You Can Build Your Own Add-On Greenhouse

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

For decades, the height of gardening and "food self-sufficiency" luxury has been the private greenhouse. Unfortunately—or, perhaps, foolishly—too many of us have traditionally regarded a family greenly greenhouse as just that ... a luxury that "maybe" we'll be able to afford "someday".

Internationally recognized greenhouse gardening authority Jack Kramer doesn't agree with that line of thought at all. "Far more people than realize it can have a greenhouse right now," says Jack. "And that includes you. Prefabbed units that attach to an existing residence are becoming more reasonably priced and more popular every day. And if a readymade kit is too expensive or too sterile for you ... well, it's a snap to design and build your own attractive conservatory from low-cost new and salvaged materials!"

Some of us (far more than have thought about it) can afford to buy and erect a prefabricated greenhouse,' and some of us can't. But even if you include yourself in the latter group, that's still no reason to do without your very own plant conservatory.

Homemade greenhouses—just like homemade food-can be even better than the "professionally" designed kind. Furthermore, when you sketch up and build your own, you can make absolutely certain that it'll be both the exact size and the exact shape you want. Best of all, you can calculate the layout and construction of your personal plant palace so that the finished structure will be both [1] distinctive and [2] a building that works with—rather than against—nature.

LOCATION

For too many years, in my opinion, greenhouse manufacturers have been saying, "if you add a plant place to your house, make sure you put it on the south side of the existing structure." That's a good suggestion ... but hardly mandatory.

I've seen excellent greenhouses filled with healthy plants attached to the east, west, and even north faces of homes. (Indeed: If you plan to grow orchids, you'll find a northern exposure ideal.)

And by all means, do figure on a lean-to construction. It will put the greenhouse in close proximity to the rest of your living space, add both beauty and a new feeling of openness to that space, and—by eliminating the need for one wall on the new structure—cut the conservatory's cost dramatically. (You're really in luck if your house's perimeter has an "L" that you can nestle the add-on greenhouse into. If it does, you'll be able to complete the glassed-in room by constructing only two walls and a roof.)

SIZE

We all, of course, start off wanting an absolutely huge place for our plants. This, however, really isn't necessary. Did you realize, for instance, that with careful staging (benches and tables) you can accommodate over 100 plants in a greenhouse measuring just 8 X 10 feet? I know you can because I've done it.