42 Best DIY Greenhouses ( with Great Tutorials and Plans! )

I can day-dream about them all day long … greenhouses and cold frames! They are such effective structures to extend the season, allowing us to grow an abundant garden year round even in the cold winter!

Here are some of the BEST tutorials on how to build amazing DIY greenhouses , simple cold frames and cost-effective hoop houses.

You will discover that you can have a great productive greenhouse or cold frame even when you have little budget and little carpentry skills.

There is a perfect DIY greenhouse for everyone! ( Note: this post has been updated: now we have 42 greenhouses! Just have to add some really great new ones! )

Every one of these greenhouses and cold frames contain lots of inspirations to learn from. You will find ingenious ideas such as passive heating elements of painted jugs, straw bale as building material that needs no tools, using tree branches, old bottles, windows, and even a trampoline! ( Some of the helpful resources are affiliate links. Full disclosure here. )

Before we dive in, I want to share with you two of my FAVORITE books on greenhouse gardening-

The classic is  Four Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long  by Elliot Colman. He gardens year round in cold Vermont, and shares simple, inexpensive designs for cold frames, unheated mobile greenhouses, and root cellars in this amazing book.

The new ground breaking ( literally) book  The Forest Garden Greenhouse  is written by the brilliant permaculture designer Jerome Osentowski who grows bananas and citrus on a rocky hillside in Colorado with winters in -30s.

1. Cut Bottle Mini Greenhouses

The easiest 1-minute DIY greenhouse, yet surprisingly effective. Check out the 3 secrets to success here at A Piece Of Rainbow !

2. Cedar Branch Hoop House

This DIY cedar hoop can last 30 years! If you have Cedar or other rot resistant trees where you live, they can be an attractive and all-natural alternative to PVC pipes. Just add  good quality greenhouse plastic or less expensive plastic sheeting such as this one!

3. Instant Small Greenhouses

Just want to include these no-work version of greenhouses: these collapsible covers are made of Polyethylene greenhouse fabric. They are inexpensive and easy to store when not in use! You can find them here and here.

4-6. Straw Bale Cold Frame

These are very easy cold frames to build. So simple and so ingenious! Straw Bales hold the heat as walls that need no tools to construct, just add windows or plastic, and frame.

Notice in the second design where the glazing is sloped towards the south to allow in more light with tiers of growing space! ( Source: 4 | 5 | 6)

7. Old window cold frame

Tara shares a tutorial from her fabulous book: Raised Bed Revolution on how to build a cold frame using an old window.

8-10. Easy DIY A-frame greenhouses

A-frame greenhouses are very easy to DIY. Here are 3 variations showing different easy-to-work-with materials such as straw bales, old windows, and poly sheeting. ( Source: 8 | 9 | 10 )

11. Hardware Fencing Hoop House

An easy way to create a hoop house tunnel is to use hardware wire mesh! The livestock panels used here are a heavy gauge galvanized welded wire fencing material. The plastic cover can be removable to allow beans, gourds etc to grow in the summer! ( Dave’s Garden , and Peak Prosperity )

Remember the AMAZING gourd tunnel here?

12. Pallet Greenhouse

Having 2 greenhouses is 8 times more amazing! ( The Green Lever )

Here’s our favorite tool for taking apart pallets –  a Duckbill Deck Wrecker that makes it so fast and easy!

Related article: All about how to find and use pallets as a building material!

13. Hoop House Over Garden Bed

Two variations of PVC hoop houses over garden beds – first one has a great video showing how to secure the PVC onto rebar stakes, while in second one the PVC goes into the ground directly. ( Bonnie Plants , and Whole Lifestyle Nutrition )

14. DIY Hoop House made easy

Cut sections from an old hose to clamp the greenhouse plastic to the PVC hoop. Great idea here!

15. Portable Window Cold Frame

Old windows plus salvaged 1″ x 12″ cedar equals …. awesome portable cold frames! Niki shares inspiring tips on using cold frames in her awesome book: The The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year (The lower image is from For the Love of Lillian, site seems to have expired. )

16-18. More Simple DIY Cold Frames

Here is another wonderful tutorial inspired by Niki’s book : The The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year

This cold frame has added insulation which would be great for really cold winter climate,  and this cold frame with building plan has a light weight lid.

19. Cold Frame Along Masonry Wall

This one runs the length of a stone wall, facing south : ideal spot for a cold frame, as the stone (concrete works too) absorbs solar energy during the day and radiates it back out at night.  (  Deep Roots At Home )

20. CD Case DIY Greenhouse

CD cases open and close, how smart! Meg‘s tutorial is filled with great details!

21. Simple Cold Frame and mini greenhouse

In Rob’s Northeast garden, plants such as lettuce, kale, broccoli, were able to survive the sub-zero weather in these cozy cold frames. He has some fabulous free plans of DIY cold frames and DIY greenhouses to download. ( Bepa’s Garden )

22, 23. Easy to build A-frame greenhouses

Light weight and portable, A-frame greenhouses can be covered with plexi glass, good quality greenhouse plastic or less expensive plastic sheeting such as this one! ( Source: 22 | 23 )

24. Super Easy DIY Hoop House

Love the simple cross arch which is perfect for smaller raised beds like the 4′ by 6′ one here. Instead of pressure-treated lumber, consider using 2×12 redwood or cedar, which are non-toxic. ( QT’s Random Ramblings )

25. Trampoline Hoop House with Passive Heating

A brilliant use of an old trampoline -no cutting of the steel required- just pull the frame pieces apart and there you have 2 halves of the frame.

I also LOVE the use of old jugs that have been spray painted black.  They are filled with water.  During the day the water heats up, and at the night, they radiate extra warmth inside of the greenhouse!  ( Heather | How Does She )

26. Mini Box DIY Greenhouse

Anne‘s simple and beautiful DIY greenhouse is made from old windows, and the box shape makes it easy to build!

27. Retractable Hoop House

The smart design makes it easy to work on the garden beds! The hoop house is framed with o.5″  PVC pipe. They fit into 1″ diameter tees that glide over the aluminum pipe rails that are 3/4-inch-diameter. The garden beds are from 8-foot-long, 2-by-6-inch untreated fir.(Grit )

28. Hinged cover DIY greenhouse

Stephanie‘s greenhouse has a hinged cover on top of a raised bed: an easier way to remove the greenhouse cover!

29, 30. Hinged top cold frames and greenhouses

More ideas on how to create a mini greenhouse or cold frame that can be opened for ventilation. ( Both images’ original sources seem to have expired. If you find it, please let me know! )

31-33. Barn Greenhouse Plans

Ana’s great DIY barn greenhouse plans and instructions inspired two other wonderful DIY barn greenhouses by The Elliot Homestead and Starlan Farm.

34. Another DIY Barn Greenhouse

Barn style greenhouses are attractive and not too difficult to build. Here‘s another DIY greenhouse with step by step building photos.

35. Fold up DIY greenhouse

This small DIY greenhouse is fold-able! It measures only 4 x 4 feet, disassembles in minutes with wingnuts and can be built in a weekend.

36-38.  Salvaged Window Greenhouses

These 3 are bigger greenhouses for the ambitious!  Each has great and unique ideas to learn from!

This one above is built by Andy at The Green Lever , a total of 24 windows and 16 pallets were used to build the greenhouse. It also harvests rainwater!

This one by Cheft at Instructables has built in vents, fan, etc. Comes with lots of detailed instructions.

This stunning blue green house from Fine Home Building shows us the magic that paints can do!

39. Bottle Greenhouses

This pop-bottle greenhouse is built by students at Wilmington College Community Garden site in Ohio, The completed greenhouse has a 14×14’ “footprint” with old tires as the foundation and two rain barrels collecting water as a part of the north wall.  ( Master Gardening Blog , also a great tutorial by IzzyM )

Related article: Make a wood fired earth oven with recycled and easy to find materials.

40. Straw Bale Greenhouse

This beautiful variation of our other straw bale cold frames, is built along the south wall of an existing shed. It’s 10 feet by 14 feet, made of clear corrugated roofing panels. Gotta love straw bale construction! ( Simplify and Save )

41, 42. Geo Dome Greenhouse

Awe inspiring, isn’t it ?!? Not only is a geodesic dome a beautiful and elegant structure, it offers stability in high wind locations, material efficiency, modular construction, optimal light absorption, and a chance of being voted the coolest backyard in town! ( Astrid Degroot |  Northern Homestead )

Related article: 12 most beautiful backyard DIY sheds made from reclaimed windows.

Related article: Make a strawberry tower with recycled nursery pots!

Happy building and happy growing!