PERHAPS as good a way as any to 

 begin to answer the desire for garden 

 work during the winter is to build a 

 little greenhouse. There is one right 

 near me, quite a small affair, 16 feet wide 

 and 20 feet long — merely a frame on the 

 ground to support sash bars of the regulation 

 size. An amateur like my neighbor can 

 get a great amount of satisfaction from 

 such a little structure. There is the for- 

 cing of plants for setting out early, and 

 indeed, with this adjunct to a garden, it 

 soon becomes a matter of wonder however 

 you could have got along without it. 



Hotbeds and coldframes you have 

 come to look upon as absolute essentials 

 in an up-to-date garden; and this kind of 

 greenhouse is, after all, not much more 

 than a magnified hotbed. It lays no claim 

 to architectural beauty; it does claim serv- 

 iceability. This little house was built 

 for considerably less than fifty dollars, 

 counting material only, and as cost was 

 a decided element to be considered, every- 

 thing that went into the construction of 

 the house had already seen service in some 

 other form of construction. In other 

 words, the material was second hand. My 

 friend and neighbor who owned the 

 greenhouse did every bit of the work 

 himself. He had no skilled workmen on 

 the job at any time. The result — it has 

 surpassed the builder's dreams. 



There is a central walk and the spaces 

 on each side are used tc accommodate gar- 

 den flats packed as tightly as possible. 

 Last year 160 flats 12x18 in. were in use. In 

 these were sown seeds of everything de- 



sired in flower or kitchen garden. The 

 seeds were sown in the flats in drills or 

 rows, and when large enough for handling 

 the young plants were transplanted into 

 other flats so as to give space for the in- 

 dividual to develop. Of course, at all 

 times attention must be given to watering, 

 ventilating and heating. The smaller the 

 house the closer one has to 'attend to these 

 details. In this case, three times a day, 

 morning, noon and evening, conditions 

 have to be seen to. But the result! 



When planting out time arrived, the 

 garden was found to be only half as 



big as would be Jjjy necessary to ac- 

 commodate all Jy\\ the seedlings 

 that were JY \V grown. This 

 left the ,^/ \V owner a 









RIDGE BOARD 





S7f 















-RAFTER 



^CROJi TIE 







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S/LL f-S' 







Above : section of the little greenhouse above : Below : 

 plan of one side of the roof 



very good percentage to dispose of 

 elsewhere. Counting those sold and those 

 actually used (and given away to friends) 

 at market prices, and figures totalled to 

 more than half the total cost of the house. 

 Surely it was worth while. 



THE first step was digging a trench in 

 the soil to correspond with the dimen- 

 sions of the wall of the base of the house. 

 This was about 18 inches deep, about a 

 foot wide and 20 feet, 6 inches long on the 

 south side. Turning to right angles at the 

 west end of this trench, another trench 

 was dug, 16 feet 6 inches north. The 

 other two sides of course paralleled these. 

 After the digging the trenches were filled 

 with small stones, collected from the 

 garden. This made the foundation of the 

 greenhouse. 



A form of 8-inch boards was made to 

 mold a concrete wall. This form was 

 built to correspond with the exact measure- 

 ments of the base of the house, that is to 

 say, 16x20 ft., outside measurements. The 

 form was six inches wide, inside measure. 

 The form being centred on the founda- 

 tion was filled with concrete (the formula 

 being one part of cement, three parts of 

 sand, four parts of gravel, with enough 

 water to make a sloppy mixture). These 

 ingredients were thoroughly mixed. When 

 placed within the form, the concrete was 

 packed evenly throughout by means of 

 a piece of 2x4 scantling. The form was 

 removed after about a week, leaving a 

 good wall. 



Upon this wall a 5 x 8 in. sill was laid, 

 the ends being properly lapped and securely 



This little homemade greenhouse is heated by an inside slow combustion coal stove. Regulation sash bars are utilized for the roof 



147 



