I have not taken any new ones since I still can't do anything but water. But I'll take a picture of the overgrown mess tommorrow.
Here's a few older ones for the newbie's.
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Volcano water feature I made myself.

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Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelli'
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No it's not the M word. It a Jatropha.
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My yellow banana bloomed last year.
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Voodoo lily from a few years ago. Before I had the greenhouse.
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Green Goddess calla in greenhouse. They love the cool temps and bloom in the winter.
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It does not look that good now since I had back surgery in 2005 and still can not do a lot. I'm lucky that I just now am able to do house work since Jan. 2008. And that takes all my engery. I've even been cooking real full coarse meals.
I have repotted a few house plants lately. And just potted over 20 palms. Mostly small ones. But I mix my own soil.
I already told my DH when I start working outside and the greenhouse the inside house will have to go. He cleaned and vacuumed for 3 years and made meals in a bag etc.
He still does most of the laundry. But he does not have the patience to be a gardner or to work in my greenhouse.
OK you got me started and I can't stop.

All these pictures of nice and good looking need some balance!

An interior picture from early spring 2006 (as some of you know 2007 did not exist as far as my growing anything)

Some interior ugly!

There is a prize for anyone that figures out what is happening.....

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:)

I have always loved your greenhouse, Cactusfreak. I like that volcano fountain thingie too. I have been designing my pondless dropfall and thinking about materials. Its that time of year, time for a new project! I am almost finished with pressurewashing the interior walls, and once we get these last few Arctic nights behind us, I plan to start. I can't decide if I want to back the fall with stone, or big big pieces of corkbark. I am leaning towards corkbark and mounting a lot of orchids, ferns and bromeliads on it as a backdrop

OOOH, OOOH pick me, I know Chris.....you borrowed dirtbert's cloning machine and made a baby greenhouse?

OR, your GH is being a surrogate?

Do I win the prize??????? HUH...DO I

Chris,

I would say that you have rigged up a misting setup to an enclosed area. Looks like too many hoses hanging over the top of the fan.

Nice setup.

Joe

rjinga,

Nah! I was building a hoophouse for a friend and got it all finished. He came with a trailer to take it away and we realized it wouldn't go through the door, so now it is stuck in there :(

seirous now :)

Joe,

Yes the fan has got one of those "patio misters" (light colored tube) attached to it and also a coarse mister from a 1/4 inch type irrigation kit. The kit is the plastic box on the table. Also there is one suspended from the entrance to the hoophouse. The fine mist is used for cooling and general humidity, the coarse ones I turn on for watering, it rains in there. That fan is huge, half HP I think. I use it to toughen up the seedlings. Without mist they dry out way too fast.

This setup is how I grow my plants without using much heat. I start off small and then as I transplant and need more room I take down that hoophouse and use all the greenhouse. By that time the weather is not as cold. The hoophouse is 9ft x 11ft and it gets all closed up at night and on cold, cloudy days.

Notice the "bench" is just a 4ft x 8ft board on trash cans filled with water. There are other cans in the rest of the GH too. I have no real benches, everything moves around.

The famous Sams Club shelving unit is where I can put my plants and cover the whole thing in old blankets on nights that I think the inner hoophouse will dip below 32F.

That is from March 2006 and as I start in 288 plug trays so it looks like at that time I had about 5000 seedlings started.

The main GH is 24 x 14 with a double layer of 6mil poly.

I can't wait to get started this year!

Ok, its sleuth hat time, lets try to figure this one out, Chris. I had this all composed and you went and posted, so Ill say it anyway.
Lets see, it is a project. Like most projects, theyre never totally finished. And you werent finished then. At least not finished painting, the upper right beans are still unfinished wood. And youve been in there working, because you have a rest place chair, coffee cup and soft drink can. Its late winter or early spring, theres no leaves on the trees, but you cant wait, you want to get seedlings going but, youre still painting and maybe you dont want the moisture on the beams until you finished. So you put a tent inside the greenhouse where you can control the misting and temperature.
Well if it aint finished 2 years later, get busy painting, get away from that TV, the super bowl is over!

Chris,

So what's my prize?

That is a pretty good idea. I may have to incorporate it into my HFGH. Keep the ideas coming.

Joe

Chris,

So what's my prize?

That is a pretty good idea. I may have to incorporate it into my HFGH. Keep the ideas coming.

Joe

Well Joe, your prize is......

A month vacation in the middle of Iowa in March!

You get to play in the snow, chase skunks that invade the garage, you get to look after a bunch of cats that won't go outside to poop and have serious cabin fever, and as an added bonus you will get to see the most amazing sight man (or woman) has not seen since before fire was discovered.
The sky, on a clear winter night when it is minus a few thousand degrees and the power goes out. (yes I am sick of winter, I am sick of the cold, I am sick of the snow and even I don't go outside to poop anymore!)

kittyl,

The wood isn't painted because it is/was/will be insulated and covered in siding. (one day!)

Back to photos, I just threw up to photobucket all the photos I have, no description and spanning quite a few years. When I start this spring I will take more and be more descriptive.

Those of you who have the Jade Vine in your greenhouses...where did you purchase it from. You all are naughty!...enablers...bad enablers. ha ha. I just have to get one. Everytime I see a picture of it, my eyes keep going to that specific plant in the photos.

Thanks,

Tj

Chris...I thought you were making ice all this time. Now look at you!

Lady Lotus,
I got my Jade Vines as trades from people here in South Florida. I occasionally root sections of it for trade myself, its very hard to root (for me anyway) and I have had several in the past that no one has wanted to trade for, so some of them get composted. They are expensive plants, but I guess that's how it goes. I finally found a red one (Mucuna bennettii) that I could afford...it should be here in a week or 2.
My Green Jades are several years old and this is their 3rd-4th spring to bloom. They have huge trunks, diameters now getting up to 3-4+ inches. Not a vine for the faint of heart...requires almost constant pruning to keep it contained in a small space.

I'm not going to pretend that mine is as nice as the others, but I am having fun just designing it ( I'm sure that growing plant will be a blast):

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This one is from outside (its a Rion 8x12)
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And this one shows some of the framing for the raised bed, and walkway.
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WOW!! i've really missed out on some stuff here!! bahli i cannot believe that you throw plants away!!MY GOODNESS!!!
and chris, what a setup you have!! :')) i am finally getting my gh tomarrow between 1-2 YAY its been confirmed!! YAY i am sooooo thrilled its amazing!! LOL

medonto,
I DO compost plants all the time. I propagate what I can use for my yard...I plant many cool tropicals out every Spring as annuals knowing that they won't survive the winter here. I propagate plants to trade, but I can't use everything. People always ask me to send them stuff for postage.
I love to trade, but I don't mail plants for postage. Its not because I am mean or stingy. The post office is 20 minutes away from me (one way) and I only go there when I absolutely need to. I am a fairly busy person, and I don't make work for myself that way (harvesting, packing, driving to the PO, standing in long lines) especially with the cost of gas what it is now and postal rates what they are now. I consider myself a nice person, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

This is an important piece of "editorial" for anyone considering owning a greenhouse and utilizing it in the manner that I do (as an actual planted environment, not just as a way to overwinter plants, start seeds, etc...):
If you maintain the environment that the plants you are growing really like, they will reward you with massive growth. Since your space is finite, you have to develop ways to cope with that.

I have to prune and thin on an almost constant basis. I pull out probably 6-7 thirty five gallon trashcans full of assorted ferns every year and throw them in the woods.

Any plants that you use that spread by underground rhizomes have to be thinned to keep them from outgrowing their space. SOmetimes, you have to dig up the whole clump, thin it down, toss or try to trade 3/4, and replant the 1/4 and start over.

Mounted plants like orchids and bromeliads eventually have to be re-mounted when they overgrow their mounts.

That's just the way it goes. In a way, its a testament to your success as a gardener; in another way, its a pain in the rear, LOL.

All that said, I absolutely love to trade for new plants. I will consider trading for lots of stuff, not just what's on my list. My "want list" on my member page is very ambitious. I know that probably I have about a 1% chance of ever getting a trade for any of those plants, because they are rare and expensive. But, many things I offer for trade are also rare and expensive.

I know that somewhere in her extremely cool greenhouse, Cactusfreak has stuff I want. But she doesn't think she does, LOL.

The only real "trade don'ts" I have are, I don't do postage, and I don't trade to states where it would be against the Agricultural Laws for me to send uninspected plants to.
And #3...I don't trade for CANNAS, EVER. They are too hard to maintain here, they get leaf roller caterpillars and always look ragged and terrible, and I don't spray any pesticides (even Thuricide, it also kills the butterfly cats) in my yard. I also don't accept Hostas, calla lilies or fuscia, or any othe rplant that I know won't take the Florida heat...they are lovely in cooler climates, but a complete waste of time and effort here.

So if anyone might like to get in on some of the plants I compost, watch the FL and Tropical exchange pages...I post there a lot and get no offers. I can give references for people who have traded with me and been extremely pleased with their trade.

bihai,
I can see you have taken tremendous time and efforts towards building and maintianing something that most of us only dream of. And to have such success with growing stuff to the point of having so much excess that you can "throw it away" is a hard concept for most of us schleps who would trade their right arm for just a piece of that level of success :)

I think that's what is behind the comment from medontdo...not being critical of you just a little envy (of the nice variety of course)I had it too when I read that commment :) ha ha...

that being said...did you know that the USPS has FREE pickups for any and all postal items...you can get online, and order a pick up, even print out your postage....if you have a postal scale and a credit card, you can pay for your postage online. And they WILL come and get it for you. You never should have to drive to the post office again and never wait in another line...I think the only reason people still do it that way, is that they dont know what their postage will cost, or it's just the way it's always been done....modern technology has allowed us to be disconnected from that place if we choose to.

disclaimer, I dont work for the post office, so as with anything, there may be exceptions to this...but generally speaking if the postal guys BRINGS mail to your mailbox and not a PO Box (but I'm not even sure that isn't possible), they can pick up anything that you have to send.

Hi Chris,

Get some of the Iowa cold air and put it in a Mason jar and send it too me. I'll see how it compares to good ole Central NY air. We had 21 blow last Friday and today it's 53 degrees.

Anyway, thanks for the prize and keep on tinkering.

Joe

How far are you from Eldora?

rjinga,
that's a great idea, but we are on a rural route. If its too large to fit in my oversized mailbox (which is located 1/2 mile up the road from my house, nice hike with lots of bird sitings, unless you have to carry back boxes) I get the pink slip to go pick it up at the main post office that's actually FURTHER away (main station...about 10 miles away). The 20 minute "closer" PO is the substation, LOL.

Fed Ex and UPS will deliver out here, but they gripe...there are only 4 families on my road, its a one-laner wide enough for one car, and to turn their trucks around they have to go an additional 1/4 mile down a limerock road to get to the turnaround. But they have a good sense of humor (until they get stuck, ROFLMAO). They enjoy spotting the deer and the herd of resident wild boar that we have hanging about.

If some of you guys want to trade, PLEASE, contact me when I post for trades. I LIKE to trade. I LOVE to trade! Its kinda like Christmas

ohhh i was sooo not critisizing!! i think you are so lucky in the fact that your gh is so overflowing!! LOL i just got mine in today!! so we have to wait till its a lil warmer to put it up but i am so anxious to get all these plants out in there!! LOL maybe with alot of love and tenderness i will have a overflowing one too!! :')) that is my dream!!

i live in a tiny tiny town, its really a farming community, so i always for get that people actually do live like a half an hour from the po. LOL my mom does and she lives in town, but thats if ya count stopping at the lights and all.

medontdo,
I didn't take it as criticism at all! No way! It isn't fun having to throw plants on the compost heap, but, in actuality, the trimmings that come from things like Jade Vine would probably never root anyway so would be valueless.

I know that many of you may have never looked at it this way, but the compost heap can actually serve as a master propagater, for tropical plants anyway. Many of the things I toss out there (like begonia trimmings, ginger trimmings, bromeliads, ferns and rhizomatous plants use the heat of the compost pile to grow new plants. I fond all sorts of stuff growing out in the woods, and reclaim a lot of it for my yard.

The one great rule that anyone with a new greenhouse will discover is, you never have one that's large enough. Even if it looks big when you get it, it will take you an extremely short time to fill it to overflowing! Then you will be wanting to add another greenhouse, and another....I have wanted to put an "addition" onto mine for about 2 years now...a separate room off one side for dry plants like succulents and protea, etc, but hubby has drawn the line, LOL.

I have a pop-up (a portable) that I have been thinking of using for this purpose, setting it up in an area behind the main greenhouse as a permanent structure and using it to grow things that would stay too wet and rot in the Tropical greenhouse

i want the ginger!! and ferns!! LOL i just got my ginger to grow, two babies, took forever!! LOL and i love ferns!! but i want perennial and hardy!! that way i can have them forever, ya know. i hate wasting money! so i like to get perennials. but it came in yesterday!! LOL i was so happy!! i cannot believe that they had a dang semi deliver the 7ft box. LOL now we are waiting for the warmth so we can set it up. and i printed off mudhouse's instructions, and then we will be on our way!! LOL :'))

Bihai,
Your GH is HUGE! You must have just about everything in there! No wonder I couldn't find anything to trade with you that isn't already in there! I wish that I could have that big of a GH, but I don't think that I would have enough room in my yard, and the heating bill would be massive! I'll just be happy that I can have a GH in my yard, with some room for future expansion.

So here are my GH pics from last summer (I will be expanding this spring..YAY):

Bananas

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff157/NPhillipps/Greenhouse/a003.jpg

Slipper orchids (My favorites)

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff157/NPhillipps/Slipper%20Orchids/Slipper%20Growing%20Area/IMG_0491.jpg

I don't have a lot of pics of my GH.

Nick (Oxypetalum)

Nick,
someone traded my a slipper orchid once, a pink one that grows wild in North Carolina. They rescued it from a construction site that was being plowed under. It wouldn't take the heat here and promptly went dormant. I traded it to someone else in the North (like New Jersey or somewhere) who was more expert on them, and he sent me a photo later of this huge beautiful plant in bloom! It was stunning. I have a few Phrags. I like them a lot.

Bihai, your greenhouse is amazing as usual. Mine still isn't close to what I envisioned which was partly inspired by yours.

Everyone else has done a great job too. We all use our greenhouses for different jobs and they don't all need to be alike to be wonderful.

I toss pond plants all summer long myself, I can't find enough local ponders to take them and it is too much time to pack and ship. It really is time consuming.

buyorsell,
don't I know it. I had to just STOP with the water plants. It was an obsession. At one time I had more than 40 different cultivars of Tropical Water lilies and 10 different lotus. Many were viviparous, and I had so many water lilies it was impossible to trade them all.

I kept a few, I think I may have about 8 different ones now. We live out in the country now; we used to live in town. Out here, water lilies are deer attractants. They will come along and take a drink out of the pond, spot the lily bloom and just lop it off, munch it up and walk away. The raccoons fished out and ate all my Japanese trapdoor snails, LOL, and they took the pond thermometers out and threw them on the ground.

I think everyone's greenhouse (who has shown photos) is pretty fab!

Every time I think that winter is over, we get a new front in the forecast. It was looking pretty great until the forecast for this weekend came up with 2 nights in the mid to high 30's, so definitely waiting to open up and start any new projects. But I did propagate a couple plants for potential trades later yesterday, LOL

Bihai,
That Plant was Cypripedium acaule. An endangered species that grows in cooler climates. It obviously wouldn't have survived because they like it cool, and they like it very acidic with a pH of about 3.5-4. I grow that up here in my yard under a Pine tree, in almost full shade. They are great plants once you know how to grow them. I mostly grow the Paphiopedilums and some Phragmipediums, but I am known as the "Besseae Murderer" because I cannot keep a besseae alive! LOL! But I can keep the long petalled ones like wallisii, lindenii, caudatum, popowii (syn. warscewiczianum), and extaminodium alive. I took a pic of my GH today. it is covered with about 5-6 inches of snow and ice!

It is nice to know that you are also interested in water plants! I have a small pond, but am planning to make a bigger one so that I can grow Victoria cruziana, Victoria amazonica, and Euryale ferox. I also want to get some tropical waterlillies. I have a few lotuses now, with my favorite being 'Chawan Basu' at the moment.

I think I know how to post pics now, so here I go!

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Here's one blooming now

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WOW that's a real beauty!! i like things that are interesting looking!! they say ladys slippers are what go in fairy's gardens, but they don't say if its orchids or balsams, a lady is sasbe' me some balsams. and i think we'll buy some orchid's for this area, but can you put them outside?? i thought they are very fussy. the garden is my talla's, she's gonna be 6 this summer. we're working on all the seeds now. LOL this will be fun!! all in theri own little green house LOL

You have some great looking bananas there! And your orchid is beautiful. You are right, you have jarred my memory...it was Cyp acaule. I am glad it went to a good home in a cooler location, I didn't want to kill it!

here's some updated photos of the OUTSIDE of my GH....still have not gotten shelves up....it's coming...I scored some closet shelving on craigslist recently and my neighbor is still faithfully helping me :)

I will have a raised bed planter surrounding the GH
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This area will be a sitting area....(it will turn green I hope)
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This is a big undertaking here...lasagne to control weeds, then raised bed planters throughout this area eventually. And I have a bunch of roses planted around the perimeter already.

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Its been posted before, but here's mine.

Its a 37' X 16' B C Greenhouse kit.

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Inside

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There's no floor. The plants are planted right into the ground.

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Here's some things that grow inside

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Hi There,
Can anyone suggest what to use to hang "lot" of hanging baskets in a HFGH 10x 12 ? Hopefully My neighbor is going to put it together for me and would like any idea's
Thanks

I only have a few right now, but I put closet shelving across my braces and have orchids hanging from them. They aren't too heavy, I only hang the plastic pots.
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Greetings,

Those of you growing Jade Vines in your greenhouse...are you growing them in containers? Large containers? Hanging pots or does the container set on the floor allowing the plant to climb up a trellis of sorts?

I just ordered one that will be growing in a container in my greenhouse. I just need to know if they climb on their own or hang?

Also, what kind of soil mix are you using for this plant?

Thanks.
Tj

Hey Pelican, can you tell me how you attached your EMT? I dont see any braces connecting to the GH, it almost looks like it's just slipped over the bolts on the side panels?

CAgary....a GH kit to aspire to and dream of....someday very nice

I have L brackets bolted at the top of the brace and then emt slipped over the other leg of the L bracket and bolted in place. I got the idea from Mudhouse. Thanks Mudhouse. :).

My jade vine is in a pot in my greenhouse. I have a support for it when it gets bigger.

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here are some updated pictures, finally got my camera back online :)

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Just picked up 4 loads of super nice compost/mulch that I have made a modified lasagne bed with leaves and cardboard and then this nice stuff...
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Not quite finished but this is going to be a pergola/trellis that will tie the raised bed planter together.
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updated photos..

hey also I need some design tips...what can I do (if anything) to finish off the end posts of this trellis? it seems unfinished to me (obviously, it's going to be painted) but somethings missing to me...I guess it's the contrast between the 4x4 and the 2x6's...probably should have used all 2x6's up top?

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I think your 2x2's need to go on top. You could hang some baskets on the two end post.
Just MO
Here's some my DH built years ago.
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the main reason we put them on the underside, was that on top they looked funny at the ends. Probably because of the contrast with the 4x4's ...it just left a big open gap which to me didn't look right. I will consult with my "design assistant" ;) and see what he thinks...not sure it will be worth the effort at this point...but thanks for your input. My "free" labor (my neighbor) is harder to come by these days, as he has taken a post retirement job at Walmart, stocking shelves on the night shift...so my requests for assistance have to really be selective to stuff I cant do myself.

I just want to say THANK YOU for this amazing thread. I am working to set up my first greenhouse and your photos have really helped me determine how to set up the inside. Not to mention all the really beautiful greenhouses represented by this community!

I do have to give special mention to javan for the tent poles... absolutely brilliant!

rjinga, speaking as a long-time carpenter, those 2x2s should be moved. Think of it this way . . . you should use gravity to force your structure together, and not stress the fasteners to work against gravity. Otherwise, I like the looks of what you have there. Were it up to me, I wouldn't paint it -- if you're putting vines or climbing roses on it, the whole structure won't be visible for too long anyway. BTW, don't I see you over on the Rose forums?

Connie

What is a "hoophouse" and "lasagne"?

yes connie, I've been lurking there too...with this new GH and all this space that I had when I moved to this house (which was a blank slate) I have been taking in as much info as possible to learn how to contend with the GA growing quirks!!!

I moved here from So. Cal (san diego) and had the most perfect weather and spent almost 8 years grooming and evolving my home there, and with the perfect weather most of the year...I never had to worry about too much in terms of bugs, weather conditions etc. like I do here.

I'm often on the tomatoe forum, daylillies, fruit and orchard forum, tropicals, veggies, propgation from seeds, roses of course and a few forums too....

I'll heed your advice and see what I can do to move the 2x2's. shouldn't take too much effort...

NOW, what about this option...what if I just ADD more 2x2's on the top and keep the ones below as well???? wouldn't that be ok as long as it didn't look too funky?

Wow, amazing photos.
What inspiration you are all to me!

My small 6x8 HF finally looks "lived in", so here's a recent picture from the doorway:

{{gwi:291219}}

It's small, and simple, but does the trick (and boy do I love stepping in to smell all that damp soil and fresh "green stuff" growing!

Jamie, everything looks so orderly (and color coordinated too ;) very nice...you should see my mess...I have plants in trays on the floor...still have not put up my shelves :(

I was so eager...but it wont be much longer before I wont be able to keep stuff in there, it's sure hot at times...

LOL - it's only "color-coordinated" because I went out and bought a huge bag of 240 of those red solo cups at Costco for transplanting. It was super-cheap, and I plan to reuse them until they fall apart. All the other cups (purple, yellow, and white styrofoam) I just found in my cupboards, desparate for anything to use. The "trays" are old box lids, covered in plastic garbage bags to make them waterproof (I buy the garbage bags at costco too, they're my kitchen bags, and a box lasts me a really long time).

The lower shelves (on the ground) are a mess of pots and gallon milk jugs holding water. I also have that heater, two bags of potting soil, and two 10 inch pots with dahlia tubers started in them littering up the floor (not enough light on the center shelves for the dahlias, I didn't think). Needless to say, there's not much room to actually "move" in there, but enough room for me to do what I need to (water and pot things up), if I'm careful. ;-)

Once it's too hot for you to keep stuff inside, you can clean everything out, and then have a chance to get organized for next year, right?

I'm trying to figure out how to turn this one into a really big dehydrator this summer...