My mom used to say, “The old people were always happy till the Sears catalog arrived.” For anyone who never received the Sears catalog it was like YouTube and Amazon had a baby, and it was made from paper. When TV came out, we had commercials that explained to everyone why their lives were incomplete and then told them exactly what product, toy, fashion apparel would bring joy. TV shows, movies, and magazines told us and showed us the amazing lives that everyone else was living. Those things were nothing compared to the Sears catalog which existed long before film confirmation that we should be unhappy and most of those magazines might never be seen, oh but that catalog in all its free glory was the bringer of despair. What does this have to do with greenhouses and raised beds?
You can find this greenhouse here.
We are no longer affiliated, I just like links so that if you can check it out for yourself it’s easy to find. We also purchased a smaller one from the same manufacturer but different seller and that link no longer exists on Amazon. This model is now listed for under $160. The description of the smaller one is, VEVOR Walk-in Tunnel Greenhouse, 12 x 7 x 7 ft Portable Plant Hot House with Galvanized Steel Hoops, 1 Top Beams, 2 Diagonal Poles, 2 Zippered Doors & 6 Roll-up Windows, Green. We paid $99.
Only the smaller green one got put up last fall. We had several trees that needed to be trimmed or cut down before we got the bigger one up in the garden area. We are so glad that we waited.
The smaller one sits right outside of our front door with access to it from the walkway.
We live in the country and we are not lawn people. I consider dandelions a flower not a menace that must be destroyed. Having the garden boxes and greenhouse directly in front of our house to us is a bonus. This greenhouse holds our big planters of herbs. All summer the tubs lived right there and I loved it. They were all together and they were labeled and they were close to the kitchen. I wanted the little greenhouse to help them over winter and it did a beautiful job. When we put the bigger one up there will be a “how we anchored it” video. For now just know it was easy involving 2×4’s, rebar, and string. I had Christmas lights so I strung them up inside and had them on a timer to, in my mind, make it warmer. Truth is it was pretty. 
Each herb planter is about 24″ and 11 of them fit inside. This still gives me ample space to walk down the middle to collect herbs. We do have these on the drip system which has made things so much simpler. Initially I was watering by hand, there was no weed block down, and I had over planted in them. It didn’t go well. It was late in the season by the time we got them on the auto water system. The greenhouse not only survived a Midwest winter it kept everything that was going to come back alive and I’m already collecting herbs like chives and oregano and it’s still April! The hardest part of getting this thing up was leveling the ground. Once we had it all level and the fabric down we built the wooden base and then started building the metal frame. We did all of the build away from where it would sit and then carried it to the spot we had prepared for it. Once it was there we drilled pilot holes and drove pieces of rebar that had been cut to about 12 inches. These are the real anchors, the straps that came with it and the thin metal anchors might not have been enough. 
We also used strapping and went over the unit in two or three places and then secured those to the wooded base. The thought was if we can stop it from flapping in the wind we can do two things, help it to stay on the ground and also stop the material from rubbing on any of the frame which will hopefully stop it from tearing or wearing out. To further help cushion those joints anyplace that there was a metal pole end or joint or screw we covered it with tape It will help keep everything together and it will also provide some protection to the cover. I have noticed that condensation is an issue and while I don’t think it leaks I think the condensation builds up and it drips. I like that it is tall enough for us to stand in and walk around comfortably. If you are 6′ or shorter you should be fine. We did think it had two doors, one on each end, but it only has the one. It has 6 windows, 3 on each side, and these you can put up or leave them down. Between them and the door the air flow through should be good, I would like to have a screen to help keep birds and bugs out, none of these plants need pollination, but I can figure something out. It does not keep cats or critters out. We have a very active feral cat community and at least one of them has learned that the greenhouse is a lovely winter home. It won’t keep out raccoons or possums or squirrels or skunks or snakes or you get the idea.
That being said we are so looking forward to getting the larger one up back in the garden. There are so many things we have wanted to play with but space in the house is an issue. Bill wants to try grafting the fruit trees and some ornamental trees. I would like to do more propagation of my flowers. We would love to do our seed starts outside and even have our brassicas protected from the dreaded cabbage worms. (We experimented with that this year in the front box which has a cover and we had boc choi and broccoli outside by early April. We have lettuce out there now. )
We have looked at greenhouses for years now. They always seemed too expensive and too permanent to make a mistake. Plus being in the woods we have to be cautious about adding anything to breakable, and glass and even plexi seemed like it would be doomed to fail. We did dream though. In the last two years we had talked about making a cattle panel greenhouse, we even bought the cattle panels and started playing with setting them up. For whatever reason it never got past one panel up. I think we both thought it felt off and it was going to require some thinking and lots of prep building and leveling to get it right. Last year on a whim I looked up what might be for sale on the internet and that’s when I found these. While any money you spend is still money these seemed like the perfect gateway drug. Not to big, not to small, not to permanent, not to temporary, quick to build and we didn’t have to think about what material to add to cover them or how to add windows or doors or really anything.
We are both glad that we didn’t get the bigger one up last year. It would have been nice to have but it also would have required a lot of prep work and we were never 100% confident. This year we came up with 3 modifications to the garden which have us both very excited because things clicked we can both see it.
