Benches and Shelves

[Just-Moxie]

Moxie I like what you have so much better then mine. If I saw yours before i ordered mine, I would of had same built. Do you have any heat in it?

No..no heat. No power either. It was already here when we bought the property. I think the lady of the house sold plant starts in her little shop, so she started them in there.
It is just a building, with recycled storm windows, and a concrete pad floor. I can open the windows in the summer, and close them in the winter. I am trying something different this winter. I will see if my house plants can make it through a whole winter out there.
We haven't done anything to it, other than just paint the exterior. Of course, I cleaned all of the glass in the windows when we first bought the place in 2010.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A few years back I hung some white paper on both sides of my seed starter to take advantage of reflected light. That was the end of spindly plants, they are a lot stockier and stronger. Reflected light made a lot of difference.

I strongly encourage taking advantage of reflected light when you can.

I don't know what colors are "best". I'm sure certain ones are "better". But I'm not one of those constantly in search or perfection. If something works, it works. I know, a boring attitude.

I truly hate white clothing, period. It shows stains and dirt so well and I'm not a neat person. But I like light colors in certain situations, shelves in a storeroom for example. It's easier to find things if the back of the shelves are not dark.

I'm also not a fanatic about cleaning. In some situations stains and dirt are quite acceptable. I'm not one of those that is out there with warm soapy water cleaning the coop every time a chicken poops. Some dirt or stain in a greenhouse or starting shed would be fine with me if I had either one. I try to keep my workshop swept out but a little dust on the shelves or spider webs at the ceiling aren't cause for panic. I know others have different standards.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Ha. White clothing is useless here too! I have been collecting all of the white tops MIL passed to me....and I ended up with 10 new pairs of white panties in a multi-colored pack. So I bought the Rit dye at the store..."denim"...and one day last week.....colored them all blue!!

 

[aftermidnight]

Late to the game here but when we built my greenhouse I really gave it some thought about what benches I'd put in. I ended up stacking cement blocks and used 2x6's 12 foot long. Mine are two shelves high at the moment but if I need more height I have just remove the top planks. The nice thing about this arrangement is if one of the planks rots it's easily replace, maybe not the prettiest benches but very functional.
I had a little 6x8' glass with wooden frame to start with, it was either the glass kept slipping or at the time the neighbor's kids would fling apples at it and break the glass. The wood started to rot so we took it down and put up a B.C. greenhouse, aluminum frame with polycarbonate panels. It's much bigger but you know the old saying no matter how big it is, it's never big enough. I've had this greenhouse for almost 20 years, it's as good now as when it was first built the only thing I've had to replace are the automatic vent openers they pooped out last fall. I'll never have glass again. what with the double walled polycarbonate I only have to put shade cloth over the back half which faces more or less south. .
Here's a little hint for those who who don't already know this, never paint anything yellow in a greenhouse, the color yellow is a white fly magnet. A friend of ours was always complaining about white flies in her greenhouse, I couldn't figure out why she was having such a problem until I saw they had painted the inside of their greenhouse yellow. Once they repainted it white, no more problem.
Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Photos,photos, photos please. Not late at all I still haven't put in shelves yet. Think I am going with the stair raisers someone here uses in their greenhouse.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Nyboy Photo's LOL, Looking through my photo album I found this one from a couple of years ago, can't really see this top shelf but it is 3 planks wide.

I'll see what I can do later when I get mobile, it takes awhile for these old bones to get mobile If I move a few things I can at least take a picture of one end. Warning, as I said before it's functional not pretty. I guess I should take a few pics the next time I dismantle the benches to give the greenhouse a good dung out, I've been asked before about my setup.
Right now it's a step in back out, in other words it's packed full of plants mostly dormant wintering over, not a pretty sight but they're alive. Mine has a gravel floor so when I need to water in the spring and summer I just drag the hose in and go at it. In the fall and winter I hand water from the water barrel I keep at the back of the greenhouse between the benches.
When we put this greenhouse up we also put it on a raised frame so I have to step down into mine, gives me the extra height for hanging baskets.

Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Very nice your plants look very healthy

 

[aftermidnight]

@Nyboy finally got a picture for you, as I said before my greenhouse isn't a showcase but it is functional. One row of blocks, then planks, three more rows of blocks and top planks.
Planks are easy to replace if one rots, I see one of my top planks is starting to go but I think I can get another year out of it before it is cut up for kindling, waste not want not .
Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Are the blocks dry stacked or mortar together ?

 

[aftermidnight]

Dry stacked.