of $6.48. 
AuvGausT, 1908 
Frames outside are convenient for growing let- 
tuce in winter and seedlings in spring for trans- 
planting to the garden 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
ready for cutting in from eighteen to 
twenty days. 
In the outside frames, we grow water- 
cress, parsley, pansies, spinach, lettuce, 
chervil and tarragon. In fact, an outside 
frame, if heated, is as good for growing low 
plants as the greenhouses. 
It is impossible in the limits of a short 
article to go extensively into the handling 
of a greenhouse. If we consider that it is 
simply an artificial way of duplicating sum- 
mer conditions in the winter, its care should 
not be especially difficult. The mechanical 
part of constructing a greenhouse is quite out- 
side the province of this article. Ifthe build- 
ing is properly constructed, the rest is easy. 
Fresh tomatoes every day in the year are only 
possible when the outdoor supply can be supple- 
mented like this 
A Home-made Greenhouse for $80-—By V. R. Bruce, 3% 
HOW THE PROBLEM OF A CHEAP BUT SERVICEABLE GREENHOUSE FOR WINTER USE WAS OVERCOME BY 
ONE AMATEUR — INGENIOUS METHOD OF AUTOMATIC VENTILATION AND HEATING BY NATURAL GAS 
A HERE are many persons who would 
have a small greenhouse large enough 
in which to start a great many plants for 
yard and house, and still have room for 
lettuce, radishes, parsely, etc., also a place 
to start winter bulbs, if they only knew what 
a nice little house can be built and fully 
equipped for even less than $80. 
Though I longed for a greenhouse I could 
not see how I could possibly afford one, as 
even the very smallest ones advertised cost 
much more than I could afford. My dis- 
content and restlessness set me to figuring 
and I found I could build a house which 
would be quite large enough for about $60 
‘— one in which I could spend my few spare 
hours very enjoyably and satisfy the desire 
to work with plants and dig in the soil during 
winter. 
From a nearby contractor who was 
tearing down some old tanneries, I secured 
twelve sash 36 x 42 in.,containing nine 10x 12 
in. lights, at six cents a light, making a total 
These were put into the cellar 
where I have a work bench, and during 
the evenings for two or three weeks I painted 
and puttied them. These supplied the side 
lights of my greenhouse by setting between 
the studding two feet from the ground, 
using four sash to a side and two sash for 
an end, one each side of the doorway, thus 
making a house thirteen feet long, eight 
and one-half feet wide and six feet high, 
not including the 2-foot pitch of the roof. 
With a local builder I madea deal whereby 
I was to buy all the glass, paint, sash for 
sides, ventilating sash, and do my own 
painting, besides putting glass on the roof, 
and he would do the carpentry work and 
furnish all the lumber (hemlock) for $25. 
The plans were prepared to scale and it 
took two men just two days to put up the 
house. I spent another half day painting 
the house and putting the glass on the roof. 
When finished there was room for two 
benches thirty inches wide and twelve feet 
long, besides two shelves on each side of 
the house, one twelve inches wide and the 
other about six inches wide. The lower 
one is used for seed boxes; the other is filled 
with 2-inch pots. 
For ventilators, the upper row of glass 
on the sheltered side of the roof was removed, 
and four sash of three lights, each 10 x rq in., 
were hinged to the ridge. These overlap 
the vacant space and are raised and lowered 
readily from inside. 
Natural gas, which costs net twenty-seven 
cents a thousand, is employed for heating. 
It is easily controlled, but the first difficulty 
I encountered was to regulate the heat so 
that I might leave it for several hours and 
feel comfortable as to the welfare of my 
plants. Here my trouble began, as there 
was no one who could run out often enough 
during the day to keep tab on the heat. 
One cold day early in March I left the 
house about 8 o’clock in the morning, regu- 
lated for weather as it was then. About 
tz o’clock the sun came out bright and 
warm, and stayed so the rest of the day. 
The house had been left at 60 degrees; at 
3 o’clock, upon my return, I found it at 120 
degrees and the plants sweltering. 
same thing happened several times. 
The only thing to do was to get some kind 
This 
This little house. costing $80, gave winter vege- 
tables, early seedlings and winter flowers in abun- 
dance 
of regulator to automatically turn on and 
off the gas as the temperature changed. 
Finally, a second-hand Power’s regulator 
was bought for $15 —a new one costs $40, 
not including a special gas valve which is 
$6 more. It takes ro degrees change to 
operate this machine, but the plants can 
stand that. The thermostat contains an 
air pressure of ten pounds or so, which, as 
it extends or contracts with a change of heat, 
moves the lever of the diaphragm up and 
down through a space of six or seven inches. 
This lever is attached to the gas valve, 
which is a lift valve, by a metal strap that 
can be set at any temperature. (I have 
mine fixed at 45 degrees and 55 degrees.) 
When the sun warmed the house up con- 
siderably more than 60 degrees, with the 
gas all shut off, the lever dropped down 
several inches more than was necessary to 
turn off the gas. As the arm had power 
to lift ten pounds or so, I fastened two of 
the ventilators together so that one arm 
would raise them, and made a wooden 
lever, fastening one end to the ventilator 
arm and the other to the diaphragm lever, 
and counterbalanced the weight of the sash 
with a lead weight so that it only takes a pull 
of one or two pounds to move the ventilator 
up and down. For all the months since I 
have had it fixed I have not once touched 
the regulator. No matter what the weather 
may be, I have no worry about the temper- 
ature of the house. If it turns colder, the 
gas is turned on; if warmer, it goes off. 
I am entirely satisfied with the house now, 
and have spent many happy hours in it. I 
have a great many plants in proper season, 
such as salvia, asters, pansies, marigold, 
hollyhock, campanula and cosmos for my 
yard, and peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, 
lettuce, and celery for my garden. If I were 
to build another house I should set my side 
glass in 2 x 2 in., rabbited out three-eights of 
an inch the same as the roof, usinga 2x4 
between every third glass to stiffen the 
building. 
