With the greenhouse completed I managed to secure a few truck loads of soil for the interior growing area and filled in it.



I built this in June of 2011 and then we had one of the hottest summers on record. For months this thing sat out in the heat and weather, unused because the temperatures inside would soar to 130 to 140 degrees F. quite often!



As fall came on one wind-storm and then a thunderstorm too many proved that this became a failure for many reasons!



The first problem was the plastic I was using was too thin and not made to take the hot summer sun, strong winds and UV rays. It fell apart all summer and I kept replacing it as needed - waiting for fall when I could finally use this thing!



The second problem was that the joints of the dome weren't strong enough for our winds and storms and continued to fall in on themselves. I think this problem could be solved with using tin cans instead of cheap plastic like I did and would be stronger overall if I reinforced all the joints this way.



Finally, the spot I chose was close to the street and several times I had to get kids out of it that would wander in from the sidewalk. I didn't mind the looking, but a few of them decided to poke holes and do other things to it that didn't help my already flawed and weak design. <sigh>



After a summer of frustration and one storm too many I finally yanked up the stakes and threw the whole thing in the trash heap, to be recycled as something else in bits and pieces and many of the wooden parts burned in my chimnea over the following winter!



I hope you enjoyed the process I went through and this inspired you to try something like this on your own. One thing I think I did successfully here was to prove I could build something from what others considered trash and make it work - if only for awhile.



I will probably build another greenhouse like this in the future and I know that this one taught me many things to do differently.



Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions and questions here for others to learn from as I think even our failures help us all build better in the future!