Living inside a greenhouse has been wonderful. Actually, as wonderful as I’d imagined from the first time I saw a video of one. But when I read comments on my videos or videos of other greenhouse-enclosed homes in Europe, the attention seems to be on heat and humidity. Those are pretty well solved through design, material choices, and systems.
The next most frequent group of questions are about what if birds get in or how does pollination happen? The answer is that birds and pollinating insects get in because there are doors and huge windows where they get in and then get out. This is a greenhouse, not a hermitically sealed biosphere, nor an oversized ‘sunroom.’ The reality of garden-houses are they have insects, debris, and other messy things that require maintenance and are not for the faint of heart.
Fliers and Creepers
If you can’t stand critters in your living space, then this is not for you.
My greenhouse has 4 foot wide windows that run the entire 60 foot length on both sides of the roof ridge. That means an 8 foot by 60 foot window is open most of the year. There is a standard door on one gable end and double-wide sliding barn doors on the opposite end. These are necessary components for heat and humidity control. They also let pollinating insects and breeze into the greenhouse. They also let in beneficial spiders and garter snakes that eat destructive insects like tent caterpillars.
While I haven’t seen, or seen evidence of, rats I have had mice and shrews in the greenhouse. Also grasshoppers.
Plus lots and lots of tree frogs. They’re cute and all but they tend to surprise me everywhere and they come inside the house which is never welcome. Now the cat takes care of all of the above.
Garden Mess
My greenhouse has around 700 square feet of food garden space. This was planned as the ‘working end’ of the greenhouse away from the public side.
There are also a few hundred square feet of ornamental and herb gardens around the sitting area and outside the door to the livingroom which are the public sides of the greenhouse.
Throughout the year I’m hauling in soil, compost, and plants; hauling out clippings; and hauling around tools and other messy things. But I want the sitting area and the view from where I sit for my day job to be tidy and visually appealing. It takes time and effort to keep them so. For anyone considering living in a greenhouse-enclosed home, design your garden space to align with your tolerance level for garden type debris in your living space and the amount of time you are willing to devote to maintenance.
Outside Gets Inside
My property is surrounded by tall trees and those big ridge vents provide an opening for a lot of debris to get in. Inexpensive sunshades stop tree-litter from raining onto the sitting area. Fortunately, my home is only 1 story and the roof is fairly flat. I wash the skylights once or twice per year and vacuum the roof and sunshades once per year.
Cobwebs are everywhere. I keep brushes conveniently located around the doors and sitting areas to be able to keep those areas cobweb free. However, since the spiders are non-poisonous and are generally beneficial, I leave the cobwebs most of the year.
I do, however, vacuum the spiderwebs as part of the once per year spring cleaning when I vacuum the cables and struts and wash the greenhouse walls.