After the hustle and bustle of fall cleanup on the yard and garden and all your harvest is in the pantry, freezer or cellar. You have all the farm animals tucked in the barn and all is ready for the first snowfall and freeze…We take a brief rest!  But if you are a serious gardener you cannot just sit through winter and NOT think about next years garden.  This is when our big ‘Winter Garden’ begins to grow!  If you are like us you pull out the grid paper and plan out every inch of ground you have, making sure to rotate those crops.  And as soon as we have decided where everything is going…the eagerly anticipated SEED CATALOGS start rolling in. This is what we call the Big Decision Time….because we know we will plant corn, beans, beets, etc.  But which ones? Bush beans, runners, ???  You get the idea. So we make the major decisions and get the seed order wrote up and in the mail. ( Yes we still mail order) And we get our order out early so we will get what we want.

But we usually go to a local greenhouse and buy those plants that have to be sown early indoors or out in a greenhouse.  For the last few years we have raised some mysterious vegetables.  We buy plants that say one thing on them and when they produce fruit, we get something we didn’t want!  Some of you may have experienced that too at some time.  So what to do?

We have been wanting to build a big greenhouse but that just isn’t in our budget. And we always thought we needed a BIG one to grow what we needed. Until we saw a neighbor, an older man, who makes his own little greenhouses and grows more plants than he can use.  Why do we think we have to have a big greenhouse?  We don’t! And to keep living a frugal life we need to think small!   Last year we had to replace most of our old windows and I made sure to save them. So we pulled them out and got some hardware ( straight bracing bars and corner bracing bars and some hinges) at our local hardware store and put together a nice little greenhouse of our own.  All for under $20.00!   This is definitely what old-timers use to do….use old things they had laying around to make something they needed. We call that Reviving Old-Time Skills!

We are using the trays that float on water, and in this small greenhouse we have nearly 1,000 seeds starting!  Yes, this is for any Homesteader a very Frugal way to start your garden seeds and raise your own plants.  We do have some seedlings that have started to come up.

This is the Cabbages and Broccoli that have come up. Several other seeds have come up and are looking great! We are excited about this and if you have been wanting a greenhouse that is affordable and easy to make….this is it.  You can find old windows sitting out in the trash by the road, or maybe a neighbor, friend or family member has replaced their old windows and have some sitting around…start looking for them and you will be surprised how fast you will have all you need. If Melvin and I can build this greenhouse, I guarantee you can too!  We will post a complete list of re-purposed items we used, list the hardware and sizes with pictures so you can start on your project soon.

Happy Homesteading and Thank You for visiting us here at Homesteading Frugally!

Marcia and Melvin