I'm looking to buy another greenhouse .. does anyone here have any experience or own one of the Monticello greenhouses? Here is the one I'm looking at .. can't find any reviews:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_397805...

Open to suggestions for a 16 foot GH.

I'm not familiar with this brand. I like that it's assembled with no tools (how can that be?), and 8 mil walls and it's expandable.

I wondered that myself, Arlene. No tools?

I wondered too .. that can either be really awesome or very scary.

It has good ratings on Amazon and says assembles in 4 hours, but doesn't indicate no tools needed. Also says it has a lot more alumininum than other GH and the 8 ml panels are equivalent to commercial GH. That all sounds good.

Thanks Carol - didn't think to check out Amazon. It supposedly snaps together.

Perhaps your Lowe's would have a small model or just a demonstration section so that you could see that "snap-together-design". I'm a "nails and screws" kind of guy and would have to be shown that this concept will really hold together in windy conditions.

They don't - all the GH's are online. I've seen other reviews about this greenhouse last night and they are written by the same people word for word .. I have to wonder if they are real.

When the reviews are "too good to be true"............well, more times than not, they are false. Good work, Anne, in doing your due diligence!

I did find some video here:

http://eartheasy.com/riverston...

The two videos are interesting. When I decided on a second GH, I contacted the seller and asked for the names, emails and/or phone numbers of some of the previous buyers. I contacted a couple of those previous buyers and got good feed-back. One even emailed me pictures of his GH being built and what it looked like three years later. This was helpful to me.

The next greenhouse I get will be built by me and will be a passive solar greenhouse. They seem pretty simple to make. Here's a link with lots of pictures: http://bradford.cafnr.org/pass...

Wow! That's impressive Dave!

Found more video's on youtube Ken - I like your idea about contacting the seller - I'll give that a try.

This video goes into a bit more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Passive solar is great BUT you will need an large space to build one on. Having only room for 10'x12' GH's, the huge, black barrels would take up practically all of my growing space. Also, since all I grow are tropical plants, I don't think it is even possible to put enough barrels inside to keep the temperature above 55F. On cold, cloudy days, even here in the deep south, there would be little if any heating of that water, so how do you maintain heat when the outside temperature is in the 20's? Just asking.

My next real greenhouse is what Dave say's. I have a rion greenhouse 8ftx 24ft and it is useless to me. Too hot in the summer and too cold in winter.

That's why I wrapped my two (for winter) with solar blanket material.

drdawg said:Passive solar is great BUT you will need an large space to build one on.

Yes, it needs to be a pretty good size in order to work properly. Mine is probably going to be the same size as shown above: 24x12x12.

drdawg said: On cold, cloudy days, even here in the deep south, there would be little if any heating of that water, so how do you maintain heat when the outside temperature is in the 20's? Just asking.

A few things:

1) A passive solar greenhouse is glazed on only one side. The other 3 sides are solid walls with insulation. So there is way less heat loss through those walls.

2) On prolonged cloudy and cold days, you use curtains on the glazed walls to provide even more insulation.

3) In extreme circumstances, you use an extra heat source. Some build rocket mass stoves, others just use propane or electricity.

There's more info about construction, etc. of the Monticello GH here: http://eartheasy.com/riverston....

Got it, Dave. That all makes sense.

@drdawg I wrapped my GH with solar (like you did) - and it has made a very nice noticeable difference.