Finally, this weekend was forecast to be sunny and in the 50s. The retaining wall was build, and the backfilled dirt was all packed down to within an inch of its life. Time to build the greenhouse!I spent a lot of time preparing and leveling the base. I had already started doing this part of the work a few days ago, but today was the day to make it perfect. It doesn't have to be exactly, perfectly level, but I didn't want it to look wonky and it obviously had to be square.
Once I had the base exactly where I wanted it, I realized the bushes on both sides of the greenhouse would have to be cut back to make room for the walls. The weigela behind the greenhouse got a hard trim, but it shouldn't have any trouble next spring (most of the bush was still there). The lilac bush right near the future greenhouse door location will probably have to be moved (or cut back to the ground). It's a giant tree right now and waaaay too big.Once all the bushes were trimmed, we decided we needed some sort of gutter along the back between the house and the greenhouse, so water didn't end up trapped there. So off I went to the hardware store. They didn't have small lengths of gutter, so I bought and modified a black drainpipe.
I used silicone adhesive to fill the gap between the gutter and the house. It's not pretty, but once the greenhouse is built it will be invisible.
The best thing about the black drain pipe is that I was able to bend the end of it so that the water will spill off the retaining wall and away from the house. Eventually I will probably hook the end up to a water barrel for garden watering needs.
Once the gutter was in place, we scrubbed the mildew off the siding and then it was time for greenhouse walls! We worked quickly because the light was fading (all the prep work took forever!) so I don't have many pictures of the process. I will tell you that the instructions don't come in print form, they are on a CD in 30-minute-video form! I watched it all the way through a few days ago to prepare, but I couldn't remember everything, so we're outside with my laptop, watching snippets of video and screwing wood together. Hilarious!
Here is how it looks from a little farther away.
The walls are made out of two layers of plastic with little extra plastic to support it. It's light, but the wood is heavy. Overall it seems pretty sturdy, and free bonus: it provides a little more privacy on the patio!
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!
