Commonly Asked Questions About My Backyard Greenhouse
For years I dreamed of having my own backyard greenhouse. I wanted a place where I could get an early start on the growing season in my garden. How wonderful would it be to have an enclosed space outdoors for growing flowers and garden veggies! Fast forward to the present, and I am so grateful to have a small greenhouse in our backyard. I am able to use our greenhouse to extend my growing season and to start so many flower seeds inside.
I get so many questions on a regular basis about my white greenhouse. It’s exciting to me that more and more people are getting into backyard gardening and growing cut flowers. Today I want to take a moment to try and answer some of the more commonly asked questions about my backyard greenhouse.
Did you build using a backyard greenhouse kit?
Our backyard greenhouse was custom built by NW Green Panels in Terrebonne, OR. I had been searching online for the perfect backyard greenhouse kit when I stumbled upon NW Green Panels. What drew me to this local company is that they make small greenhouses that can be assembled onsite. I was also attracted to the appearance and shape of their greenhouses.
We worked with NW Green Panels to design our semi custom greenhouse. My greenhouse is a wood-framed greenhouse made out of pre-assembled modular components that allow for easy moving or expansion. It has a standard 8ft wall, 2×4 cedar frame, and 8mm Twin-Wall Polycarbonate for an attractive, yet durable greenhouse.
Once the design and dimensions were finalized, they built our greenhouse at their site in Terrebonne. As soon as it was ready, NW Green Panels came out to my house and assembled the greenhouse kit onsite. Check out this timelapse showing the assembly of our backyard greenhouse:
What are the dimensions of your greenhouse kit?
Due to the size of our backyard, I was limited to how big of a greenhouse I could have. I ended up purchasing an 8’x12’ greenhouse kit from NW Green Panels. This company makes many sizes of greenhouses and I someday dream of having a much larger greenhouse! WIth the modular components of the greenhouse, I do dream of doubling the size someday!
Is your small greenhouse heated?
My small greenhouse is not heated. In the winter months I run an extension cord out to the greenhouse to provide heat and keep it above freezing. I have found that a small greenhouse heater keeps it plenty warm enough for all my early seedlings to survive. I also use my greenhouse for scented geraniums that I overwinter inside. If I was to build another greenhouse, I would definitely add a power source to the building.
Do you have running water in the greenhouse?
I do not have running water for the greenhouse. Our outside water source comes from an irrigation district that only has running water from April through October. Since our greenhouse is fairly small, I decided that I could easily run a hose to the greenhouse when I need water. I should note that the closest garden faucet is only about 10’ away. If you have space for running water, it would certainly be a nice (but not necessary) feature to have.
Is your backyard greenhouse big enough?
While this greenhouse is only 8’x12’, it’s amazing how many seed starts I can pack inside this small greenhouse. Each spring I start almost all of my annual flowers from seed. At first, this greenhouse was plenty big enough to hold all of my starts for our 1/4 acre flower farm.
This last year it became a little more challenging to fit everything inside, but I managed to start all of our seeds inside this greenhouse for 1/2 an acre! I used grow lights inside our home and also did lots of succession planting so as one batch was leaving the greenhouse to be planted in the field, another set of seeds were coming inside to germinate.
Future growing needs and size of the greenhouse
Looking into 2022, it’s going to be a little more challenging to fit a full acre worth of flower starts inside here. Thankfully a lot of what we grow on our farm is dahlias, so they do not need to go inside the greenhouse (I do put my dahlia seedlings inside here). This year, I am also direct seeding and starting lots of cool season flowers directly outdoors. Someday I am probably going to need a 2nd greenhouse OR a hoop house. This year I’m adding caterpillar tunnels (low tunnel greenhouses) for many of my early spring flowers.
Are you ready to build your own greenhouse now?
Did this inspire you to add a greenhouse to your backyard? Or do you have a greenhouse already? I hope that this post helps to answer some of your questions about my backyard greenhouse. If you have any other questions about it, feel free to leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you! Happy Gardening!
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Your greenhouse is so amazing! One day I hope to have one too. Great to know that you can add a small greenhouse heater to keep things above freezing. I was wondering what can be done for extreme colds! The amount of seeds you can pack in there too, is so great. That’s a lot of trays! I’m liking the 8’x12′ size.