How to make a greenhouse with your own hands? Why do many summer residents ask this question? The thing is that this building is very important. Seedlings planted inside the greenhouse will be able to survive the last spring frosts perfectly. In addition, the presence of this building will allow you to plant heat-loving crops, which can not be grown in an open field under any circumstances.
Choosing a place to build
To approach the question of how to make a greenhouse with your own hands, it is worth choosing the place for its arrangement. At first glance it seems that this is not so important, but it is not. An ideal location for the location of the greenhouse is considered the southernmost part of the site. It can also be located on the west side. The northern parts are completely unsuitable for such a building. The best option would be to arrange the site so that it has a bias to the south, and from the north it is protected from the cold wind.
Another very important point that you need to pay attention to is the shadow. Ideally, a greenhouse should be placed where there is no shadow throughout the daylight hours. In addition, to create maximum illumination, the gable roof is oriented in the north-south directions, and the gable roof is oriented in the west-east direction.
Weather protection
The next important point for those who decide the question of how to make a greenhouse with their own hands is protection from strong winds. In order to create maximum protection from the wind, it is best to place the building on the south side of the building or fence. If this option is not feasible, then you can plant tall dense bushes from the north-west side to cover the greenhouse.
Since plants planted inside the object need a lot of light, it is not recommended to plant or build a greenhouse next to tall trees, because they will create an undesirable shadow. In addition, large trees will also harm the fact that they have very long roots that can penetrate into the greenhouse, into fertile soil and take food from plants.
Temperature mode
How to make a greenhouse with your own hands suitable for any plants? A very important point is maintaining the optimum temperature. It is necessary either to maintain the same temperature regime constantly, or to make the fluctuations very minimal. Since sunny days may not always be, and at night the temperature drops even more, you need to take care of the correct heating system for the greenhouse. To date, there are several types of such networks.
Methods of heating an object
Naturally, the first and easiest way is solar energy, however, as mentioned above, this method is unstable and unreliable.
The second method requires electricity. In order to create the required temperature inside using electric energy, insulated heating cables are used. For the arrangement of such heating, a special basis is necessary. To do this, pour 2 cm of gravel on the ground, 3 cm of sand on top. After that, the cable is laid with a snake. About 5 cm more sand is poured on top of it. The resulting layers are covered with sheets of iron. This element will help to avoid damage to heating cables.
A layer of nutrient soil is poured on top of the metal. The obvious disadvantage of this heating method is the high cost of electricity. However, it will allow plants to be planted inside the building in early spring. It is very important not to forget about arranging high-quality insulation, including under layers of gravel, so that the heat does not leave the greenhouse.
How to make a greenhouse with your own hands at home with heating using biofuels? This is the third option for arranging premises with independent heating. In addition, the use of biofuel today is considered the most affordable and optimal. To do this, on the bottom of the greenhouse it is necessary to spread manure, straw and various residues of vegetation. All of these products will release heat during their decomposition. If we talk about the shortcomings, then there are two. Firstly, there is no possibility of temperature control, except to ventilate the room. Secondly, during the season the fuel will decompose, creating less heat. However, experts say that for one season this is enough.
What are greenhouses made of?
How to make a greenhouse with your own hands from improvised materials? This is actually not so difficult. Such an object has only two components - this is the frame and the material with which it is covered. Most often, greenhouses in summer cottages are built using plastic film, glass, polycarbonate, non-woven material.
Such buildings may differ in their form. The creation of the form occurs through the formation of the frame, which can be triangular, arc, or any other. Most often, metal or fiberglass reinforcement is used to make the frame. You can make a greenhouse from plastic pipes with your own hands, from window frames, from wooden beams.
Greenhouse Specifications for Cucumbers
The construction for cucumbers should provide the most comfortable conditions for growth. To do this, create a comfortable temperature regime. For this reason, you need to make a greenhouse low, since then it is easier to heat it.
At the same time, you need to care about the access of fresh air inside. This means that you need to create maximum ventilation in the daytime.
Thus, it turns out that the structure should be low, have a heating system and the possibility of ventilation in the daytime, when the temperature allows you to open the windows inward. If the region is cold enough or the weather is not entirely favorable, it is recommended that the arrangement of ventilation is in order to create ventilation and not upset the temperature balance.
The first version of the greenhouse
How to make a greenhouse for cucumbers with your own hands? The easiest way is to build an arc structure. Naturally, in this case, the arc elements will act as the frame. They are installed either directly in the soil or in a wooden base. The arcs can be made of metal or plastic.
An essential advantage of such hotbeds is that they are mobile. This is especially important when observing crop rotation. If the greenhouse is of a stationary type, then inside it will have to change the soil annually. This option is considered the easiest to manufacture.
If we consider the essence of the structure, then the arc greenhouse is a tunnel that is covered by a film or any other material that transmits sunlight. The material for the frame must be strong enough and able to take the desired shape. For these reasons, two paths are most often chosen:
- metal frame installed directly in the soil;
- a frame of pipes with your own hands, making a greenhouse this way is even easier, and the pipes themselves are attached to the soil with stakes.
In order to increase the strength of the structure, the arcs are fastened together by horizontal slats of wood or connected by wire. It is worth adding here that if the arc greenhouse is long enough, then the first and last frame should be horizontal. As a material for shelter most often use a plastic film.
How to make a polycarbonate greenhouse with your own hands?
For the manufacture of structures of this type, a frame is used, to which sheets of material are attached. Here most often the problem arises of the choice of material for the frame. If it is an ordinary metal, then corrosion will become a major problem. It is better to choose a galvanized profile, although this will increase the cost of construction.
Another option for the frame can be a tree, however, rot will become a problem. The term of operation is about five years. Although, of course, you can process the wood with special tools to increase this period.
Where to start work?
To make a greenhouse with your own hands at home from a material such as polycarbonate, you need a certain base. It can be either a concrete foundation, or a foundation from the base of the timber. If concrete is poured, then the room will naturally be stationary. At the base of the timber, it can be transferred.
It is best to create a rectangular base. Each owner chooses the sizes individually. It is also necessary to create a waterproofing. For this, a layer of roofing material is most often used. The roof is made of beams 20 x 40. The type of roof is usually gable. If the slope angle is 300 °, then the length will be about half a meter, and the total height of the greenhouse is 1.25 meters.
After the frame is ready, you can begin to mount the sidewalls of the hundredth polycarbonate. The final stage will be sheltering the roof with reinforced or air-bubble plastic film. As a fastener for the entire structure, self-tapping screws of different sizes are used. One very important point: in order to avoid such a problem as cracking of polycarbonate during screwing in, it is necessary to place an aluminum washer under them.
Frame greenhouse
How to make a greenhouse from frames with your own hands? It would seem that it is impossible to use such material as window frames for the construction of something, but this is not so.
For the construction of the building will require not only the frames themselves, but also a certain number of boards and timber. The length can be any, but the width will be determined by the width of the frames themselves. For example, if the greenhouse according to the plan is placed right next to the wall of another building, then only the side walls and the front wall need to be made from the timber. It is important to note here that the timber is not laid on the ground, but on the brick layer to increase the life of the tree. On the inside, boards are fixed to the beam, which will serve as supports for the frames. The frames themselves are best positioned at a slight angle. Thus, it will be better to accumulate solar heat, and also better to drain precipitation. Another important point is the attachment of one of the sides of the frames to the hinges so that they can be lifted for ventilation and watering of plants. It is recommended to attach the far side to the hinges.
Separate Greenhouse
Some today began to use separate mini-greenhouses for especially fragile plants on the site. Most often these are elite varieties of flowers. Such small greenhouses are a regular greenhouse, but in a reduced form. The frame and the covering element are the same as on conventional buildings. It’s easier to build them yourself than large ones, and consumables will require a minimum.