View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Old 05-11-2010, 01:32 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Pavel314[_2_] Pavel314[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Dec 2009
Posts: 330
Default Harbor Freight greenhouse

On Nov 4, 10:05*pm, villon wrote:
On Nov 3, 3:41*pm, Gary Woods wrote:

villon wrote:
I see that Harbor Freight has the small 6x8 greenhouse on sale for
$250.


Is this plastic covered or polycarbonate? *The plastic cover will NOT
survive a winter (and they don't sell a replacement). *But, it's cheap and
will do the job, sort of.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G


It's polycarb panels, but the door looks sort of junky. I keep telling
myself I could build a better GH than that if I wasn't so lazy...
still, it looks tempting. Plastic sheets seems like they'd have to be
replaced too often. I see you are upstate NY AND a HAM. I'm on long
island now but have spent many summers up in Ithaca/Watkins Glen. I
haven't been on the air in a couple or three years but I used to hang
out a bunch on 40 and 80 meters - mostly cw on 40...
Chas
(N2JIW)


My wife and I live near Baltimore, Maryland. We bought their 10X12
greenhouse kit, aluminum frame with polycarbonate panels, and found it
to be very flimsy. Whenever the wind got over 30 mph, which happens
frequently here, the pannels blew off. I bought a box of extra panel
clips which helped a bit but we still lost panels in high winds. I
finally glued them in with a caulking glue.

I tried firming up the structure by adding wood cross-beams but that
didn't help much. The door was the weak point. In retrospect, I should
have faced the door downwind to the prevailing flow, so I'll take some
of the blame for the door blowing in.

After two winters of this, I tore it down and built a greenhouse out
of pressure treated framing lumber. We used most of the panels from
the kit for the walls of the new greenhouse and bought heavier stuff
for the roof. The old door got recycled as the new door, but hinged
instead of sliding and on the downwind side this time.

Paul