It has been two years, four months, and five days since we started our homestead. My daughters and I have learned many lessons in that time, but none more important than a successful harvest starts with preparation and patience.

Mother Nature helps us along here in western New York as the long winter nights provide plenty of opportunity to sit by the fireplace and dream about the next summer's planting. Patience, on the other hand, is difficult at best as cabin fever sets in long before winter is ready to release its frigid grip. Like kids in the park, we rush headlong into those first warm days of spring tending the fields and beds in anticipation of the coming season. Let it suffice to say that our first year was an absolute disaster. What the frost didn't kill, the local wildlife was more than willing to finish off. Two acres planted with not a single vegetable to show for it.

There was plenty of time to lick our wounds and evaluate the fiasco.The first mistake was planting far too early. The weather in western New York is fickle, but the rule of thumb is nothing in the ground before Memorial Day at the end of May. This makes for a short growing season, especially if any delays occur around planting time.

PVC is attached to the house

We needed an advantage to start earlier without compromising the health of the plants or the pocket book. Year two began much better than the first as the herb and tomato seedlings were started indoors in late March. The warmth of the spring sun through an unused glass door on the southern side of the house provided a perfect nursery for the burgeoning greenery that would someday feed our family. Little did we know that our well-organized plan would soon be laid to waste by Sammi, the family cat.

It seems that Sammi also enjoyed the warmth of the afternoon sun. The presence of a table near the door became an irresistible invitation for our little four-legged friend who soon found that there simply was not enough room for both her and the seedlings. This, in itself, would not have been devastating if the story had ended with the seedlings just falling to the ground. But, alas, Sammy found it necessary to punish her competition for the sunny spot by batting the trays across the floor and stomping the seedlings into submission.

My two daughters reminded me that selling the cat or buying her a one-way ticket were not options. Neither was replanting the seedlings in the house as long as Sammi was around. They say that necessity is the mother of invention but I'm convinced that a domestic pet somewhere deserves the credit. Either way, it was back to the drawing board.

The clock was ticking and we needed a solution by the following week if the seedlings were to be ready for planting by the end of May. We needed a warm area with plenty of sunshine that the cat could not access, was easy to manage, convenient, inexpensive, and could be ready within a week. The doorway satisfied the majority of the criteria with the exception of the cat. The ideal solution involved the construction of a greenhouse. A solid idea but the application was flawed as the installation and expense of a commercial greenhouse was outside of the available budget and time constraints.

PVC Lean-to Side View

If nothing else, we have learned to be resourceful and self-sufficient over the past two years. With this in mind and $100 in hand, we set out to build our own greenhouse out of low cost, readily available materials. As luck would have it, the unused door on the south side of the house exits to a raised, garden area. The location is perfect as it is directly off the kitchen and includes the all important southern exposure. Now, time to design the structure.

The greenhouse is actually in the form of a lean-to, as it uses the house as one side of the structure. This reduces cost while minimizing the low headroom space caused by a traditional sidewall. The downside to the design is the potential air and water leaks due to the mismatched interface between the lean-to and the exterior wall of the house. Fortunately, the mismatch was minimal as our house is made of cinderblock.

Construction

The front supports can be lengthened and extra PVC ribs may be added every two feet to widen the lean-to to suit individual needs. The drawings show an 8' x 8' structure with a 10 foot peak height. The extra center height provides plenty of interior headroom with minimal interference from the sidewall.

The first step is to choose a location. The finished structure is light and durable enough to be moved but it is far easier to build on the intended site. Any relatively level site next to the house or barn will do nicely. Access to an entry door for the house is ideal but not required as the structure includes an external door.

PVC Lean-to Front View

Now you are ready to construct the wooden framing. The dimensions were chosen to minimize the number of cuts. Make sure to size the door opening according to the width of the door to be used. Nails, lag bolts, or other suitable fasteners may be used to construct the wooden framing. There are no hard and fast rules here, whatever works for you is fine. We used a combination of lag bolts and nails.

The floor should be installed before the next step as the open frame makes the deposit of stone or mulch much easier at this point than later on. Give serious thought to this as leaving bare grass will become a problem later on and it will not be easy to mow. Remember, we're talking greenhouse here where plants, and grass, grow quickly. We put down weed mat followed by mulch. Our town gives away the mulch to the residents for free so this was a very inexpensive alternative for us.

Next come the PVC ribs. Each rib consists of three sections of 5' PVC tubing with two connectors. We used a hacksaw to cut eight of the 10-foot, PVC tubing into 16, 5' sections. The remaining tubing was then cut into eight, 1'10" spacers to be used as the side to side supports. There are two end ribs in which the sections areThe three remaining middle ribs use PVC "X" connectors to couple the sections. Construct the ribs using three sections of the 5' PVC tubing and the appropriate connectors. You may use adhesive if you like but this is not necessary as the plastic skin, which will eventually be attached over the outside, does a remarkable job of holding the joints together.

Have a ladder handy, then start on either end of the framing and install the first end rib, with the "T" connectors, to the bottom support using 1" EMT connector and a wood screw. Gently bend the entire length of tubing over and affix to the top support with a 1" EMT clamp and a wood screw. Install two of the 1'-10" spacers in the connectors. Install the other end of the spacers into a middle rib. Affix the bottom and top of the middle rib in the same fashion as the original end rib. Repeat the process for the two other middle ribs and the remaining end rib. This completes the rigid framing.

Now, the fun part. Pick a calm, overcast day for this activity. Winds of more than even a few miles an hour will hamper your ability to install the skin as the plastic will act like a giant kite. Your neighbors may get a good laugh out of this but I doubt that you will do the same. Sunshine is another problem as the structure will become very warm inside once the skin is draped over the top. Temperatures of 120°F have been recorded in our greenhouse on sunny days in the middle of winter. There will be little if any air movement during this time, especially if it is a calm day. While there are other methods to minimize the heat in the finished structure (which will be discussed later), these techniques are not practical when installing the original skin.

Any bulges or openings in the plastic become potential area for tears. Obviously, the fewer openings in the plastic sheet, the better. We used a 25' x 35' piece of clear plastic for the outer skin of our greenhouse. The material is fairly durable but, like most plastics, it will tear when it wears against a protrusion. You will need to inspect the framing at this point for any sharp spots or protruding nails, bolts, etc., and correct any problem areas before proceeding.

Finished Lean-to

Start at the top support and drape equal portions of the plastic down each side. The plastic should reach the ground and have a foot or two of extra material to work with. Double the plastic on the edges then affix to the wooden framing with 1/4" staples. Nail 1 x 2 x 1/4 or similar size strips, such as old lathe, over the wooden supports after all the plastic has been stapled to the frame. The wooden strips increase the amount of secured surface area and prevent the wind from pulling and tearing the skin through the staples.

Cut off any excess plastic, then move the lean-to into the final position. The structure needs to be secured in some fashion because the large surface area acts as a sail. We affixed our structure to the ground by driving four-foot metal stakes into the ground at the corners, then using wood screws into the framing. Our structure recently withstood winds in excess of 60 mph as a microburst tore through the area on Mother's Day.

Install the door, grab a trowel, and you're ready to grow!

Hints

The lean-to may require additional insulation to maintain a reasonable night time temperature during the winter. We added bubble wrap, obtained free from the dumpster of a local store, to the inside of the skin to help preserve some of the heat in the winter. Two large, 50-gallon barrels were also added and filled with water. The barrels act as thermal storage units, collecting heat during the day, which helps keep the structure warm, above 50°F through the night without the need for supplemental heat. The method works reasonably well during all but the absolute coldest days of the year. The option always exists to move some of the plants inside if there is a cold snap.

Summer is a different story. We leave a couple of inches of water in a barrel that, through evaporation, provides humidy within the structure. We used to leave the door ajar but this sends out an open dinner invitation to some of the less desirable creepy-crawlers. We have since replaced the homemade door with a screen door that someone was nice enough to put on the curb. The window is removed from the screen door and an opaque tarp sometimes is tied across the outside of the skin to reduce the heat.

Conclusions

The lean-to was constructed entirely of 1" PVC tubing, 2 x 4 lumber, and 6 millimeter plastic at a total cost of $104. The entire structure was erected in less than eight hours and put in use the same day. Despite the incredibly simple construction, the structure has withstood winds of 60 mph. Your actual mileage may vary.

Materials list

• 10 - 10' sections of 1", Schedule 80 PVC tubing cut into 5' lengths
• 4 - 1" PVC "T" fittings
• 6 - 1" PVC "X" fittings
• 10 - 1" EMT "C" clamps
• 11 - 2 x 4 x 8 pressure treated lumber
• 3 - 2 x 4 x 10 pressure treated lumber
• Drywall screws for EMT clamps
• #12 nails or lag bolts for framing
• 6 or 8 mil plastic sheeting
• Door with hinges