Who's made a portable greenhouse?

   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #1  

sea2summit

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I'm thinking about making a 6'x10'ish walk-in greenhouse that I could put next to the house in the winter time but move down with the rest of the garden during summer. I think for ease of construction and movement I'd like to build it to move with the pallet forks on my tractor.

Anyone built something like that? Pictures? Lessons learned?
 
   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #2  
Yup been there done that.
Made the first one out of a load of treated pine I had with benches made out of decking timber. Wasnt portable as I needed to anchor it into concrete because of wind....you will need to do the same.
Covered it in that greenhouse plastic treated for UV. First year plastic ripped. Looked into buying either glass or polycarbonate...price of doing it in both was crazy. Glass isnt as good as it lets out a lot of the heat during the night whereas the plastic sheet and polycarbonate keeps things more toasty.

Do yourself a favour and do what I did in the end and that was to buy a Palram boxed kit. For the same price or less than buying the polycarbonate sheets you can buy a whole polycarbonate greenhouse kit.
They are a bit tricky to construct.....do it in a garage if you have headroom, then lift it out. You wont need a tractor....they are really light, two people could lift it easy.
I bolted on brackets then concreted. You could do the same then just unbolt when you want to move it then bolt it on to the other pre-made buried blocks and brackets.
Here's one:
Amazon.com : Palram Nature Series Hybrid Hobby Greenhouse - 6 x 8 x 7 Silver : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Here's the full range:Greenhouses Archive - Palram Applications

Get the optional window opener. It has oil in a piston which moves when it reaches 70f.
It closes again at night by itself. Amazon.com : Auto Vent Kit for all Palram Greenhouses : Greenhouses : Patio, Lawn & Garden

If you go this route, make sure you get one with a base like this, some of them don't, they just have an aluminium rail at the bottom.
This one was galvanised but I painted it for a bit more protection as the steel is thin (the rest of it is aluminium).
I bolted through the 4 corners where the pieces join. The bracket is L shaped.

View attachment 451472

Mine is a 6x8 Harmony, all clear panels, which is quite a good size. Instead of the expensive greenhouse staging you can buy I used some storage shelving I had spare (which is cheap to buy) and replaced the MDF shelves that comes with it (MDF tends to fall to pieces when it gets wet I believe), with the decking timber I had from the old greenhouse.
The sprinkler system has a battery controlled valve timer plus each sprinkler can be turned off individually when not needed.
So with the self opening/closing vent and the automated watering system, the whole thing is almost set and forget.

The greenhouse is almost two years old and still looks like new and has been in some high winds and the polycarbonate doesn't show any signs of aging.
The only issue I have had with it is that it can get too hot in there.
 
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   / Who's made a portable greenhouse?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
That is really slick. How hard would it be to build it on a platform?
 
   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #5  
I built one like the one shown here at this link... Greenhouse | Homestead Advisor
Very simple and cheap. My greenhouse is shown in the attached image below
 

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   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #6  
Kinda looking into the same thing for my wife. This is off CL but I think you could quite easily incorporate skids into this design and pull it to its destination as needed. Or better yet leave the skids off and just put them on when moving.
 

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   / Who's made a portable greenhouse?
  • Thread Starter
#7  
My palram arrived yesterday, so far I've spent about three hours on assembly. Probably build a platform for it tomorrow or Friday. I'll post some pictures once it's done.
 
   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #8  
My palram arrived yesterday, so far I've spent about three hours on assembly. Probably build a platform for it tomorrow or Friday. I'll post some pictures once it's done.

Couple of tips on assembly: Make sure you don't miss any of the steps, ie check you have completed each page before going on to the next otherwise you will have to go back (and dismantle the forward steps). The other thing is that they have been designed to fit exactly, if you have to force a piece or use a hammer (don't), you have gone wrong somewhere.
Also, dont tighten the bolts until it tells you, it will square up as you put on more pieces. I think I tightened mine up all around, right at the end. If the pieces remain loose until the end, it is easier to construct. And take your time, don't rush it. I think mine took days rather than hours to finish.
If you got the auto window opener, they can be a little tricky to fit so that the window lies flat, just persevere and it will fit, eventually.
Best of luck; I think you will be happy with it.
 
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   / Who's made a portable greenhouse?
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Got it finished up today, built a 8x10 platform. So far so good, wife's happy and that's all that really matters. Thanks for the help all.



 
   / Who's made a portable greenhouse? #10  
Good job.
Don't forget to anchor the platform to the ground (I used one bag of post hole mix on each corner).
I would put a few bolts in the steel base into the platform rather than just screws, if you haven't already.
 
 
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