Garden Anywhere Box: Greenhouses...

One of my garden goals is to have a greenhouse...that isn't "gone with the wind"...

We are on our third greenhouse due to the weather in OK. We got our first greenhouse at Sam's Club several years ago. I really liked that greenhouse. It had a table and a bin for potting mix. To the right is a picture of the greenhouse during construction.

Below are pictures of what happened to it after a tornado came through our property.

The greenhouse was located in the backyard where our traditional garden used to be, but after the tornado, it ended up all around the yard. Part of one wall ended up in the front yard. Another piece was "javelin thrown" into the side of our house. Crazy!!!

So...Larry set out to build another greenhouse. He built a floor for it and then put up a hoop house. It was green pvc pipe with a plastic cover over it. It worked great until we had a strong sustained wind for a few days. We tried to salvage the plastic with duct tape, but that did not work very well.

Here is the same greenhouse floor and another attempt at a greenhouse. The greenhouse is situated on the south side of the house by the pool. We hoped that putting it here would block some of the wind, but it hasn't worked so far. We figure that this will be another temporary attempt to have a greenhouse until we are able to build a stronger one to endure the winds in Oklahoma.

One thing that we do like about this greenhouse is the discovery of Snap Clamps. With a few pieces of pvc pipe, some plastic and Snap Clamps, you can have a functioning greenhouse. If you don't have strong winds, it will work great. It's the windy parts of the country that need industrial strength greenhouses.

The next four pictures are on my Garden Anywhere pinterest board. These are ideas for future sustainable greenhouses.

The first one seems like the most sturdy. Part of it is underground which is what is needed in windy places. It looks like it would be a lot of work, but maybe with an experienced backhoe person, it would not be too bad. The top would still be tricky, but we'd figure it out. There's always plastic, but there are other options, too. There is a clear corrugated plastic that might work. We have it on one of our storage buildings. It lets in the light. That would be great for the top of the inground greenhouse.

Here is another idea that I really like. It is an old school bus that has been turned into a greenhouse. I'd like to find an old bus that does not run anymore and convert it into a greenhouse. That should be able to take the OK winds...except maybe a tornado...

This bus just happens to on wheels and still running. We've looked into getting a bus for our business. This is something that we would love to do someday...

“Garden Anywhere Bus”

We would travel around to schools and teach children how easy it is to have a garden with no weeds.

Another idea is to turn a room of your house into a greenhouse. We have two spots that are perfect for adding onto our home. I think we all need to rethink what we can do when it comes to gardening. What CAN you do to be able to 1.) grow your own food and 2.) garden year 'round? Look at your property and see what you can do to make this happen.

The picture below is not really a greenhouse, but it's on my list of Dream Gardens...This is an enclosed garden free from pests...but also free from bees...I'll have to figure out how to let the bees enter and keep out the pests.

UPDATE -October 2014: I decided that I should update this post to show our most recent greenhouse.

Larry took the parts from the other two hoop houses and made a new one. This time he attached it to the house. Hopefully, this one will be sheltered from the winds and being anchored to the house will give it stability.