afford an Italian garden, with hundreds of dollars' worth of rare
plants, but that does not prevent your having a more modest garden spot,
in which you have planned and worked yourself. Just so, though one of
these beautiful glass structures may be beyond your purse, you may yet
have one that will serve your purpose just as practically. The fact of
the matter is, you can have a small house at a very small outlay, which
will pay a good, very good interest on your investment. With it you will
be able to have flowers all the year round, set both your flower and
vegetable garden weeks ahead in the spring, save many cherished plants
from the garden, and have fresh green vegetables, such as lettuce,
radishes, tomatoes and cucumbers that can readily be grown under glass.
And you will be surprised, if you can give the work some personal
attention, or, better still, have the fun of doing a little of the
actual building yourself, at how small an outlay you can put up a
substantial structure of practical size, say 20 feet by 10--of the
"lean-to" form.

By way of illustration let us see what the material for such a house
would cost, and how to erect it. Almost every dwelling house has some
sheltered corner or wall where some glass "lean-to" could easily be
added, and the shape and dimensions can be made to suit the special
advantages offered. We will consider a simple house of the lean-to type,
requiring a wall, to begin with, 20 feet long and 7 feet high, down to
the ground, or a foot or so below it, if you can dig out. Below is
listed the material such a house would require. With modern patented
framing methods such a house has been estimated by greenhouse building
companies to cost, for the material only, from $325 to $400. Yet you can
have a wooden house that will serve your purpose at a cost for materials
of $61 and, if you do not care to put it together yourself, a labor cost
of, say, one-third more.

[Illustration: Fig. 2--Floor plan of the lean-to type of greenhouse
shown in section on the opposite page.]

As our north wall is already in place, we have only four surfaces to
consider, as the accompanying diagram shows--namely, south wall, gable
ends, roof and openings. For the roof we will require a ridge against
the wall of the dwelling house, sash-bars running at right angles to
this, a "purlin," or support, midway of these, and a sill for the lower
ends. For the south wall we will need posts, one row of glass, and
bo