After having assembled the base shelving around the insides of the dog kennel greenhouse, I still had to secure the ends of the 2x6 boards to the horizontal tubes of the wall frames to ensure that everything would remain perfectly stationary. To do this I drilled a single hole in the middle of the board at the end, going through the tube of the wall frame. This was done on the ends of every board that met the metal tubes of the wall frames around the greenhouse. From here I drove a 3 3/4" wood screw through the end of the board and through the holes in the metal tubes, ensuring that the boards were secured to the wall frames. The next and main order of business for this session of the project was to create the dividers that would split the shelving up into sections to cradle the cat litter buckets that would serve as the bucket beds for the individual plants that would be contained inside the greenhouse. Just like the raised bed assemblies that are currently outdoors, the shelving will contain these buckets in a neat and concise manner within the greenhouse. I started with the section of shelving that was straight in front of the gate. After doing some measuring, I determined that to get the most proper spacing from one end to the other, I would have to use more 2x6 boards to serve as dividers. I took measurements and cut three boards that would span from the inner edge of the shelf board over to the horizontal tube of the wall frame. These boards would be the actual dividers. To allow for these boards to mate up flush with the inner edge of the shelving boards, I cut shorter 2x6 boards to serve as tie boards to go underneath the two boards, secured with wood screws from the top. To ensure proper spacing I had to use a couple of buckets as guides and mark where the boards needed to go, taking time to secure each one then moving the buckets over to get the spacing marked for the next board and so forth. I did run across a slight problem with the middle divider board, as it mated up dead center with the vertical tube of the wall frame. This was bypassed by cutting a large notch in the middle of the end of the board to allow the board to "wrap" around the tube and still rest nicely on the horizontal tubes of the wall frame. The only other issue I had was after getting the last divider secured in place, there was still some spacing between the bucket and the end board on the shelf. Conveniently, the spacing was just right to accept a 2x4 turned on its smaller side. The gap was 1.75" wide to the edge of the bucket. After cutting a length of 2x4 and trimming a piece from the end that would be sitting on top of the horizontal metal tube of the wall frame, I secured the board in place with more wood screws. After that the buckets fitted nicely in the last section of the shelf. With that I have room on this shelf for eight buckets. From here I jumped over to the smallest shelf section, the one right next to the gate. This is small enough that it would only be able to accommodate four buckets, but it was wide enough that there would be some excess spacing. I don't have any other containers that are odd shaped that would fit within this cavity to serve as a tub style bed so I just went ahead and made a couple of 2x4 dividers in the same style as the 2x6 boards used previously. I could've used more 2x6's but I had some 2x4's and chose to use these so as to save the larger wood for future applications that call for this size wood. I ended up making two divider boards and situating them next to each other in the middle so the extra spacing would be centered, more for aesthetics than anything, versus having the boards next to each other with the spacing on either end of the shelf, it would just look too goofy. Besides, the center spacing can be applied in some way for something like a trellis or vertical posts for supporting lights or who knows what. Sometimes just looking at the layout of the something spawns ideas of how to add things to the system to make it even better. With these two setups established I now have the capacity to handle 12 bucket beds, and I still have a whole full length shelf to use plus the shelf for the hydroponic gardens. With all of these in operation plus a couple of spots for some hanging planters, the greenhouse should be more than capable of holding its own when it comes to producing a sizeable amount of produce to add to the overall produce of the garden. More add-ons will follow in the form of framework for supporting chicken wire trellises for vine veggies along with supports for grow lights. Everything will be done in a way to make the whole setup nice and neat and not appear to be so much a hodge-podge of parts. I at least want this little creation to have some physical appeal to it that when you walk inside you'll be happy to be inside of it because of how it was laid out. There will be plenty more to come.
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