Doreen from Pine Plains, NY
There are several things to consider when setting up a shelving system for your greenhouse. First, greenhouses are moist environments, so look for shelving made from a material that will hold up to the constant humidity without rusting or rotting. Next, unless you plan to supplement available natural light with artificial lights, look for open shelving that allows light to penetrate through to the shelves beneath it.
Sam's Club features a shelving system made out of commercial grade chrome steel for around $75 (plus shipping if you don't have one nearby). The systems features 6 adjustable wire shelves, each rated for up to 600lbs. As an added bonus, the whole system is on casters, which makes moving and cleaning it more convenient, and if you decide to add grow lights to any of the shelves, the fact that they are open will make them easy to hang. If these fit your size and are within your budget, they seem like a great deal to me.
Target also feature similar shelving units in various sizes. I suspect you could find similar units at most of the larger retail discount stores and home centers.
Depending on how your greenhouse has been constructed, another option is to use the wall-mounted closet shelving designed for organizing closets. This is easy to find at any major home or garden center. It allows you to customize your shelving and add to it as your budget allows. The shelves are open and usually coated with plastic. Because they are designed to accommodate hangers, they are ready made for hanging pots. Plan to reinforce them with extra brackets to account for the added weight of heavy pots.
Other ideas include browsing building salvage companies and area thrift stores like Goodwill. You never know when you are going to stumble upon an old bookcase or other piece of furniture that can be converted into shelving.
If you are willing to be creative, consider taking out an ad in a local mid-week or hanging up flyers. People who are spring cleaning their house or garage may be more than happy to unload their "junk" for free (or for trade) as long as you're willing to pick it up. For cheap reclaimed building supplies, don't forget to check out your local materials exchange:
Good luck!
Ellen
This is a page about planning an inexpensive greenhouse. Having your own greenhouse can drastically change the things you can grow. While you can spend a fortune on a greenhouse, you don't have to. Here are a bunch of tips for saving money when building a greenhouse.
Building your own greenhouse is a fun project that can be tailored to meet your budget and gardening needs. The pole barn style is an easy one to work with. This is a page about building a pole barn greenhouse.
If I can only go 10 feet wide on my greenhouse, can I use the same lenghts of PVC in your 14 foot wide plan and just obtain a higher arc or will the stress on the PVC be too great?
By Bob
When the winter months enable us to do our gardening outside, I decided to bring much of my garden inside. We cleaned out under our basement steps.
I want to start my vegetable plants for the spring indoors now, then transplant them in 8-10 weeks outdoors. I need suggestions on how I can build a frugal greenhouse in the garage. The only thing is the garage has no heat. I don't know how to add that to the installation. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hardiness Zone: 7a
By Michael from Knoxville, TN
Yes a little electric space heater does the trick! I use one of those electric oil heaters and it works perfectly! I also keep a fan (the ones you can clip on anywhere) going for air circulation.
It looked like it would soon be raining; I couldn't stand the thought of having so many soon-to-be ripe tomatoes rotting on the vines, so I decided to do something about it. I created a make-shift greenhouse.
