As a long-time gardener, I had lusted after a greenhouse for many years. But having some idea of the work involved in maintaining a greenhouse, I firmly resisted the temptation by promising myself a greenhouse as a retirement present. This (2001) being my last year of work, I have at last launched the great enterprise, and this site chronicles my adventures, in the piedmont region of central Virginia.

I started out thinking in terms of a small unit, say 10' x 10', but decided to do it right and upped the size to a grand 10' x 12'. But once I dived into serious research about greenhouses last spring, I very quickly discovered that the first recommendation everyone gives is, "Build it larger than whatever you're planning, because we guarantee you will wish you had." So over the months my horizon gradually expanded to 12' x 14,' and then to 12' x 16,' which I thought would certainly be as large as I'd ever need.

A month or two into my research, I talked to my vet --- another avid gardener ---about greenhouses, and visited his. When I walked into it, I thought, "Oh, this is a nice size, just about what I'd like," and was dismayed to discover that it was 10' x 30,' considerably larger than my largest dream. Since I had decided on polycarbonate glazing (expensive), there was no way I could afford anything that large, but finally took the plunge and stretched my budget to accomodate a 12' x 20' greenhouse.

Little did I know that that was just the first of many unanticipated financial plunges I would take along the way! The deeper I got into this project, the more decisions I discovered lurking in wait, and each one required even more stretching of the budget. Hence the name of my site: relative to our wealth, I feel this building of mine is comparable, both in cost and beauty, to Shah Jehan's great mausoleum. (I do not, however, plan to be entombed in my greenhouse. . . .)

Greenhouse veterans may get a chuckle from following my odyssey, and anyone in the planning stages may find some helpful information in the following pages.