Bert's BloomersThe Official Blog of the Ten Minute Garden!

There was a period of about three or four years that I did not have my own greenhouse, and no prospects of ever having one again. But ingenuity and a passion for recycling made my hobby greenhouse a reality. It began by accumulating old windows, with the thought that I could attach them to a frame and build a greenhouse. I soon discovered I could not afford the lumber to build a greenhouse large enough to satisfy my greedy addiction to plants. Never one to give up easily, I continued accumulating (scavenging) bits and pieces of “stuff” that I would use in and for the greenhouse I knew was going be in our garden someday.

While shopping at one of those giant box stores, I noticed a sale on one of those easy-up temporary car shelters. I glanced at it, but carried on through the store. As I wandered and shopped I started thinking about this shelter. When we left the store, we left with the shelter, a.k.a. the frame for my new 10’ x 20’ greenhouse. One of my (free) recycled finds was several pressure treated 6” x 6” of varying lengths. They would form the sill for the greenhouse. A neighbour was throwing out old wooden screen windows. When she heard of my greenhouse plans, the screens were offered to me, free, for my project. Now I had ventilation for the greenhouse. Another neighbour was renovating and offered about fifty pieces of 1” x 2” x 8’ lumber to me, free for the taking as well. Now I had a frame, a sill to set it on, ventilation, and lumber to close in the end walls. All that was needed now was a plastic cover. I could not and still can not afford greenhouse plastic, but vapour barrier is affordable. Two rolls of greenhouse repair tape were more than enough to piece together the vapour barrier into one sheet of plastic big enough to cover the entire frame. Make that two sheets, because I put a double layer of plastic on the greenhouse. Out of the 1” x 2” lumber I built the end walls and a door, covered with more of the vapour barrier.

Every greenhouse needs growing benches and again, my penchant for recycling paid off. The benches are made up of wooden pallets and concrete blocks that were destined for the landfill site until I put my pride in my pocket and asked if I could take them. For free. The potting bench was also rescued from a trip to the dump and was also free. Next, I needed a solid path between the benches. Ideally, I would prefer a gravel walkway, but that was beyond our budget. Keeping my eyes and ears open, I heard of some patio stones that were being removed. I offered to remove them and take them away, for free.

It took about one full year to gather everything the build the greenhouse, but it was certainly worth being patient for! Every spring I spend hours upon hours in there, listening to Vivaldi, planting seeds, pinching seedlings, fertilizing, transplanting, or just puttering away. Nothing is as enjoyable as the hours I spend in the greenhouse. What makes them even more special is knowing I saved the landfill from filling up with “stuff” and what few things I did have to buy, cost me less than three hundred dollars in total!

By the way, do you know anyone who could use some old windows of various sizes?