Green House Plan

Thinking Smart Ahead of Time

Building your own greenhouse is a great idea if you’d like to cultivate more exotic plants, get a head start on the growing season, or have fresh produce for longer than a normal outdoor garden can provide. There are some considerations to take into account before you launch head-first into spreading out your green house plan on the patio and cranking up your power tools. Coming up with a green house plan that covers all the aspects of light, shade, strength, orientation, type of plants and, of course, your budget is essential. After all, building a greenhouse requires a lot of physical effort, not to mention time, so you don't wnat ot invist so much of yourself in a project which falls on its knees - or just falls...

The Best Location for Your Greenhouse

The first thing to consider in your greenhouse plan is where you are going to put it. This will also govern the size of the greenhouse. It's one thing deciding how big you want your greenhouse to be, and another to make sure you have the space to accommodate it? If you’re aiming for something that will allow you to nurture tropical or delicate plants, you may only need a small amount of space. Even so, you’ll want to make sure there's enough space in your greenhouse for you to move around freely. Bumping into pots or having to constantly hunch over is nobody's idea of fun. You don't want your hobby to give you a one-way ticket to the chiropractor's bench, so make sure you make adequate provision to accomodate your own size.

Once you've got detailed plans for the interior space requirements, you'll have to make sure your plans fit in the the amount and type of outdoor space available to the building itself. Do you have enough land to build a greenhouse? And if so, will the physical form of the building intrude on the layout of your garden? To answer this question you'll need to make a drawing of your lawn or yard in the form of a floor plan. Will you be able to pass by it easily or does it block any entrance or exit you may want to keep open? Try and work out where North is before you even start your green house plan. You can read more about the importance of correct orientation for your Green House Garden.

Lighting and Sun

The next thing you’ll need to figure out for your green house plan is the amount of sunlight the building itself will receive, and the number of hours in a day the sun will be able to warm the inside of your greenhouse. While midday sun provides the most energy, morning sun is the best light to have. This warms the poants up at the beginning of the day when they have most need for sunlight, so if morning sun is all the light the greenhouse will receive, the problem isn’t a large one and you can go ahead with your plans. If there are too many trees, or the light only hits the glass for very short intervals, then the greenhouse will be ineffective and you’ll either have to change location or crank up the chainsaw.

Once you've taken space, size, location and sunlight into account, the next stage of your greenhouse plan is to move on to deciding which building materials to use. There is a massive variety of types of glass, perspex and framing materials, but in fact this is not the hardest part of your plan to design. All-in-one solutions are easy to find. A well-integrated solution will take away all your worries as to which thickness of glass and how many openings you should include. If you should choose to design the whole thing from scratch, perhaps you should take a look at this cautionary tale about building a green house. Once you've made your major structural decisions considering interior implements such as shelving, tables, storage and misting devices or water proximity is a lot of fun. If your plan is good, and know that your structure will be properly placed and well-heated, then everything else is a matter of personal choice and taste. If you've planned well around the type of plants you want, and have designed a space that will accomodate your own working requirements, the rest should be a breeze.

Remember the golden rule of real estate: the three most important considerations are location, location and location. This should be borne out in your green house plan.