My home-attached greenhouse is one of the great joys of my life. It allows me to continue my love of gardening, and growing things to eat year-round in the Colorado mountains. I spent nearly 7 years trying to grow things outside at 8,500 feet with a 90-100 day growing season and it was frustrating. I remember the first year I managed to grow cherry tomatoes using Walls `O Water and my neighbor was so impressed. Now my growing season runs 365 days a year. With our home-attached greenhouse, winter nighttime lows never get below 45 degrees and average about 52 degrees. On a sunny day in the middle of winter it can be 10 degrees outside, but a toasty 80 degrees inside. It's a nice respite from the long winter months.

I spent more than a year researching various greenhouse manufacturers & models and finally decided on a Northern Light home-attached model from Gardner's Supply Company in Burlington, Vermont. I figured they know what cold is all about. The structure is made up of an aluminum frame that they claim will hold a person, although I haven't personally tried it. I haven't had a problem with the "snow load" because there's only about three feet of roof that actually holds snow. Beyond that, toward the house, the roof overhangs the greenhouse... and on other side, the structure drops at such a steep angle that snow doesn't build up much. That angle, by the way, is supposed to be exactly perpendicular to the sun at its lowest point in the Winter so sunlight streams directly into the greenhouse. In the summer, when the sun is much higher in the sky, the greenhouse roof angle is designed to reflect much of the sunlight off the glazing, keeping the greenhouse cooler.

The glazing is actually two different mylar-type materials: the outer glazing is 3 mil thick Tedlar, which the inner glazing is 3 mil thick Courtguard. There is a one inch dead air space in between, giving the greenhouse the highest R value available (R2.58), including glass. The two glazing materials also allow more light (90%) into the greenhouse than most other materials. They are guaranteed 10 years.

Construction took a total of about two weeks, working by myself most of the time. I'm not an experienced "builder" by any stretch... and I got a few things backwards a couple of times... but it was not really all that difficult. For me, the difficulty came in erecting the greenhouse on our upper deck. It was designed to be erected on the ground, and many of the screws and panels have to be put on from the outside, which required some tricky ladder work. I originally planned to put the greenhouse on our south side, next to our deck but then looked at the practically unused upper deck outside our front door. It was just the right size, and still allows us access to the stairs and the rest of the upper deck. It also allows us to walk from our original front door into our greenhouse. The only thing we gave up was the mountain view out the window, but now we have it in our greenhouse. And, we have a beautiful greenhouse view from our living room.

To insulate the greenhouse underneath the deck, I used 1" blue Dow Corning Styrofoam cut to fit between the joists. It has an R value of 5. I figure I can always add another inch if I have to. I bought an inexpensive "grass" outdoor carpet to put on top of the deck wood. Heat from the greenhouse is shared with the house through the open front door. Heat from the house also helps heat the greenhouse at night in the same manner. I use a large number of 2 liter pop bottles and one gallon milk jugs filled with water to store daytime heat. The greenhouse has three temperature-controlled automatic vents. I use a fan on a thermostat to blow out hot greenhouse air through the upper side vent. Remember, at 8,500 feet even when it's in the 80's, there's still usually a cool breeze blowing.

My greenhouse is used to primarily grow vegetables, and flowers. It's the only way we are able to enjoy home-grown tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, and ornamental pumpkins (our daughter's birthday is Halloween, so that holiday tends to be a big deal). I do have a dwarf banana plant or two in the greenhouse. I haven't yet tried dwarf fruit trees, as they tend to take up a lot of space, but I'm looking at a "Colonnade Apple Tree" from Stark Bros. Their patented "tree" has only one vertical trunk and no branches. The fruit grow off the main trunk.

I'm using worm composted soil for my garden. I raise "red wigglers" which are a special breed of worm used to compost organic garbage. Since we have rabbits, they also compost rabbit droppings which, it turns out, are excellent fertilizer. I've adapted an idea for growing potatoes that I read about in a gardening book: The idea was to take a large length of plastic and fill it with potato seed, soil, and punch holes in the sides of the plastic to let the plants grow out the holes. Come harvest time, the plastic enclosure is opened and out spill the potatoes. I'm using a large, heavy duty plastic bag with wire mesh inside to hold its shape. I've filled it with worm composted soil, putting seed potato eyes throughout. I'll punch holes in the side when I start seeing the potatoes growing. I ended up growing potatoes in the first place because I used potato skins as a soil supplement last year and found the skins actually "grew" into potato plants and grew miniature potatoes inside of one of my pots. If you want to try this yourself, Gardners Supply Company sells the ready-made vertical potato system. Just click on the ad at the bottom of this page.

-- Wayne Harrison
Pine Junction, Colorado

P.S. If you'd like to learn more about life at 8,500 feet, visit the Harrison Family Home Page. To see the view from our house, visit our Pine Junction Weathercam.