white. Vents and an exhaust fan are installed, both controlled by a single temperature switch. The building is covered with woven ripstop poly in three pieces. One piece for each end, and a single piece that covers the walls and roof. The poly is stapled to the wood ends, and held in place across the structure by plastic lath and self-tapping screws.

Note: this project required 2 people and heavy equipment because of its size and the heavy materials used in construction of the base. If you build something similar without heavy equipment, you can limit the challenges by choosing lighter materials like railroad ties at 80 pounds a piece, making the beds shorter, and making the sunken walkway more shallow.

The finished greenhouse is now in full production. In the summer we grow two dozen summer and winter squash plants, and about 20 cucumber plants. In the winter we grow kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, about 8 plants each. All of the resident vegetables seem to enjoy the warmth that the enclosure provides, and the high winds out here on the prairie don't have a chance of drying out our precious crops.