The Greenhouse is one of the possible west-wing additions you can build onto a Hearthfire homestead, whether that is Lakeview Manor, Windstad Manor or Heljarchen Hall – the section works the same in all three. It needs the Main Hall first, and it takes the west wing slot that could otherwise hold the Bedrooms. If you like your Alchemy ingredients fresh, homegrown and sheltered from Skyrim’s lovely blizzards, this is the room for you.
What you’ll find
- A single ground-floor room – like the Kitchen and Trophy Room, nothing is added upstairs.
- Up to 18 patches of fertile soil once every large planter and small planter with cupboard is built. Add the outdoor garden and you get 11 more, for 29 in total.
- Plant one sample of a vegetable or ingredient from your inventory per patch. Each harvest gives several samples instead of the single one you get in the wild, and the plant regrows.
- Plantable crops include cabbage, carrots, potatoes, leeks, gourds and wheat, plus ingredients such as Blisterwort, Creep Cluster, Deathbell, Nightshade, Glowing Mushroom, Jazbay Grapes and Lavender. Solstheim plants and many Skyrim plants cannot be grown.
- Furnishings: barrels, cupboards, display cases, night tables, shelves, small chandeliers, mounted goat heads and mounted mudcrabs. Once furnished, moss, bird nests, butterflies, torchbugs and beehives start to appear, and a pot of honey can turn up.
Building costs
The shell of the room (doors, foundation, floor, wall supports, roof framing, walls and roof) costs 18 sawn logs, 14 quarried stone, 20 nails, 3 clay, 2 iron fittings, 2 locks and 4 hinges. Building every furnishing on top brings the grand total to 51 sawn logs, 76 nails, 20 quarried stone, 21 clay, 14 iron fittings, 10 hinges, 6 glass and a handful of hides, horns and mudcrab chitin. You can build everything yourself at the indoor carpenter’s workbench, or pay your steward 1,500 gold to furnish the room over time. Furnishings are permanent once built.
Tips
A freshly planted patch is ready in about 24 hours, while a harvested plant takes around three days to regrow – so if you want a daily harvest, clear the planter and replant. Filling every planter with an expensive ingredient like Blisterwort can reportedly earn 850–1,000 gold per harvest. For Alchemy grinding, players recommend Creep Cluster, Mora Tapinella and Scaly Pholiota, which combine into a five-effect potion. The Green Thumb perk does not boost planted harvests.
Good to know
Despite the name, the walls and roof are fully opaque – it is a greenhouse in spirit only.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.