Recycled What?- Greenhouse

That's right, this greenhouse is being made of almost entirely recycled materials. Not only that, most of these materials were probably recycled before for much different uses. The idea came about when we here at Roblee Farms ran out of room for our Vegetable starts. On the edge of one of the gardens was an old barn sight and under part of that sight was a couple old concrete slabs.

Todd had shown me the old Silo Bands he had discovered in the garden with the rototiller and although they were a bit distorted, they looked like they would make great supports for a plastic cover. There was also a fair amount of galvanized pipe from the old watering system for the livestock and this got the gears in motion. I have always enjoyed makings things from scrap so I set to work.

Todd cleared the bulk of the slab with the skid-steer and after a little shovel work we had a base.

By the end of the first day I had about half the basic frame in place and had had enough of hacksaw, chisel and concrete for a while. It was not until I looked at the frame the next morning that I discovered just how badly bent the hoops had been. The photo on the right shows one of the smaller half inch bands, covered with old black plastic pipe.

I created a bending vice and re-shaped most of the seven hoops that would be used before I went any farther. It would take most of that day to finish setting the pipes through the concrete that the hoops would set into. They are spaced at three feet apart and will be braced at 3 foot intervals from the top, or so was the plan. By the end of the third day there was something that was beginning to resemble a greenhouse frame. The finished dimentions are 12 feet by 18 feet.

I found some old baseboards, used trim and broken wainscot in the old chicken coup and ripped some of it down to frame the end walls. Thick with layers of paint, I was glad I had a power saw for that part. By the end of day four I had framed the end walls, a door and a vent and other than a couple hinges the greenhouse should be ready for plastic, which too will be recycled from a weatherproofing project. I can't wait to see it covered.

Here is a list of purchased materials for this project.

2 hacksaw blades. $1.50
2 pounds of wood screws.$6.79
1 20' X 25' piece of poly. $19.90 ( Probably saved for next year.)
10 feet of Duct Tape. In stock (Everything needs that.)
The rest is recycled! Priceless!

Now for the benches!
I need two 18 foot and one 15 foot.
Wanders off to look for more old material... Maybe those tree branches over there...