My initial dream for the small greenhouse was to extend the growing season for my herbs and jump start them earlier the next year. She did just that and now she is doing so much more.
I had chives, oregano, dill, fennel, parsley, catnip, rosemary, chamomile, and thyme all come back in these pots. They were up and ready to use by March/April. I won’t say that all of them came back or that huge numbers of them came back but enough to make me happy. Especially since by last fall things had fallen into disrepair by the time they were moving into the greenhouse. I had over planted last year. I needed places to put basil, so I put basil in each pot and they got huge and took over. I had also put a broccoli or cabbage or cauliflower or, well you get the idea into each pot. I think it would have worked if they had enough water and fertilizer. Also if I had been better at tending to them. But the area got overrun with weeds and I watered but they needed more. Cabbage worms decimated them. Some of the herbs died from the heat and sun. I didn’t have high hopes for this spring. I figured it would be a reset year so I started growing in the basement to refill them. Surprise, surprise when I unzipped that door and walked in the herbs decided they wanted to live they just needed a chance.
I have added the herbs I started in the basement to help fluff them out a bit. I put two sad little basement tomatoes right into the big pots, yes I know I’m doing it again. I also moved the other basement tomatoes up into the greenhouse and tucked them between the large herb pots.
The basement seed/plant racks we did were starting to get filled up and we wanted to move them outside but it was too cold. The idea had been we would put together a simple 2×4 shelf in the greenhouse over the herbs then all the trays could be put on that. Until we saw how many herbs had managed to survive. It dawned on me that rather than waiting till we found time to put a shelf together I could move the pots closer together and put one of the failed store shelving units in there. It wasn’t tall enough on the sides to put it in complete so I broke it into two units.
Last week our youngest went back to San Diego for MCT, which meant mom was going to need plant therapy. It started in the basement, I tossed a bunch of saved marigold seeds into 4×4 pots. Then I took cuttings from a petunia that had out of nowhere showed up in a pot next to a pothos. I have no clue, but I got a half a tray full of petunia cuttings so yea! I started moving things from the basement to the greenhouse. Every time I came up I carried something with me. The tomatoes were in need of a better home we got hit hard with white fly and soil gnats add to that 6 days of us being gone when we drove to California and they were sad. While they have not completely healed from their trauma I will say they look happier now. When we left I had taken all the lettuce from the basement and moved it to the box across the driveway. We watered everything when we left and then put the lid down. Most of them lived, I won’t pretend to say they thrived. They are now happier in the greenhouse where they get attention.
With the basement now emptier I was able to start some more garden seeds and they have all started to germinate. The marigolds had all started to sprout so I took one of the squares and moved them to 6 cells and ended up with more sprouts than a tray could hold. Okay lets see what they do outside. 
They did not do well outside. It got hot outside and the greenhouse gets zipped up each night. In the morning it was boiling hot and no amount of water seemed to satisfy the poor little things. If lucky maybe 2 or 3 will make it. I even put some in larger pots hoping that they would stay moist enough to keep them alive, alas this did not work. In the basement things are looking much better. Almost every single little transplant is a live and doing well.
It doesn’t surprise me I’ve always struggled to keep seedlings alive outside when I up pot them like this. Having the ability to up pot and grow them on in a protected place till they can survive in the greenhouse makes life a lot more fun. I’m sure that at some point I’ll figure the greenhouse out too but for now I can have my flowers and my greenhouse too.
The rest of the week I spent planting seeds for things that love the warm weather like the pumpkins and squashes and these seedlings are germinating in there right now. I did some more propagation of petunias and verbenas. I’ve even given propagating impatiens a try! I did not even know that was a thing, I did four cuttings and they are sitting in water in the kitchen window right now. So how do I feel about this inexpensive little greenhouse?
PROS
- I love sitting right outside of it under my sunbrella. I have a small table, a bag of dirt, a water wand, everything I need right at my finger tips. Yes, I know that’s not the actual greenhouse itself. What I love is that I pot things up and then step two steps and put it in my greenhouse.
- I love being able to make a mess without fear. Dirt gets on the ground, oh well, water gets on the ground, oh well, clean up leaves for propagation just throw them on the ground. For someone who has been doing this in their house sometimes on carpet there is a joy in this I cannot fully express to you.
- I LOVE being able to use my hose to water. In the house we can’t use the faucet water because we have a water softener. I don’t know for sure if it hurts the plants but I do know that sometimes I taste salt in the water. I cannot imagine that this is good for plants. We either had to go outside or to the basement where we have a valve that bypasses the water softener. It’s great to have easy access like that it also means many cans of water needed to be carried all around the house and when things were in full garden swing in here. It was a little crazy. Plus water spilling or dirt over flowing again on carpet didn’t fill me with joy. Being able to have easy access to all the water all the time and not having to worry about messes makes very happy.
- No weeds. I’m not wading through weeds to tend to the plants and I’m not spending my day weeding rather than playing in the dirt.
- I can tuck everything safely away and keep it all together. My garden tools, my gloves, my bags of soil and fertilizers. At the end of the day it can all go out of sight but stay together. The next day I can just get started I don’t have to run around collecting things.
- I love being able to zip the door up at night. I know that critters like raccoons can get in if they want to I’m not delusional. I have a feral cat who like to think he owns the place. I just think if the raccoon has no reason to want to go in like food stored in there and it’s closed up then that raccoon is likely to just move on to something more interesting and easier.
- We have had a couple of serious storms with high winds and heavy rains as well as snow and this little greenhouse has come through it all.
- I think you could have a nice bench on the two long sides and on the back wall. Or you could leave space to do something like grow tomatoes or pole beans in the ground or in pots. I don’t know if the poles are strong enough to be able to hang potted plants from but I think you could use them to hang trellis supports from for beans or tomatoes. I could even see adding plant misters from them.
- The windows unzip from the outside so you have to have clear access to them. Bill has been rolling them under so that water won’t pool up. They have screens in them!
- I am really surprised by how much we have been able to get in there without any planning. I think as the years go on we will plan better and make even better use of the space.
- The cost, inexpensive enough for us to give it a try. It’s like a gateway greenhouse drug I’m not sure that a glass or plexi greenhouse would be right for us up here. We have way too many trees that seem to love hurling branches at us. It would make me extremely sad to see it destroyed and to know how much it cost. I will be sad if something happens to this one and I will also probably replace it because the cost vs value works for us.
CONS
- The zipper on one side has started to stick badly. Since this is it’s first year in actual use I am concerned about that. If that zipper breaks, as cheap plastic zippers do, then the door is done. We will have to devise something to make it work because I am not going to resew a new zipper into the plastic, maybe try one of the tarp zippers? Maybe just make an actual door. That is a problem for future me. Right now I’m just not unzipping that side all the way. When it gets to the part where it sticks and I can see it sort of pulling I stop. I can still roll it up and use it just fine.
- It does get hot even with all six windows open. So the door has to stay open all day especially on days when the temps are in the 70’s+. This defeats the purpose of keeping bad bugs and critters out.
- The tie downs it comes with are not great. You do need to have better systems in place so that it doesn’t blow away.
- The ad said it had two doors but it only has one. That works for us but at first it was disappointing.
- The way the sides slope they limit the height of things you can put there.
- You can’t roll the sides up to help air flow and temp and I don’t think it is water proof enough to be able to put an electric fan in there to keep the air moving.
- I think if you didn’t wrap the joints that touch the walls they might tear or wear the material over time. We also strapped over the sides to try and limit movement to protect the material.
- The material is green not clear or white so that might bother some people but I don’t mind.
What will my opinion be at the end of the season? Hard to tell. It’s come through a winter and it’s heading into summer and so far I am very happy with it. The zipper concerns me but has not diminished my happy. Would I recommend buying one? Yes, as long as you understand what you are getting into and the additional work you need to do and what it’s limitations are. Also you need to know what you want from it. I wanted a place to keep my herbs so I had access to them longer. I got that. I wanted to bigger greenhouse so that we could play with propagation and seed starting and keeping everything together that we needed for those purposes as well as getting the mess out of the house and making watering easier. I never thought the smaller greenhouse could do some of those things for me but it is. Do I think this will last a lifetime, no. You can buy the covers separate or we could just use plastic design for this purpose. Even if we get a year I think we got our money’s worth.
