Greenhouse We Built With Recycled Windows

Sometime, I don’t remember when, I began saving old wooden windows which had been replaced by the new plastic type. I kept my eyes open for old windows. I intended to build a greenhouse. Those windows I had found sat for years waiting for me to use them. Finally, I began my search for more. Soon, I happened upon some amazing old wooden windows, uh, 28, to be exact! They were leaning against a store where I buy firebrick, and there was a door with 12 glass panels!  When I inquired about them, the bossman said he intended to build a greenhouse with them. I thought, “Dang! Competition.” I told him that was also my intention. He thought for a while, then said, “Well, you can buy them because I probably won’t get around to building a greenhouse anyway.” I was sooooooo…. excited! I tried not to show how excited I was in case he might think that he was the loser. I think I paid him around $260 for the door and the windows.

There were so many windows I had to come back with the truck.

I cleared a spot in the garden. Allen helped me move railroad ties, which were already in the garden, to the spot. The greenhouse would be built upon those ties and would be14 ft. long, by 8 ft. wide, by abt. 9 ft. high. I scavenge wood at the county landfill to use wherever; through we had to buy new 2x4s and 4x4s for the skeleton. We bought used 2x6s from our neighbor who had used them as cement forms. We cut them lengthwise to use as rafters for the roof. We covered the roof and the odd-shaped triangles on the side walls with greenhouse plastic. I built an automatic hydraulic vent arm into top of the front wall for ventilation. I installed windows that open in the rear wall so I could see into the greenhouse from the house and to help with ventilation. Allen props it open and closed it down daily.

We used a ton of screws to build frames for the window. We screwed the windows directly to the window frames. We stapled greenhouse plastic on the roof and sides where there were gaps. We stapled window screen onto the inside frame of two of the windows so we could remove the windows for a cross breeze in the midsummer heat. Neighbors gave us their grow boxes.

I scavenged old fence sections from the dump to use as paneling on the inside and outside, creating a nice diagonal line. I did the finish work myself. We did a great job! When the wind blows, it doesn’t even creak nor flap. It’s beautiful. I think it cost us about $500 total.

 Though Allen didn’t know, I had us build it for him. He’s a natural nurturer with 10 green thumbs. It’s his gardening season extension for the long cold Idaho winters. He’s the boss out there. It’s his playground. It’s his sanctuary, his salvation. If the windows get washed, I do it.

Allen grows seedlings in the spring for our garden and fall and spring microgreens.  I love that about the greenhouse. Radish microgreens are divine. We have experimented with growing various plants in the greenhouse all summer but tomatoes grow the best. We get more and bigger red tomatoes throughout the fall than we would without the greenhouse.