New member, With questions

[analog man]

Hello everyone,
I should start off by saying that I know nothing about growing anything, I am planning to change that next year. The questions I have are regarding preparing for trying my hand at it next year.
Im living up by Edmonton Alberta. A shorter growing season with mabey cooler temps than ideal.
I thought I would build the greenhouse and two raised beds this year, and be ready for growing next year .
I tried to read up on green house design, but mostly found kit companies, and advice about large comercial structers.
So I just started to build the greenhouse by quessing what would work. the structure I started has a 12x8 footprint. I welded up a steel frame out of 1.5 inch square tubeing with a wall thickness of 1/8 inch, so its very strong. The north wall, north (partial) roof, and west wall have 16 gauge steel welded on. These walls will have two layers of R7.5 foam board installed. I used steel as I will use the backhoe to set the structure about 18 inches into the ground on the south side, and 2 to 3 feet on the north side(its on a hill). Here are my question for those who garden.
If you could have any features in your ideal green house what would they be? Should I just use a dirt floor? Will a dirt floor and being a few feet below grade extend the growing season greatly, or should I
set the structure on mabey a R20 6inch thick foam board floor? Or just use the R20 under the perimeter of the structure. What will work best for giving me the longest season? Also for those that use greenhouses have I gone to small for comfort? Its steel so I can always cut it open and extend it if needed. Any ideas? what should I add? I have more questions but thats enough for now.

Thanks.

[Garden Green]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are a welder. ;)

With you living in a place where it gets very cold, in zone 3 if the internet doesn't lie, I'm thinking that you'll need to heat your greenhouse to do any kind of season extension. There are a bunch of ways you can do this and since you have a steal frame to work with, I'd say get some solar panels and get yourself a heating rig set up and that way you don't have a second heating bill when it gets too cold for comfort for your garden.

As far as flooring, there is everything from brick and paving stones to sand covered and crushed rock. I don't know anything about the foam you're talking about, but sand and crushed rock will help keep humidity levels up but you end up tracking a good portion of it out as you tromp in and out (you could cover it with landscaping cloth to solve that problem). Brick is solid and doesn't move all that much and you can solve any humidity problems with a buck of water hanging out in the greenhouse.

With whatever floor you choose, you can get around any problems that arise. I wouldn't go with just plain dirt, since this seems to be a permanent structure. I'd take the time to line it with paving stones. Easy to walk on, easy to clean up, helps keep out some borrowing critters, less likely to end up being a breeding ground for things you don't want in your greenhouse and no mud on the boots, which keeps you out of the dog house because you're not tracking mud on your lady's nice clean floor. :D

Hope that helps a bit.

[gardengirl72]

I have seen that mounding the floor with a thick layer of wood chips works really well. As it composts, it releases heat! You will have to heat it thru the winter. The other things you need depend on what you plan on growing in it. What you are going to grow in it matters in terms of what temperature you need the green house to be year round. Please post pictures.

[analog man]

Garden Green,

No not a welder. Only weld for fun, With todays migs (wirefeed) anyone can weld, just as easy as using a glue gun.
Yes I may very well have to heat it in some way, and that was why I asked the question regarding flooring and the rigid foam board insulation and its placement.I was unsure if I should insulate the floor from the ground or if leaving it uninsulated would allow the ground to act as a heat sink that contributes to warming the structure. Since my first post I think I have figured out what I am going to do in that regard.
The Solar panel idea wont work well. I have roughly a 1kw array of 75watt BP
panels that work great but power drops off big time starting in late october and does not return to anything significant until March.
I am leaning towards using a old 32volt winchcharger(late 30's 1000watt model) and running the output from it to a heating element in a barrel of water that I will have in the greenhouse for thermal storage.

Garden Girl,

I will post a pick after this weekend, I should have it insulated and painted by then. Pictures always make things clearer.

[analog man]

Well, I never was able to post pics on this site, I had tried, but was unable so I gave up, Since then I finished most of my building, though still have to build one more raised garden, For anyone interested in whats working for me in the cold north, you can find the pics at analogmanca.wordpress.com on the pages "raised garden on wheels (http://analogmanca.wordpress.com/raised-garden-on-wheels/)", and 'below grade greenhouse'