It was time to add the hoophouse roof, but as planned, the final greenhouse would be considerably larger than this first prototype.

That's why I only wanted a temporary solution, until I could determine the size of the final greenhouse, and could plan accordingly. Thus I wanted to try to use the 16-foot steel livestock panels as a temporary solution, and didn't want to permanently affix them to the structure.

Allowing the remaining posts concrete to set overnight, I then placed the steel livestock panel arches into the pens, allowing the bottom of one end to dig into the dirt while I pushed from the other side.

As the other end stopped upon encountering the wall, it began to bow upwards, forming the arch needed for the roof. Once the end I was pushing was also inside the pen, I set it down, allowing the spring effect to push it outward and dig into the dirt as well.

Were this the plan for the permanent solution for the roof, and had this been as big as I was planning it would have been, I would have framed the bottom with 2x4s and cemented the livestock panels in as well. As it was, only their weight, and the pressure exerted by their spring tension from being bent, held them in place, which was enough for a temporary solution.

Once I had the livestock panels in place, I covered the whole thing with poultry wire and then zip-tied some inexpensive tarps across the top to provide temporary shade.

And we were ready for turtles. Not finished, but ready enough to move them from their temporary home.

This worked really well, was quick to build out, used a minimal of materials at hand or easily available, and could be finished as-is with doors, or expanded to be part of a larger entity. Since I had purchased the auger, I had long ago decided to make this part of a larger entity. But, would my design expand in real life as well as it did on the computer? I was about to find out -- and so will you, in the next in this series!

If I were only going to do a single pen, I could have stopped with where I was in my last post, and do the finish out. All that was left was to set the steel panel hoophouse roof up, cover it in wire, and throw a tarp over it. But not yet.

We had planned on three pens for our initial test, so digging another four holes with the auger, I quickly expanded to three pens, using the same approach as for the first pen, one pen at a time. Then I added the posts, the 2x4 toppers on the edges, then the corrugated panels.

The only difference was I needed to snip out a small amount of corrugated steel with tin snips on each of the interior wall panels, to allow the 2x4 top frame to seat properly on the 4x4 posts. Building the two remaining pens took about the same amount of time as building the first pen.

Once all three pens were up, all the walls were checked where they met the ground to ensure that there were no gaps that could provide an escape path. Once that was done, fill dirt excavated from the post holes was used to build up the dirt around the edges of the pens to a depth of 3-5 inches. This would prevent immediate escapes. but would do little to dissuade a burrower from either direction.

When we were done with the basic pens. it was time to consider our herp greenhouse roof. Stay tuned!

Dragging some old 4x4 fenceposts for the first pen I used a saw to cut them down to four 40-inch lengths.

Using our recently purchased auger, I dug out four holes spaced 8 feet apart as four corners of my square pen. Dug down approximately 18 inches, we wanted our posts to stick up 22 inches.

Even with the auger, digging into the hard, dry, baked, clay soil was difficult. Every time I tried to dig, the auger bit would bounce off the big chucks it would gouge until they finally choked the bit to stoppage. A simple solution turned out to be pouring a bucket of water into a started hole and letting the dirt soak it up. With the clay thus loosened, the auger had no trouble boring holes in the dirt quickly and as designed,

Once the holes were dug, the 4x4 posts were set into them, dry, and then topped by 2x4s on three sides, one side at a time, the "open" side being left for expansion to the other two pens. With the pens' frame in place on one corner, a cordless drill with a drill bit and another with a Phillips bit were used to mount the corrugated steel walls of the pen.

With all four walls mounted in a simliar fashion and leveled as best possible, the 4x4 posts for the first pen were then set in the ground with approximately a bag and a half of quik-crete per hole. Once set, the first basic pen was complete and we were ready to add the remaining pens. While this was a lot of work it only took a couple hours of labor.

More to come!

Using a simple computer graphics program and a clean canvas, I began to rough out a design for a "small" greenhouse solution, a single pen 8 foot by 8 foot square, covered by steel livestock panels arched over to form the hoophouse roof.

The walls of the pen would be 8 foot x 2 foot corrugated steel roof panels secured to 4 inch x 4 inch posts set in concrete and rising 22 inches out of the ground, topped by 2x4x8s around the outside. As designed, it used both existing materials on hand and new materials that needed to be sourced and priced. And it proved to be relatively easy to duplicate and expand the number of pens as needed. Simply copying the single pen design image and pasting it next to the original allowed me to easily expand the design and figure the budget accordingly.

But while everything looks good on the computer, real life has a tendency to interfere. So we had to prove the design.

After a quick trip to the store for some corrugated steel panels, concrete, and importantly a gas powered auger, we set about our mission, building a permanent 3-pen herp greenhouse that could be inexpensively and readily expanded.

Placement of the greenhouse was the first decision. It needed to be on ground that was relatively flat, yet have a slight grade, on good soil, and positioned so that it was expandable to a considerable size. The perfect place turned out to be right next to my power pole, which was convenient to my house and driveway. Laying out my materials in a rough approximation of where they were to be placed, I was ready to start.

Watch for part 3...

While our little temporary greenhouse was great for its purpose, it wasn't much of a barrier to large threats, such as a big dog, or heavy winds or weather. It wasn't anchored at all, and could be lifted up and moved with two hands. And in the end it was temporary, just as planned.

To do box turtles, and tortoises, properly, and in the quantities I was planning on, I needed to design something larger, more permanent, and most importantly, expandable, so I could add on as needed.

It didn't require heating or cooling, but did need to be screened to keep the pets in and the threats out. And it needed to have overhead cover during the summer to provide some shade during the oppressive heat of July and August.

It wouldn't need electrical connections, but it would need water for the planned misting system. Most of all, it had to be stable in the weather, and with winds often gusting over 50 mph and higher, it would need to be secured and anchored well. And it had to be designed so a single person could build and install it.

Some things I tried worked well, others not so much. Some design elements didn't scale, and attempting to use existing materials sometimes burdened the design, leading to somewhat catastrophic failures.

Along the way I found better ways to do things, and better materials and tools to use. But first, I needed to start with a single small greenhouse for the first groups of box turtles. Stay tuned for part 2!

In many places, herpers who have the space may have the opportunity to raise their pets in an outdoor enclosure.

Some reptiles just don't thrive inside, and with others, their size or captive requirements my require it. Outdoor enclosures can be as simple or as complex as you want to build them, and many herp owners turn to greenhouse designs as a starting point.

Whether you buy a greenhouse kit or build one from stuff just laying around, as long as the greenhouse is secure and escape-proof, it can be used to raise everything from turtles and tortoises to chameleons and iguanas.

The simple hoophouse greenhouse pictured here was built by one person (me) in about four hours, using scraps from other projects and a total of 16 screws. Designed for temporary use for box turtles, it used some old fence boards and several welded wire livestock panels bent over to provide the hoop frame.

It was wrapped in rolled welded wire and covered with tarps. It could be wrapped in plastic just as easily, but for our purposes the welded wire did the job.

With rocks bordering the walls to prevent dig-unders, this enclosure was used for several weeks while a more permanent home was being built. While the materials you have at hand may vary, a trip to the home improvement store can replace any missing items, and in a nice afternoon you can end up with something functional. And with a little more effort, and more materials, something this simple can be easily expanded into a more permanent structure.

Me, I'm going to need something more permanent. And larger. Much larger.