No interest in a shade house? Not the same benefit of course, but some benefit, and you could build one inexpensively with PVC & shade cloth, even put it up and take it down seasonally if you wanted.

Good suggestion, GermanStar. I definitely need more shade than I currently have :(

How do you like this bad boy? Not exactly what I had in mind, but useful and inexpensive.

{{gwi:423397}}

This post was edited by GermanStar on Sat, Oct 5, 13 at 18:46

and low profile. The HOA committee has to see it to bust you for it!!

There are some dedicated greenhouses with evaporative coolers. And a crazy person or two who have AC's.

Dennis and Danielle McClung use a 40% block white UV protected knitted polyethelene shade cloth and successfully were able to remove their swamp cooler. Of course their green house is below ground so it is a bit cooler.
for example:
http://www.gemplers.com/product/151005/White-Shade-Cloth-40-Shade-Factor
http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/PROD/white40

your talking about gardenpool.org . They made a pool into a greenhouse.

I use to own a greenhouse 10 years ago and would use it in the winter. I would grow a ton of things and used sonic humidifiers to make a thick fog every night. The banana plants and other tropicals loved it.

I wouldn't do a summer greenhouse. It's just too hot.

This post was edited by mjp_80 on Mon, Oct 7, 13 at 19:25

So when you used a humidifier, you didn't need a heater?

I would love a greenhouse for winter..a nice place to start seedlings and over winter some of my patio plants. At this time, my husband surrounds the patio with plastic and hangs a light in the center, but, it's a lot bigger than we need and kind of a pain for him to do each winter. If you couldn't have a bigger building, maybe a lean to? some of those hold quite a bit and are not visible unless someone actually goes into your back yard.

Yes,what is the story on the humidifiers?

Fascist, interesting that you mention a few gardeners have a/c for their green houses. They're probably rich.

I guess if money is no issue, a person could build a reasonably energy efficient a/c cooled greenhouse here. You'd need to use double or triple pane energy star glass for all the windows (low solar heat gain windows.) As for cooling, you could use evap during the hot, months and high efficiency a/c during the humid monsoon months. To be extra green, you could install solar panels to run the a/c or swamp coolers.

You probably wouldn't need supplemental heating at all- just shut the windows at night.

I found this frame on Amazon for $121. Could you possibly make it it a shade house for spring, summer and fall and convert it to a greenhouse for winter. They have smaller sized ones too. If anyone knows how to go about doing this conversion and make it looks nice and easy to do, please post.

SALE! 10X16 Basic Greenhouse Kit - DO IT YOURSELF by E-Z Frames!
E-Z Frames (11)

This post was edited by toucan on Wed, Oct 30, 13 at 9:18