Paul says: "I’ve built two greenhouses, each pretty much identical in dimensions and basic features.  They are each 10’x30’x12’ high at the roof peak.  They were designed with the local climate in mind.  I live in North Florida, and it is temperate to very hot for about eight months of the year (April to November).  It can freeze between November and April, and usually does about ten nights a year.  So, the design challenge was to build a greenhouse that could shelter frost sensitive plants in the winter, but not fry the plants in the sweltering heat of the summer. 

The plants in one greenhouse are primarily orchids.  This greenhouse has a semi-clear polycarbonate on the roof that provides about 40% sunlight.  The other greenhouse has a clear polycarbonate roof and is used to grow vegetables.  It provides about 90% sunlight.  There is polycarbonate on each end, but not on the sides.

Each greenhouse has clear vinyl panels on the sides that can be popped off in the warmer months.  Each also has inner screens on the sides made of stainless steel Zoomesh to keep out insects when the vinyl panels are removed.  The greenhouses have thermostatically controlled louvers on one end and an exhaust fan near the roof peak on the other.  Cooler temperatures are also maintained during the summer with a mister system.

There are two features of the greenhouses that are fairly unusual. 

I raise tilapia (an edible fish) in both greenhouses during the winter.  The greenhouse is necessary to keep the tilapia thriving at high temperatures, but also provides two important by-products:  a thermal buffer from the huge weight of the water in the tanks that keeps the plants warm at night, and fish waste water that I use as a very effective organic fertilizer for the plants.  Right now, I have tilapia ranging from 1/8” to 6” in length in those greenhouses, and a total of maybe 600 fish.  They’ll be grown outdoors starting in late April and will be harvested in June through October. 

And, I have solar water heaters mounted on the roofs of the adjacent sheds that feeds warm water to the greenhouses during the winter.  This water is pumped into large water tanks in the greenhouses, including the tilapia tanks.  I have timers that turn on the water pumps at 10:00 in the morning and off at 4:00 in the afternoon.  This catches the peak solar hours and boosts the temperature in about 1,000 gallons of water by 20 degrees, even on cold days.  This cuts down on heating costs for the greenhouses.

It’s taken me about five years to build these greenhouses and get them to operate as originally intended.  Right now, as I write this, I have several dozen heirloom tomatoes –about 20 varieties—ripening in the hydroponic units, the tilapia, a few Australian red claw lobsters, about 20 heads of heirloom lettuce, a mixture of herbs, about a hundred ornamental firespikes, a few Meyers lemon trees, and maybe a hundred orchids, all in those greenhouses.  The tomatoes are unbelievably good.  I use only organic nutrients and grow the best-tasting heirloom varieties.  It’s a remarkable thing to see a friend pop a fully ripened tomato off the vine in December and taste something that takes him back in memories to his grandfather’s garden forty years ago.  That is the reaction I get:  Wide-eyed wonderment at the exquisite, forgotten taste of a real tomato."