Hi - new member here!! A little background - my wife and I are just starting to get into gardening - vegetable mostly at this point. We wanted a greenhouse mainly to help us start seeds in a controlled environment and then transplant outdoors as needed in raised beds we have built.

We are definitely on a tight budget and mulled over a few designs from simple "vinyl" style patio enclosures to Harbor Freight type kits etc and never really landed on a great solution we were happy with.

Then I remembered the old yucky (my wife's term :-D) shed out back that came with the house that we were going to tear down and haul to the dump at some point. I thought why not use that base and frame and attach poly carbonate panels to it and make it into a greenhouse?

So - the project was born and progress has been made. I removed the old metal sheeting - cut the frame off of the base - replaced some wood that was rotting and relocated to a spot in our yard that receives full sunlight from roughly 8AM to 1PM and then filtered sunlight from the trees the rest of the afternoon.

I have the corrugated metal bottom on now and will have the corrugated polycarb panels going on in the next few days - a screen door we had removed from elsewhere on the house has been fitted but still needs to have polycarb or lexan etc added to it as it is screen only at this point. I feel pretty comfortable finishing up the "construction" aspects of this even though I have no carpenter type experience.

Now I'm getting to the parts where I'm looking for some feedback/guidance. We are not planning to run electricity or water to the greenhouse so we will need to think about and would love to hear any thoughts suggestions on:

-venting and temp control - passive or solar powered exhaust fan or both etc?
-shelving, potting benches, tool storage etc
-water supply possibilities - rain barrels or watering can etc
-anything else we missed.....did wrong....did not think of?

All input is appreciated!!

Hi @Coheasion and welcome to the forum

My apologies for not seeing this post earlier. I just noticed it.

What a great idea turning that old shed into a greenhouse. It reminds me of a smaller version of the Ana White greenhouse.



Where are you on your construction at this point? Where do you live and what is your seasonal weather like?

While you can get away without running a water line (use a hose), electricity is something you need to rethink since you will need circulation and exhaust fans, and heating if you plan to use your greenhouse year round. I would stay away from solar powered fans. It is hard to get the cfm you will need, and they don't work on cloudy days and at night.

My suggestion for shelving, and it took me a number of years to get this "right" for me, is to not make it permanent but make it somewhat flexible so you can easily change it depending on what you are growing at any particular point in the year. I had fixed benches which I replaced with wire shelving, which I replaced with elevated beds, and now I use cinder blocks with plastic bench tops ( https://www.greenhousemegastor...).



Not only does it give me flexibility, but it makes it so much easier to clean the greenhouse at the end of a growing season.

Would love to hear about and see your progress!

Jim