Moving into an old greenhouse!

[chrismende]

I just wrote my first check yesterday for the greenhouse I'm leasing in Daly City, CA, ten minutes drive down the freeway from my home in San Francisco!
It's been a loooooooooong process getting into it, since the owner first needed to get a different tenant to move out, then needed to do various repairs. It's now nearly finished, and I can move in and paint the old redwood benches, put up some vinyl sheeting to confine the heat until I need the whole space, and locate and rebuild the old potting bench. I just bought a nice soft green deck paint for the benches and some flat white to repaint the uprights. The roof is still getting some new edge boards and the gutters cleaned out.
I'll post pictures of the place later this week, in addition to the amusing pix of my plants impatiently waiting to move there and all the lights I've been running for a couple of years!
I can't believe that this day has finally come. BTW, the space is 30x50ft, with a Modine gas heater. Temps in Daly City are pretty even in general, since it's often foggy. I'll know more soon! I'll be building an enclosure to heat and control humidity for seedlings within this space, too! Such fun!

 

[nikv]

Good luck with it, Chris! Enjoy your new growing space!

 

[ohio-guy]

sounds great!

 

[NYEric]

Finally! oke:
Sounds good, hope everything works out and we await the photos!

 

[John M]

Congratulations! It seems that you've taken this slowly and got things nailed down with the owner. You're gonna have lots of fun, now!

 

[goldenrose]

How exciting! :clap::clap::clap: look forward to the pics!

 

[jblanford]

WOW! Chris, I sure wish I was closer, I would like to help with a project like that.... Jim.

 

[biothanasis]

How exciting! :clap::clap::clap: look forward to the pics!

Agree!!!!

 

[Shiva]

That's a big size greenhouse. Waiting for photos.

 

[SlipperFan]

Wow, that is a huge greenhouse! Congrats! I, also, am looking forward to photos.

 

[Candace]

Awesome!

 

[Brian Monk]

Congrats!! As a fellow gardener who grows mostly in a remote greenhouse, I can only say that you will want to spend more time there than home. That's OK, I appreciate the time I spend there more. It keeps me sane. My wife calls the greenhouse my "mistress." I tell her that things could be worse for her than a guy who wants to spend his spare time with his plants!

 

[Ross]

Congratulations on finalizing the arrangement! I look forward to seeing your set up.

 

[JeanLux]

Congratulations, and thanks for showing us pics!!!! Jean

 

[NYEric]

Welcome to the club! :evil:

 

[chrismende]

thanks so much everyone! I spent about four hours today painting the old redwood benches (fencing boards - about 4-5 ft wide with 1-2 inches between) a light olive green so it will reflect more light upwards on foggy days in Daly City. Looks pretty boring right now. Plants will be brought from SF on Sunday with a borrowed van in several trips. My plan is to spray the lot three times a week apart with Bayer 3 in 1, quickly repot all that are getting desperate, then switch over to all the "green" methods I can from
then on. I welcome all advice anyone has. Including on snails, earwigs, etc.
I suppose I could at this point spray the entire greenhouse thoroughly with the 3 in 1, as well. I am probably going to hire a neighboring nurseryman (orchid boarding greenhouse) to do this spraying, since I'm not yet outfitted with a full face respirator. Anyway, I'll post pictures in the next few days. I'm about as in love with this whole thing as a person could possibly be! Temp today was 70 in there with no heat, and humidity was 80%. Light rain was falling overnight, showing me where the various small leaks are, but the double ply vinyl roof was properly inflated. That has been a concern of mine, since it was not supposed to be functioning right but was to be repaired. Seems to be working. Hooray! More as it happens. Stay tuned!

 

[NYEric]

earwigs will get anywhere that there is rotting vegetation. I hate them! clean out and spray all the hiding places.

 

[nikv]

Chris,

I take it that your greenhouse isn't too far from the old Rod McLellan Company gereenhouses. Should be an ideal climate for orchids! Best of luck to you!

Best Regards,
Nik von Ruden

 

[Justin]

that is very cool and exciting!

 

[chrismende]

Thanks, thanks! Yesterday the neighboring nurseryman and I tore out some plastic that was walling in a bad growthof grasses and nightshade and harboring lots of snails. Today I'm late getting down there but he will be spraying Roundup in the space before we replace the plastic. The other sides all need such treatment. I'm delaying the bringing of the plants for a while as we get all this done. I priced a new load of pea gravel for the broken-roadbed gravel that's now there or to be spread on top of it, rather. If I do that and renew the landscape cloth as well, it's going to cost around a thousand dollars including labor. Right now I'm kind of frustrated walking on the floor as it is... what do you guys think? I'm more and more prone to do all these things now before the plants come in.