- Summer seeds
- Planting mixture (if needed mix whit compost)
- Empty/used egg cartons
- Greenhouse clear plastic film
- Used irrigation pipes
- Cable tie
- Metal thumbtack
- A used Vegetable box
- Find your materials. Go to the place where people throw used goods and look for pipes and boxes: all in good condition - not broken or squashed.
- If you don't have them already in your home - buy some cable tie and metal thumbtack.
- Get seeds: save some from a pumpkin, tomato or a butternut squash when eating them. Buy your favorites seeds at a local gardening store (get planting mixture and Greenhouse Clear Plastic Film while you're at it). Keep the seeds in a dry and dark area.
- Save egg cartons - instead of throwing them away.
- It's time to get everything together! Insert the pipes using cable tie like I did in the photo below or just pop them in the holes of the box if you find a plastic box like my black one (photo above).
- Take the egg cartons' top off, and place them in the box - as many as you can get in there but not too tight.
- Fill the egg cartons with planting mix. Keep in mind that it should be full enough so the seeds will have soil all around them after watering.
- Make holes with your finger for the seeds: 1-2 cm deep. Drop 1-2 seeds in every hole. you can put small signs with the name of the vegetable you seeded - but it is not necessary (I left the empty seeds bags next to the seeds in the box).
Cover with more planting mix and place the boxes in a worm and sunny spot outside.
Fix the clear plastic sheet over the boxes and pipes with some metal thumbtack - leave one side half open so you can water it and get some air in from time to time (i.e. one side with no thumbtack on it, instead place an heavy stone on the plastic to keep the wind from opening it).
Your mini greenhouse is don!!!
Don't let the soil dry so the small plants wont die - keep it moist till they grow strong.
Building a DIY greenhouse can be a piece of cake! If it's cold outside and you have some high temperature loving plants - just build them a home. I have seeded some summer seeds in February: The result is in front of you - fun, easy, fast and help the environment. YOUR OWN MINI GREENHOUSE.
Building something out of nothing is one of my favorite things to do. Amber Lining is all about this act: A piece of plain fabric can become a piece of art and a photo of a flower or my cat can inspire me to create a new pattern design.
Vegetable garden was my dream for a long long time. Fresh and new life coming out of the ground to feed us. Now I have this big piece of land in my beck yard so I can finally do it: grow my own veg. But you don't really need so much space for growing vegetables and other plants. Everyone can do it, even if all you have is a small porch, a windowsill or a flat roof.
I have found everything I wanted to know about gardening online. If you are new to all this, like me, you'll find the online info very helpful. It's winter, the smart-professional people of the web suggests that I will keep with my winter vegetables: lettuce, cabbage, kohlrabi, spinach, chard, carrot and many more. I love these leafs - but except of the kohlrabi, non of them resemble fruit like the summer veg.
I decided to have more varied veg and mix some summer season ones by building them a worm-comfy house: A green house. I started from scratch: bought seeds of plants from the gourds family, found everything I needed for the greenhouse, sow and build a greenhouse above. Here's the story of how I did it:
What you'll need to build your own greenhouse:
As you go you'll see how much you will use from the list above. I used for my double box greenhouse: No more then 10 thumbtack, 8 egg cartons and some small flowerpot, 2x2 meters of clear plastic sheet, 4 pieces of used irrigation pipes (cut in the same length), 4 cable tie, 5 different seed bags and the smallest bag of planting mixture you can find.
Step by step mini greenhouse: