Marni's New Intermediate Greenhouse

In the end of this project, I will have moved almost every orchid I own. This new greenhouse which is being built where my old cool greenhouse used to stand will end up being my new intermediate house. It will have a 20ft long end wall that faces the west so will get a lot more afternoon sun than where these plants are now where the afternoon sun is blocked by my house. I think it would be too difficult to cool enough for cool growers so the old intermediate house will become the cool house. I found a new contractor with an associate at the end of September who actually show up and work. Even though they have a couple of projects going on simultaneously, they have kept things moving.

October 7th

October 13
October 14

October 15th

October 17th

 

On Friday the 17th, my job was to figure out the panels and hardware for attaching them. I am using twin wall, clear, 8mm polycarbonate and aluminum fittings. The last time I did this I over-order on the aluminum edging and wanted to be very careful to get it right this time. I took me a week to get the order together and now I am waiting for an estimate. It will most likely take 2+ weeks to get delivery. There is some more work for the works like benches, close off the extra door to the studio, vents, some blocking and plumbing. It is nice to have a break in the trips to the hardware store to get caught up at the lab.

It is going to be 20 x 20 ft, 13 feet at the peak and 8 feet as the side wall. All of the views are from my house looking east.

 

It will be a bigger footprint than the one it replaces. The old one was about 260 sq ft/ 24 sq meter and the new one is 400 sq ft/ 37 sq meters. So more space but more importantly much higher roof so more air volume and much better air flow. I also added 100 sq ft/ 9 sq meters to what has been my cold greenhouse to help store the excess plants during construction. So over all I think I will have increased my space by 25%.

 

Thanks, Tom. I just got a notice this morning that my polycarbonate order shipped and is arriving today. It should be delivered on Monday or Tuesday so things will be moving along again.

You're right, people on the west coast have different ideas of what temperature ranges are. The greenhouse I refer to as intermediate has a winter minimum night temperature of 56F and a maximum day temperature of 80F.

 

No The polycarbonate was suppose to ship yesterday, but I didn't get any word so I doubt it did. The up side is that I have had a bit of extra time to do some photography and repotting recently.

 

It turned out that the manufacturer didn't bother to tell the distributor that they didn't have any 4 ft wide in stock. In the end I got a special delivery of uncrated polycarbonate from the distributor's ready to ship stock. It really depends on who you talk to. Some seem to care and others couldn't care less. The contractor is supposed to start on Monday, Dec 1st. We'll see.

 

I got a roof on the greenhouse yesterday! I am torn today between being happy for the rain today and sorry that it stops construction. I think there will be a work day tomorrow between storms and then work can proceed inside whether it rains or not.

 

Chris, I have been thinking about catching rainwater, but will probably wait on that. First I will try to set something up so I can use the discharge from my RO system to irrigate plantings in the yard.