Uh, ya. Checked out the spider farmer stuff... My plant stand is for veggie/flower seed starts only. Most of the year it's dissembled and stored under a bed, the lights on their boxes stored under the eaves. Put to use in February, put back on storage end of May. There are 4 2'x4' shelves. So the spider farmer stuff ( or equivalent) are way beyond my pocketbook! As long as my 7 other shop lights hold up, I'll and replacement F32t8 bulbs are still available, I'll continue continue to use them. I bought them on clearance from Walmart for $7 each. As for energy - the t8 bulbs use 32 watts in per bulb so not extravagant. And I've grown decent transplants with them.

The new grow light fixture arrives tomorrow. Supposedly. It is FedEx. Though, after I wrote a letter to the CEO, things have been quite timely. Coincidence? Probably but who knows. And the 2 new f32t8 bulbs arrived a couple of days ago. I don't think your sodium system would work for me. Each shelf only has about 18" of height - I believe the sodium lamps have to be kept farther away to prevent burning.

24 to 36 inches for seedlings and a little lower for full grown stuff. It throws way too much heat and hubby worries about both the fire risk and the electric bill.

Getting ready to do greenhouse on shoestring budget and i know you have one but what are you using. I was thinking poly plastic but at most it seems it will last 4 years. My immediate thoughts are sinking 8 ft fence posts and getting 4 mil plastic and as i can afford to do some framing and some type of panel that will allow for passive solar heating. But i also know you have some tricks/ tools for when your trying to do something and your body just doesn't want to work with you.

I don't have a greenhouse - which is an issue!  Well, I do have a small 4x6 green plastic greenhouse. More to act as a shed to keep my tools and wagon out of the rain up in my garden.I bought it when I was pissed at hubby. My shed is in the backyard near the house. The vegetable garden is a bit of a winding trek up hill about 300ft.  On the way is our garage complex with a very large building to store tractor, lawn mower, shredder, motorcycle etc as well as mitre saw, work bench. Oh. And a 2006 mustang on the winter. It's only about 75' from the garden and I have to pass it to get from garden to house. We have frequent summer rain and I've often been caught in the rain with my hoe, hand tools, broad fork etc. All of which I transport with my little red wagon ( my son's when he was a youngster.) Welp. Dear old hubby objected to my stuff being underfoot in his shop. And he'd nah me about leaving the wagon find with tools under a tarp in the garden .."still exposed to moisture!" So this plastic green house was a really cheap solution at $69.  Sort of a FU, stick out my tongue, I don't need your stinkin' shop kind of purchase. It's rather flimsy, shelves are thin and really, not much more then a cheap tarp over some poles.

The plant stand is in an upstairs bedroom that is used as a guest bedroom mostly a few days in the summer, has my computer. But. Hubby noticed how much I like music playing and recently purchased some nice speakers, pulled an old receiver out of storage and is getting a Bluetooth DAC so I can play music on the room while I'm working in there. The nice thing is that's one of the few rooms with an air conditioner in the summer and I'm becoming more and more bothered by heat as I get older.

Here's my plant stand ( probably in this thread already)

Now, in my wildest dreams, some version of this would be a cherished addition to my backyard...

Not likely though

My monstrosity is 6ft x 50 inches so far completely made with part of a waterbed frame and a pallet. Ended up with "mended" boards to make them long enough and for the life of me i cant figure out how i am going to up without atleast buying 4 2x4s or something.


My dream for a greenhouse involves heat and electricity for supplemental light so  it is useable all year but also with a minimal carbon footprint. Stupid pot plants take up alot of room but some things id like to try growing take several years and humidity.

Lostmaniac wrote:

My dream for a greenhouse involves heat and electricity for supplemental light so  it is useable all year but also with a minimal carbon footprint. Stupid pot plants take up alot of room but some things id like to try growing take several years and humidity.

Yeah the heat and electricity are what deters me. I've thought of various ways of using thermal mass and solar panels. But our latitude sort of there's a monkey wrench in that idea...

Of course, there's always a big buried pile of chicken manure...

One grower uses a combo of passive heat and stock tanks with heaters the combo keeps his warm all winter and as a bonus he does tilapia in the tanks and uses the dirty fish water for the plants. I am in a perfect solar area.

But no joke a fire broke out the other day on a huge pile of cow shit and straw. Spontaneously combusted. I think the septic might throw some heat but its on the wrong side for the sun. The spot i want to build i can do a 16x24 without moving anything and once thats done i could turn current frame into an actual shed.

We built my greenhouse from leftover windows that were pulled out of a house and polycarbonate panels. If you are wanting something year-round, depending on what you are wanting to grow, don't cheap out on material as you will need the insulation in the winter. Poly is pricey but it holds heat well. I have about everything run off solar for mine but without a very large system you can't run much electric heat. The vats of water with tank heaters in them can be run fairly well off solar and that has worked for me for bare bones heat as long as it isn't too cold. If it's dropping down very deeply or I have warm loving plants inside I still drag the radiator heater out on an extension cord for the night or run the propane heater depending on the price of propane.

I have built basic hoop houses over parts of my garden before using small trees I cut down around the property and sheet plastic. Garden stakes or t-posts can be used too but you will want a pool noodle to cut up to protect the plastic from corners. Even leftover chunks of roll wire can be used if you have something to brace it.

I do have my sunroom (which has sort of become the dog's room in addition to winter plant storage.  All the furniture is covered with cheap microfiber sheets to contain the muddy paw prints.)  There's no heat in there, just a kerosene heater for when it gets well below zero.  The room is off the family room where one of the wood stoves resides. I use the top of Z'ev's crate for overwintering my geranium stash.  It gets great sun on east, south and west sides - direct in the winter when the sun is low and indirect from spring to fall solstice.  Some plants love it in there - my Christmas cactus thrive and bloom with abandon since the room naturally gives it a cold treatment in the fall and we really don't use the room in the evening so no lights on.  I also have a Schefflera that I acquired after my mom's death.  It came to me as a sad little 4 leaf plant (probably scavenged from one of the dish garden's I sent her for Mother's day after she moved into the senior living complesx - before that she got a huge hanging flowering plant every year.)  The Schefflera has grown exponentially in the over 2 years since she died.  Now, really needs to be a floor plant but floor space is at a premium - the best spot happens to be Ami's favorite spot to sleep behind the chair and a half with his back against the brick.

What I'm eying for a project is some boards Wayne has under the cars in the 2 car garage - not pressure treated, 2x8x16s.  Six of them - They were used in airplane hangar's with dirt floors - both hangar's had a problem with woodchucks so the boards were laid down for the wheels to avoid getting stuck in craters.  They've been in the garage under the cars forever since we moved the plane to a hangar with conrete floors.  Wayne has been reluctant to bequeath them to me for the garden as "they'll rot."  So I promised I'll paint them. They would make great raised beds that I could make mini hoop houses over.  Use them for early spring greens and overwintering greens in the fall winter.  Possibly even for growing heat loving melons in the summer.  Will be a pain in the butt cleaning them up to hold paint but, aside from giving me some very nice free wood, would also remove them from the garage - I tend to trip over them in the dark (no windows in that garage and I'm too lazy to turn on the lights to walk over to the switch for the garage doors and back again to turn off the light. So instead - I trip over the damn boards

The upstairs plant stand works quite nicely for my seed starting purposes.  The big thing is the mess I make with potting which is done down in the kitchen.  My butcher block island makes a great place to "play in the dirt" with great light, right height, water right behind me...but needs to cleaned up and put away for every next meal.  And - we have a whole house water softener and the kitchen sink is the only faucet plumbed to bypass the softener so is the only inside spigot without salt and I end up lugging gallon jugs of water upstairs.  Plus the floors in the upstairs bedroom are pine with only a minwax stain coating and subject to water spots if I spill anything.   So maybe I need a potting shed more than an actual greenhouse. But a greenhouse attached to the back of the house big enough for a small table and chairs...maybe a hot tub...in the full winter southern sun....

One can dream.  Current inflation sort of nixes anything like that...

My sunroom (disheveled as it is )





Mom's Schefflera - growing like a weed!!!

Oh oh. Time to start tomatoes. Just pulled up my spreadsheet for seeds. ( Some from years past, some new this year, one or two freebies for ordering other seeds.)

17 varieties

I think I got carried away by all the pretty pictures

@twisterii Marijuana Brussel sprouts asparagus maybe some smaller random stuff. After lots of measuring im going to do a 5x6 i will end up buying plastic and 2 2x4s but it should look ok. Still turning 1 2x10 into 5 2x2s and i have 2 of them. All being held up bu not very.good batteries for my circular saw. Batteries ordered but 2 boards to turn into 10 will take about 3 days with my tools.

We get really cold. You drove through wolf creek pass coming through colorado. You were about 3 miles from my house.  We go subzero but i have a big buddy propane heater. Size is most deff an issue cuz im not sure about the ginger, asparagus or Brussel sprouts but the mj needs a min of 3x3 and if i want 8 to 10 plants.

I would do old windows in a heart beat. I even know where to get them cheap about 150 miles away. But i cant figure out how to transport them without breaking.

You take every pillow and blanket in the house and you stand the windows up on their ends wrapped in a blanket with a pillow (or towel even) between each, then you strap them 6 ways to sunday so they can't fall one way or the other. For the most part when stood on their ends they aren't bothered by much as long as they can't shift in a way that will put center pressure on the glass. We moved 13 antique crinkle glass windows from a church this way and they all did fine, even on a junk state road and gravel-ish county road. If they are laid flat they are more apt to flex out of square and then they will pop.

Bought myself a present. Much bigger than I thought

Gonna go on one of the posts to the gate to my garden

Neat! But where's the fence to keep those two Husky's at bay???

The huskies are not the problem... It's the woodchucks, rabbits and deer. And thus, an electric fence. Which, curious pups ignored my suggestion that they avoid at all costs. Nope, fried they were and now they avoid the garden like the plague. Which allowed the critters to flourish. Which is why there is now waiting for installation a 20" high electric netting with 2x3" spacing!

Another annoyance? Something is eating the cotyledons on my newly germinated peppers and eggplants!!! Believe it's or not, I think it's lady bugs! Here they stand, little headless soldiers

Thanks my new word for the day ... but it's your fault, you left those nice tasty little greens out where they could be eaten!

We've gone from the 50's to the 90's in, it seems, less than two weeks! I have stuff to do outside but it gets too hot too fast! I'll acclimate soon enough but this quick temp changes are for the birds.

Weather here has been quite the roller coaster.

Here's Tuesday morning with a foot of snow



And Wednesday?

My roller-coaster is nowhere that extreme but it sure does feel it at times!

A certain big red fluffy guy is definitely in the proverbial dog house. I wouldn't let him in Z'ev's crate cause he chews up the blankets looking for an errant piece ofnkibble. So instead - climbs on top and digs around. In my geranium cuttings. If that wasn't enough, he movies to the table, went through my dish garden, knocking over my newest amaryllis in the process (fortunately full descent was blocked by a nearby chair.

Its gotta be climate change. 420 we had 2 fires break out in the county. Monte vista made the national news because that one broke out in the town. Our safeway was still empty from the power outage. Then the last 3 days its been hurricane force winds and yesterday it was orange. Really bad dust storm that was stationary for over an hour. Then it rained then it snowed. All in a 7 hour period. My out all year plants seem confused. Also a few days ago it was warm and today del norte peak is white again.

My garden/greenhouse is on pause until after surgery next week. All my gardening is until i can take advil again.

@amymeme You mean it's only the proverbial dog house?  Even though I don't have one, I can assure you that one of mine had done that they'd be living outside for a while at least!!  (( Gee, don't I sound like a badass? ))

Your geraniums look like the, are they called Spider Geraniums?  they don't grow up they're more like a vine.  I never saw anything other than the typical household geranium that, if it was in good shape, looked like a small bush.  Then we moved to my grandpa's in California and he had geraniums growing next to his garage - big, bushy with massive flower heads.  Around back he had some climbing geraniums (spider geraniums for lack of anything better) on a trellis.  Weird geraniums!!

I've seen people try to grow them out here but either the heat or the lack of humidity do them in ... maybe I should try to cultivate some and see how long my patience lasts.

@lostmaniac  Please stop talking about fires!  We've had one about 90 miles to the north of us ... not a big one but with the winds and it being in the ravines it took a while to put out.  Then we've had another one in the Park (say 30 miles) it was only about 30 acres but they called in the Diablos (a Mexican fire fighting team) to get into the ravines to put it out.   I don't wanna hear no more about no stinking fires, y'hear!!

Yeh, these dust storms have got to go!  It's been calm today but we've had too many days where the winds are picking up my back yard and taking it to Mexico ... and I don't really want them to bring it back but it'd be nice if it'd stop taking it away!  Setting here with both front and back doors open and a dust devil caught me unawares ... wind and dust, in the front door and mostly out the back!!  Enough already!

90 miles not to say it isnt close but the one on blm property is 18 miles from here, so we live on the south side of agua ramon mtn and the fire is on the base of the north side. And the mv fire burned 17 acres in the town was only 30 miles away. Mv fire was sparked by a improperly secured tent garage blowing onto the powerlines.

So al is it just me or is the wind by you and dust storms worse then the previous years?

Not any worse, I'd say.  Our desert is one that set in the path for winds from just about any direction ... prevailing? Windy!  I watch the jet stream a lot since it brings in our water off the sea of Cortés but it's been staying north of the area so no rain from there.  Maybe hoping for a hurricane in the gulf of Mexico ( I know others aren't ) which'll bring water out way with its rotation ... haven't seen much from that source for a couple of years.

Our humidity, at the moment is at 23% - high for us - but as the day wears on it'll drop, probably into the teens if not into the single digits.

I think the humidity is what bothers me most, everything is dry and we haven't had any rain (any precipitation!) so far this year.  Normally we've been getting some early spring showers that bring the bluebonnets up (we had one of the worst showings this year I've ever seen!) and then again in late April and on through the end of July.  I see thunderheads forming in the afternoon but they're way off in Mexico and even if they move this way, they fall apart before they get here. Oddly I'm not even seeing any virga fall ...

That fire in town looks like it did a job on several homes.  That is what I *DO NOT* want to see!

We had rain and storms the start of last week then we had 80 degrees with 40mph winds for a couple days then back to 50 degrees and more rain. Our first car show of the season was yesterday and we had to race the rain home from it. Have a few bugs to work out on the cars since it's been so long since they've done any longer runs with stop and go. The camaro is loading the carburetor real bad and had a wheel come loose on the trip home. For some reason the passenger side window decided to not roll up on my mustang right before we headed home, which made the impending rain that much more interesting. When you have old stuff there's just always something it seems. We have a cruise-in next weekend so will have to dig into all of their woes sooner rather than later.

Outside of my umbrella plant the majority of my inside plants have been left alone by the dogs. They always want to eat the dirt out of the pots that sit within reach though. Looks like Ami had a very bratty moment.

The way you talk about maintenance on old cars is making me rethink big 1 ton from the 70s or 80s. Actually makes me think of my house. Old stuff..

Discovered yesterday about 300 lbs of the dust storm in my house eves, a board blew off and took the whole wall of insulation with it.