Water in the Greenhouse
No matter how you look at it, your greenhouse needs functional access to water. If you have a direct water hookup to yourgreenhouse you may even consider using a misting system. This is especially beneficial if you live in an area where the temperature is high throughout the year.
The best thing to do is to install water lines before the erection of your greenhouse. This will save you from additional problems after the greenhouse has been bolted to the foundation. If possible you should put the water line below frost level to protect pipes from freezing in the winter. Depending on your soil type and choice of flooring you may also need to install water drains around the greenhouse.
How far the water source is from your house will determine the pricing for installing water in the greenhouse. Still, the price is worth it:
Some of the main "in the greenhouse" water uses include: rooting plants in water containers, watering plants, misting plants, cooling bricks / concrete to create humidity, and cleaning pots, containers and the greenhouse itself.
If you are going to use your greenhouse during the cold winter months, you will find accessories available that are frost and freeze proof, though if you find that you are having problems with lines freezing you can drain the system and carry water manually until they can be "thawed’
out and fixed the following season.
Sinks in the Greenhouse
When considering what type of sink to install in your greenhouse, a bar sink is your best option. Bar sinks accomodate a cold water tap and are the perfect size and shape for the limited spaces of a greenhouse. A drain can be put together somewhat easily with PVC pipings, fitted with elbows and tees.
Rather than connecting your drain to the sewer-line: unnecessary, expensive, and down right impossible in some cases, you can set up a system to recycle your greenhouse water for other garden purposes. Remember never to flush pesticides, soap or other chemicals down a sink or other plumbing system. There are proper ways to handle the waste of these products to not harm yourself, the environment or water supply.
To recycle water you can set up a 5 gallon bucket underneath the open drain pipe from your sink. You can use this water for other tasks such as watering plants (in or out of the greenhouse) or wetting down the flooring to create humidity in the summer. Just remember to empty it out/ reuse it before it overflows.
You could, alternatively, create a more elaborate dry well system. To build a dry well dig a hole a ways from your greenhouse. Dig the hole some four feet beneath the frost line. Take, at minimum, a 15 gallon container, cut off the top, puncture a hundred or more 1/8 inch holes around the sides, and cut one large hole on the side at the bottom for the pipe to feed into. Place the container inside the hole bottom up.
Surround and cover your container with small and then larger gravel. Dig a trench below the frost line connecting the container to where the sink pipe begins. Make sure that the trench is at a slope for the water to run straight to the well. Line the trench with a shallow layer of gravel, place the piping along the trench, and cover with 2 more inches of gravel. Be sure to allow no unnatural fluid down the sink and your new well system will out last you!
More information coming soon.
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