After realizing there was real demand for our products through selling at Fargo's Red River Market, the decision was made to increase our capacity through upgrading to a larger greenhouse.
The larger greenhouse would allow us to propagate more of our own mother plants as well as give many of our desert plants a proper dormancy. By being able to keep the greenhouse between 40-50F in the wintertime, we could give the cacti a proper rest and enable them to develop beautiful blooms in the summertime. Pollinating our mother plants for seeds is something we've always wanted to do.
In August, we purchased a 8x16' greenhouse and got to work. We tore up the grass with just a few shovels and garden hoes, eventually creating the right space and leveling it out.
We then rented a plate compactor and borrowed a friend's suburban to haul it to and from Acme tools to compact the dirt. Once we were confident the surface was fairly level, we ordered a truck full of river rocks to serve as the drainage and base. Unfortunately, the company could only dump into our driveway so many, many wheelbarrows later, we had a nice foundation that we could start building on using cinder blocks as the foundation.
With some help from friends, we were able to assemble the structure mostly over a weekend. The roof was the hardest part to get in to place. Once the panels and structural supports were in place, it was fairly sturdy and I felt it would hold up to the high winds of the Northern Plains.
One more load of rocks and over 100 pavers later, a nice floor was built and the greenhouse was finished! It was time to move in.
I was in a bit of a hurry to move all the plants in, and managed to assemble the shelf incorrectly and it was a little wobbly. I opted to fix it later and got all the plants moved on to it.
The very next day, a huge windstorm struck. Checking on the plants the following day, to my horror, I saw all the plants had crashed to the floor. 
For a split second I wanted to cry, but managed to pick myself up and get to work on picking up the plants. Over the next few days I did a lot of sweeping, repotting and re-organizing.
I'm so glad I held strong in the face of adversity. Building the greenhouse was one of the hardest things I've done but I'm very passionate about this business and I'm willing to put in the work to make sure it succeeds. 