If you spend any time searching for cattle panel greenhouses, you'll see lots of variations and greenhouse plans. Some of them are harder to build than others, and some are more attractive than others. After looking at what other folks had built, I came up with a list of "features" for mine.
I liked the look of short wood walls on the sides (vs a style where the cattle panels extend all the way to the ground). The walls have other benefits too: they add weight, making the greenhouse heavier and sturdier; and they increase the height of the greenhouse, making it easier to walk around inside. The extra weight means it's less susceptible to shifting in high winds. An additional "feature" of the walls is that I left a 1" gap between the boards to allow for airflow.
I did not set my greenhouse on a foundation, nor did I anchor the 4x4 posts in the ground. I did attach rebar to the long sides and anchored those in the ground. In some areas, a building permit is required for structures that have foundations, and isn’t required for moveable structures, so you may need to take that into consideration. My greenhouse would be considered moveable. At the time of this writing it's been up for 1.5 years and I haven’t had any issues with it shifting in the wind. Having said that, if you build one on wide open property with no wind breaks, you may need to anchor it to the ground more than I did. I live on a city lot and while the winds do come whipping through, it’s situated 16’ from my house, 2’ from my garage, and various trees and fences act as additional windbreaks.
My greenhouse is 8’x12’ because lumber comes in 8’ and 12’ lengths, and because the arch has a nice height when the 16’ cattle panels span across 8’. By sticking with standard sizes, I had very little leftover lumber.
I chose a design that had no angle cuts. There are some designs that have angled 2x4’s on the short sides by the doors. These look really nice, but would have added an extra challenge for me. I did everything I could to make the design feel doable.
And finally, I knew that I would need a mental strategy to keep from getting overwhelmed. So I decided that the final greenhouse structure only had two requirements: 1) it needed to be safe and sturdy, and 2) it needed to feel charming. If I could accomplish those two things, I would be ecstatic. Since that was my focus, I didn't worry about long it might take me, or if my lumber cuts were imperfect, or if I had to redo a couple things as I learned. This mindset took the pressure off and kept me moving forward.
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