In order for us to make any sort of meaningful recommendation for you, we need to know the following things:

1. Is your gh intended to winter-over sensitive plants, to start seeds for spring planting, or as a year-'round utility for plants such as orchids or tropicals?

2. What is your USDA hardiness zone, and/or what are the minimum temps you wish to maintain, versus the coldest possible nights you may experience?

3. How handy are you? Any gh you can purchase (especially the inexpensive Harbor Freight models) require substantial retrofitting and site prep, not to mention accessories such as shade cloth, exhaust fans, etc. If you are handy enough to put together something ready-made, you can build something infinitely better from scratch for less than you would spend on a pre-built.

-Bruce

Hi.
I intend to mainley use it for overwintering tropicals such as all my citrus trees and so on. Probably the lowest the temps could go inside would probably be in the 40's and 50's.
I have no room for them in my home. I only have two south facing sunny windows and everyone of my over 30 plants begs for them.
I live in the New England area so probably zone 6. Not sure.
Well, I wish I could say I was very handy...but not so.
I could probably have my friend put something together, not sure.
I kind of was hoping that these small greenhouses were easy to put together. Maybe not. I was even thinking of having a sun room built, but way out of my league.
Hum. maybe getting an inexpensive greenhouse might be a little harder than I expect...
Is it possible anyways?

Its very possible depending on what you mean by inexpenssive.As well as how much work you wish to do.Like most things you get what you pay for or work for.You could get a cheap cold frame for 500-5000 but you'll still have to buy the fans,heater,film,shade cloth,irragation,timers,sensors,end walls and what ever I'm missing.Or you could buy a kit that comes with every thing you need and just bolt it together.

Check out the link below to see my homemade greenhouses. I've built three with no experience, and something small like you are interested in is rather easy to do.

The link below will also lead you to a detailed discussion of a PVC greenhouse that is easy to build and inexpensive. The plans and photos of construction for the PVC greenhouse are linked on the page as well.

Clair

Here is a link that might be useful: Build your own greenhouse

"Reasonably priced" is relative to available, discretionary funds for a non essential but greatly desired grown-up toy, which for all those here who are NOT commercial growers, or for actually use their GH's to grow for the table, is really what a garden GH is: A wonderful toy we could live without, even if miserably unhappy and soul starved for the lack of it.

So if I may: First make a firm decision as to what you can afford to spend on your GH- IN TOTAL, because to operate a heated GH in any area that requires heat in winter, the accessories necessary to pull it off can end up costing as much if not more than the actual structure.

Then decide how much of what you can afford to spend, you are also WILLING to spend.

Then- tell us, and from all of the folk here, you will likely receive far more opinions than you want, but all will be honest appraisals, based near exclusivly on hands on experience.

The cehapest 8 by 10' would be the HarborFreight GH. But you still need a foundation for it and some inside ammendemtnts to keep it from blowing away in a storm. Add a good heater, fans etc and it adds up fast.

Don't forget a water line set below frost line, or face hauling buckets in freezing weather, and power to run lights and fans and if heating with gas, fuel lines.

A DIY garden GH builder's best friends are a Ditchwitch and small backhoe. LOL!

Wow..I am starting to think it is easier just to add a sun room on my home...lol

The rewards you receive after putting one up is priceless. Nothing like walking into your gh you made and smell all the plants you grew by seed. Just do it...You will not be disappointed. Frustrated at times maybe. LOL

Mike,

You wrote that you wanted a small GH only to overwinter tropicals for which you have no room in your home; presumably plants you keep out on a porch or patio during summer?

If so, then perhaps given the place to attach one, a small, attractive lean-to attached GH cum sunroom is exactly what you need and if that should be the case and you have the funds to pay for it, now would be a good time to check out what is available in pre-fab lean-to's, then make the seller an offer they can't refuse, followed by cutting a deal with a local general contractor for the installation.

Then you would have a place for your plants and concurrently, add value to your home, not to mention a place to sit and boost energies during the long, dark dreary months of winter. In fact, in nothern climes, winter is when we most need to be surrounded by green growing things. A winter GH aces uppers, is more effective and totally without nasty side effects.

As for which mfg/vendor: as we can't begin to guess what amount would be "reasonable" to you, just Google "home greenhouses" or "garden greenhouses" and see what pops up. If nothing else, it will give you solid information of what is available in types, sizes and average costs.

Perhaps you will find what is reasonable to your financial circumstances and perhaps not, but at least web searchs cost nothing.

However, if you do, and find what you think would suit you and want an opinion on it- then come back and ask. Someone here may have one, or know someone who does and if so, they will share their knowledge and experience with you.

Mike,

Don't be discouraged. Since this is your first greenhouse, I would start out cheap and small. Once you use the first one a bit, you'll understand what you really want. Then you can start dreaming of things larger and more expensive. Try building a PVC hoophouse as a start. You don't need a lot of skills to build one of these or a lot of money, which makes it so much less imposing. I've learned this from experience. My current greenhouse is a hoophouse, and I want more, but it will do. Basically, you bend PVC pipe in a hoop fashion to make the arch of the greenhouse. You will also run a "spine" down the center to hold the hoops together. At the base, you secure the hoops to a square frame of treated lumber. There are many plans on the internet which can give you details about this. Over this hoop frame, I stretched a piece of 6 mil polyethelene. It's not treated for UV conditions, but so far it has lasted over 1 full year, and it is still in good condition. All of these materials can be had at Lowe's or Home Depot. For about $300 I built a 12'x14' hoop house with a door. That being said, it overheated some during the winter, and I had to shade some plants inside. I had a cheap 1500W electric space heater to keep things above freezing at night. It wasn't powerful enough to do more than that. It cost me about $20 a month to keep this greenhouse warm like this. The important thing to remember is to keep the structure as air-tight as possible. Any cracks left in any greenhouse you build will be dollars escaping from your pocket. Here is a link to the exact plans that I followed to build my greenhouse: http://theurbanrancher.tamu.edu/retiredsite/cottage/smallgreenhouse.pdf Always remember that the plans need not be followed exactly. Adjust them to suit your needs!

I forgot to mention this. I used a 55 gallon barrel that I bought from a Feed and Seed store for $12 to store water in. I filled it every 2-3 weeks with water from a garden hose. It takes about 15 minutes to fill and beats the heck out of carrying buckets to water plants. I powered my space heater with a 100ft extension cord that I had lying around. It was a bit trashy, but it did the job and sometimes you do desperate things for your plants!

justinsc,

Mike didn't say he was into GH's per-se and may not be. He is simply looking for a "reasonably" priced means of wintering tropical plants that are crowding him out of his home, but needs to heat it, in a winter climate far harsher than yours.

Spend a winter in New England and you would be far less sanguine about how simple or cheap it would be to keep what is basically just a clear plastic covered tent from collapsing under the weight of the heavy wet snows of that area, let alone warm enough to keep tropical plants alive in it, particularly citrus trees.

Birdwidow,

Thanks for pointing out my major oversights. Mike did explicitly ask about greenhouses in the first line of his post, though.

Mike,

Sorry for getting your hopes up. Birdwidow is exactly right. Living in Massachusetts, you'll probably get a significant amount of snow every winter. Also, your winters will be substantially colder than mine. This means there are two problems. First, snow may build up on your greenhouse. The massive weight of the snow will cause simple (read that as most cheap) structures to collapse. That would be bad for anything or anyone inside. Problem number two is that with a thin sheet of plastic, it is much more costly to maintain the temperature difference inside that you would need. In fact, with a single sheet of 6 mil polyethelene, there is a point where it becomes physically impossible to maintain the temperature needed. The short of this is that you will probably need something with a double layer glazing. Unfortunately, I have no experience with these materials and temperatures in your range, so I can't honestly give you any good advice. Sorry.

Justin

Hi
Here's my two cents lol. I'm curious as to how much winter sun is actually availble in the normal winter in your area?. After all ,light is the only real advantage to a GH. Also the size even very dwarf citrus get 8x8 feet quite easily.
All things considered maybe a light garden would be more useful in your area?? Maybe located in a basement or unused room?? Granted the lights are expensive to buy and operate
But probably not as much as heating and cooling??
Something to check out as accessories fo a GH cost way more than the structure not to mention opereating costs.
gary