Lean To Greenhouse Kits – Build Your Own Lean To Greenhouse

A greenhouse is the ultimate gardening gadget. But the cost of many greenhouse kits may leave you with some sticker shock. One popular approach to reducing the cost of a greenhouse is to use a lean to greenhouse kit. This is a kit that is built up against an existing structure like a garage of a shed, and has the obvious advantage of reducing costs by eliminating a wall so there is less to the kit. So this is a permanent structure as opposed to one of the portable greenhouses. Here are some other things to consider if you are thinking about a lean to kit.

Siting the greenhouse – With a lean to greenhouse, you need to make sure you get the proper sun exposure. With any greenhouse, it’s important to site it where it can get adequate sun, but with a lean to design you also have to factor in which site of the structure you are building it on. If the sunny side of the garage where you want to put it is the door, that’s not going to work well. Generally the south or a southeast exposure will get adequate sun and may avoid the hotter afternoon exposures. That doubles to protect against strong northern winds.

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Plan ahead with regard to shade trees. You may not have a shade problem this year, but if you want this to work well for several years, estimate where the shade will be down the road, and either site the greenhouse appropriately or make sure you can manage the growth of the trees. if they are deciduous trees, it can work to your advantage, allowing maximum sun in the winter months and less in the heat of July and August.

Be sure to check the building code in your area to see if a lean to structure is allowed and if so if it needs a permit.

Make sure you have a level site, and one that drains well. You may consider putting gutters above the greenhouse on the structure that you are attaching to if drainage looks like a problem.

Electricity – If you plan to include powered vents, heaters or fans, make sure that you have access to electricity. And make sure the service is sized to the power draw that you expect. If you have a lot of greenhouse heaters going a single 15 amp service is likely to be inadequate.