How the Growzebo™ Came to Life

Growing Spaces was founded in 1989 with the idea of bringing reliable gardening and growing environments to the average person’s backyard. The Growing Dome® brought that idea to life, and more than 35 years later, it has stood the test of time. Today, there are thousands of Growing Dome owners across the United States and around the world growing food in places and climates where traditional gardening can be difficult. Over the years, though, we started to realize something: our mission had outgrown the Growing Dome.

That does not mean the Growing Dome stopped doing what it was designed to do. In fact, decades of experience have shown us just how well it performs. Those same decades have also introduced us to thousands of gardeners, homeowners, schools, homesteaders, and communities looking for different types of greenhouse kits to fit different needs, properties, budgets, climates, and growing goals. We kept hearing from people who loved what Growing Spaces stood for but did not necessarily need everything the Growing Dome offers. That is why we are excited to introduce the Growzebo Greenhouse!

How Our Team Built the Growzebo Greenhouse

The Growzebo was created by our small team. Combined, this team has more than 55 years of experience with Growing Spaces alone, not to mention years of experience in greenhouse construction, horticulture, food production, installation, technical support, logistics, maintenance, and customer service. This was not a product handed to us by an outside design firm. It came from the people who build our products, talk to our customers, troubleshoot problems, ship our kits, install our structures, and use what we learn every day to make Growing Spaces better.

The original idea came from Corey Lucero, who has worked at Growing Spaces for 10 years. If you have purchased a product from us during that time, Corey has likely cut, drilled, labeled, dipped, and palletized some portion, if not all, of the wood that went into your kit. He may have even installed your Dome. He knows these products from the ground up because he has spent the last decade physically making them.

Matt DeGuise, our Production Manager, helped turn that idea into something we could actually build. Matt has been with Growing Spaces for about 15 years and has worked as an installer, in technical support, and in production. If you have ever had a question about how something goes together, there is a good chance you have talked to Matt. He understands not only how our products are designed, but how they actually behave once they leave our shop and land in someone’s backyard.

Matt also had plenty of help from Sarah Avery and Tyler Fairbanks, who have become his right-hand women throughout the Growzebo development process. They helped make decisions, solve problems, test ideas, work through design changes, and physically build the product alongside him. They cut materials, assembled components, took things apart when something did not work, and helped figure out how to make the final product practical to build, ship, install, and maintain.

I’m Shelby Lucero, and I have worked in just about every department within Growing Spaces over the last six years. Because of that, I likely know many of you by name, Dome size, and general location. I have seen your successes, your frustrations, your unusual growing challenges, and the things you wish were easier. A big part of my role in this project has been looking at the Growzebo through the lens of those conversations and asking whether we are actually solving a problem our customers have.

Kelly Jones, our Growing Dome Advisor, has spent the last three years doing much of the same. She is the person talking to prospective customers every day, hearing what they want, what questions they have, what concerns stop them from moving forward, and what they wish we offered. Those conversations helped us understand who the Growzebo needed to serve. Winnie, her (our) office dog, contributed mostly moral support.

Destiney Hilsabeck handles the financial side of Growing Spaces, but she also often serves as our voice of reason. She has been with the company for over a decade and has seen and experienced many phases. New product development comes with a lot of ideas, and not all of them are good ones. Destiney is usually the person asking whether something makes sense, whether it adds unnecessary cost or complexity, and whether we are actually solving the right problem.

Laura Hamilton brings years of Master Gardener experience and keeps us looking at the product from the gardener’s perspective. She is also our People and Operations Manager, which means a big part of her job is keeping the rest of us organized, supported, and moving in the same direction. With 20 people and plenty of opinions, getting us all across the same finish line is no small feat.

And I can’t forget to mention Gary Hall, the new owner of Growing Spaces. When the idea of another greenhouse came up, Gary gave us a target customer and a target price. He did not give us a drawing, a shape, or a finished concept. He gave the team the freedom to figure out the rest.

That meant the people who build, sell, ship, install, maintain, garden in, and answer questions about our products got to make the decisions. We debated shapes, materials, ventilation, wall heights, beds, benches, shipping, assembly, and all of the little details that only become obvious when you physically build something.

While a few people played especially visible roles in developing the Growzebo, all 20 members of the Growing Spaces team contributed in some way. Our production team refined and remade components as the design evolved, while marketing tested the idea with customers at festivals and events. Everyone brought their own experience, questions, and ideas to the process.

Growzebo vs. Growing Dome: Two Different Greenhouse Solutions

As you can see, they are not apples to apples. But here is the thing: not everyone likes apples. Not everyone can afford apples. Apples do not fit everyone’s needs, and in some places, you are not even allowed to have apples.

For years, we heard variations of the same questions. Do you have something smaller? Something simpler? Something that looks a little more traditional in a backyard? What if I do not need to grow year-round? What if my HOA will not approve a dome? What if I love the Growing Spaces approach, but I do not need all of the systems that come with a Growing Dome?

Instead of trying to make the Growing Dome into something it was never intended to be, we went back to our roots and asked a much simpler question: How can we help more people grow? The answer to that question became the Growzebo greenhouse.

How Customer Feedback Shaped the Growzebo

We have been listening and learning from you for years. Every quote request that did not turn into a sale, every question at a trade show, every conversation with someone who loved the Growing Dome but could not make it work for their property, and every owner who told us what they loved and what they wished were different gave us information.

The Growzebo is a roughly 16-foot-diameter, hexagonal greenhouse designed for gardeners who want a durable, attractive backyard greenhouse and meaningful season extension without all of the systems that make the Growing Dome a more comprehensive growing environment. It uses premium five-wall polycarbonate, includes automatic upper ventilation, and is engineered for winds up to 115 mph and a maximum ground snow load of 25 psf.

Inside, the greenhouse can be configured around how you actually want to use the space. Modular garden beds and benches can be added individually, allowing you to create more growing space, more seating, room for seed starting and potted plants, or some combination of all of it. You can build out the entire interior or keep things simple and add pieces over time.

The Growzebo is simpler than the Growing Dome because it is supposed to be. It was not designed to replace the Growing Dome, and it was not designed to be a cheaper version of one. It was designed for a different gardener.

There were also very intentional decisions behind what made it into the Growzebo and what did not. Gary shares more about the original price target, the customer we were trying to reach, and the tradeoffs behind the finished design in Why We Created the Growzebo™.

A Three-Season Greenhouse for More Gardeners

For a long time, Growing Spaces was essentially synonymous with one product. We are incredibly proud of that. The Growing Dome remains our most complete greenhouse solution for year-round growing, combining passive solar design, thermal mass, and integrated systems that help gardeners grow through all four seasons.

It also remains the product we recommend when someone needs greater resilience in challenging climates, including locations where heavy snow, high winds, extreme temperatures, or other demanding conditions are a major part of the equation. But we do not believe there should only be one way to grow with Growing Spaces.

Some gardeners need a greenhouse designed around winter growing and extreme climates. Some want a backyard greenhouse that helps them start earlier in the spring and keep harvesting later into the fall. Some are just getting started and need a cold frame before they are ready for anything larger.

Those gardeners may need different structures, but the reason we want to serve them is the same. We want more people to feel capable of growing their own food. We want gardening to feel more possible, not less. We want someone to be able to look at their backyard, their climate, their budget, and their goals and see a path forward instead of a list of reasons why they cannot do it. That has always been the point.

How the Growzebo Expands What Growing Spaces Can Offer

There is something fitting about a company built around growing, having to grow itself.

For more than 35 years, our customers have challenged us, taught us, asked hard questions, shared incredible successes, called us when things did not go according to plan, sent us photos, invited us into their greenhouses, and shown us thousands of different versions of what growing can look like. That has made us better at what we do, but it has also helped us understand where we still had room to grow.

The Growzebo is one of the clearest examples of that. It combines decades of greenhouse experience with what we have learned from the people who actually use our products and the people who wanted to, but could not quite find the right fit.

So when we say this product was built by our team, that is true, but it was shaped by you. Your questions showed us where the gaps were. Your feedback told us what mattered. Even the reasons some of you decided a Growing Dome was not right for you helped us understand what another Growing Spaces greenhouse needed to be. In a very real way, you helped push us here.

In 1989, Growing Spaces started with the goal of helping everyday people create more reliable places to grow food. The products we offer may continue to change as we learn, listen, and grow alongside you. The mission will not.

Grow with confidence. Grow with purpose. Grow with Growing Spaces.

Explore the Growzebo™ Greenhouse Kit