Greenhouse-Gardening

How to choose a Greenhouse Kit

You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy greenhouse gardening. Today there are a multitude of greenhouse kits to fit every skill level and price range. The internet has made it even easier to shop around for the right one for you.

Cold frame greenhouses are best for smaller gardens.

If you are a garden novice and want to pursue greenhouse gardening then it is best to start with a small but expandable greenhouse kit. If you want to start a very small garden, around eight or less plants, then a cold frame is a good choice. You can purchase or build your own with PVC pipe fittings. They are especially beneficial for cold-weather growers as they are stars at temperature regulation.

If you do have some experience under your belt don’t snub greenhouse kits. They make year-round, professional gardening simple. Try Cross Country or Sunshine brand greenhouses. Sunshine brand greenhouses have the added benefit of redwood to add both regulated heat and aesthetic pleasure to your backyard greenhouse. For part-time growers try a portable, collapsible, greenhouse for easy storage when not in use.

Be sure to research the best greenhouses for your area’s weather. For example, for areas that get a lot of snow you’ll want a slanted roof.

Plan ahead before buying your greenhouse. What will work best for you depends on your situation. How many plants do you want to grow? What are their specific needs? Knowing this will save you confusion and make your greenhouse experience all the more enjoyable.

Greenhouse Gardening

A Greenhouse can extend your growing season by months and allow you to sow seeds and harvest crops much earlier than you normally would. With proper planning, some crops can be harvested continuously. This can turn your gardening and cultivation into a year round activity. A wider variety of plants started from seed. The germination rate will be much higher as well. The amount of sunlight that a greenhouse allows and the ability to control temperatures will give you a healthier and more productive crop. By starting your crops from seed you can also be assured that your crops are as organic as can be, provided the seeds were not treated with fungicide (ask your nursery). A greenhouse can also make it possible for you to grow plants that you normally may not be able to grow at all due to climate. Many citrus and other fruit crops fall into this category.

Greenhouses come in all shapes, from the standard rectangular shape, to round or even conservatories connected to the house. There is no best size for a greenhouse. The size that fits your space best works fine. Even a small greenhouse can accomodate many plants. Some commercially made greenhouses are extendable with add on sections to add as needed.

The best available material for a greenhouse frame is aluminum. The maintentance is very low, it never deteriorates, and it allows the most light in due to it being thinner than wooden frames.

Make sure you allow for good ventilation. Allow room for at least one work bench. Keep in mind that you will also need storage space in the greenhouse for extra pots, hand tools, etc.

Greenhouse Gardening as a Hobby

For people who would like to do more gardening but live in a short growing season area, a hobby greenhouse is the answer. A hobby greenhouse is not large enough to produce vegetables or flowers on a commercial basis. It will, however, give you a place for a tomato plant or two and some fresh greens even if you live in the northern regions.

Check out the Hobby Greenhouse Association to connect with people who share your passion for greenhouse gardening.

Greenhouse enthusiasts even have their own association, called the Hobby Greenhouse Association, which publishes a quarterly magazine. The organization also sponsers events and helps individuals connect to get help with the aspect of gardening that they are interested in, whether it's growing cacti or saving seeds.

If you are in the market for a hobby greenhouse, there are several types on the market. The smallest type is not large enough to walk into and must be accessed from the outside. It resembles an old-fashioned phone booth made all of glass and outfitted with shelves. This type is designed to fit as many plants as possible in as small a place as possible. The shelves are made of glass to allow as much light as possible to reach plants on the lower shelves. Another inexpensive version of this sort of hobby greenhouse is shelving covered with a zippered tent of clear plastic. This sort of arrangement is great for the small-scale hobby gardener wanting a place to keep her flowers or houseplant starts.

There are a variety of designs of hobby greenhouse that are large enough to walk into but made entirely of clear glass or plastic. They are often about the same size as a small storage building. Some independent builders have started making these to sell locally. Among national brands, one of the nicest is called the "Solar Prism." It is called this because of it's unique construction. This hobby greenhouse is made of a single piece of durable clear plastic which is designed to work like tiny prisms side by side. They trap the rays of the sun and shoot them back into the greenhouse at all angles. For this reason, these little greenhouses are said to glow when the weather is cloudy.

Better hobby greenhouses are equipped with automatic sensors that open vents which allow ventilation and keep the interior temperatures from getting too high. These are a great labor saver, but can get expensive. Another benefit sometimes found in nicer greenhouses is a built in irrigation or misting system. Members of the Hobby Greenhouse Association, or HGA, have invented many interesting designs of greenhouses.

If gardening is your hobby, greenhouse growing will interest you. With a greenhouse, you can have the earliest tomatoes and salad greens all year. You can also start seedlings for the main garden early in the spring when outdoor temperatures would kill them. A hobby greenhouse can be a good investment.

About the author:

By Brigitte Smith

Greenhouse Accessories

Accessorizing your greenhouse isn't quite the same as accessorizing any other 'room' in your home. Greenhouse accessories aren't a fashion statement - they're functional things like shelves, misters, irrigation systems, covers and heaters that increase the functionality of your greenhouse. What greenhouse accessories should you consider if you're building a new (or refurbishing an old) greenhouse? It depends a great deal on how you use your greenhouse and where it is.

Among the greenhouse accessories you might consider are thermometers and humidity gauges, automatic plant misting systems, plant lighting options, soil sterilization and treatment kits, potting benches, specialty shelving systems that can create mini-greenhouses within the greenhouse, shades and shelters and venting and roof openers.

Potting benches

What every successful greenhouse needs.

Potting benches are one of the most useful greenhouse accessories you'll invest in. Generally, a potting bench has one or two shelves to hold potting supplies like pots, dirt and fertilizer, and a slatted top with a tray to make it easy for you to clean. By keeping all your potting supplies on one easy to move potting bench, you save yourself all sorts of steps and labor and keep everything you need close at hand.

Greenhouse shelving

There are a number of different styles of specialty shelving for greenhouses that can be counted as greenhouse accessories. Grow shelves are aluminum frames into which you can fit seedling trays. Grow shelves often come with UV stabilized plastic covers to create greenhouse conditions within the greenhouse for starting new plants or isolating specialty plants that need different conditions than standard.

Misting Propagation Systems

One of the most important factors for healthy growth and propagation of plants is the moisture in the air. Automatic misters can maintain the high humidity needed by rooting plants. They're available with timers that you can set to mist the entire greenhouse at specified intervals, or with moisture sensors that will send out a cooling mist whenever the moisture content of the air falls below a specific density. A misting propagation system can be one of the important greenhouse accessories in a greenhouse that grows tropical plants, or in which you intend to often start plants from leaf cuttings. There are many choices that can be both affordable and useful.

Rainwater Systems

For the eco-conscious gardener with a greenhouse, rainwater systems allow you to collect rainwater via gutters and downspouts and reuse it for irrigation and watering of your plants. Remember the old-fashioned rain barrel? Welcome to the modern version, which will automatically recycle rainwater for use in your greenhouse.

Lighting Greenhouse Accessories

Grow lights are one way to increase the amount of available full-spectrum light for your plants, particularly during northern winters when days are short. They come in full kits that include wiring, or as individual lights that can be set up for specific purposes.

Whatever the needs for your greenhouse, you'll find greenhouse accessories that are specially designed to fit the needs and help you grow lush, beautiful plants with a minimum of effort.

Greenhouse Calamities – Thoughts from a Novice

Greenhouses are a great addition to anyone’s garden. They come in all different sizes and you can nestle them right where you want them and with smaller versions of greenhouses you can move them quite easily. That said, as great as they look and of course smell, there should be some type of manual to buy when you are first setting up shop in there. There are many things no one bothers to tell you and if you don’t know, you don’t ask. Here are five things I learned by plodding along on my own:

Don't grow impatient with your greenhouse garden.

1. Never assume that your seeds are not growing and then buy plants instead. I started growing tomato seeds, in the proper seed tray, and within a month nothing had happened. However, I used pretty expensive potting soil and didn’t want to waste it so I dumped it on the floor of the greenhouse and turned it in. Then, I planted 6 tomato plants into the ground and had homemade salsa recipes salivating in my head. A month later I had well over 30 tomato plants tumbling over each other. The worst part was that I didn’t label the plants and wasn’t sure which ones to thin out. I thinned and ended up with the orange pixie variety mostly and they were about the size of a mutant cherry tomato.

2. Never assume that just because your garden is now “indoors” that you won’t get an insect infestation. If you are afraid of insects, greenhouse gardening is not much better than being out in nature. After you plant your garden, whether in grow bags, on tables or directly in the ground, look up. There he is…Sammy the Slug peering down on you with a slight smirk on his face. If you are allergic to bee stings, every year at least one gets in your greenhouse and seems to twoddle around in there for what seems like an eternity.

3. Never think you are a pack mule and can water your plants enough by using a gardening can or bucket. You can’t! With the heat and the sun shining through the glass the plants need more water than the outside plants. You need a mister, some type of irrigation system, ideally, and at bare minimum a hose. This means you’ll require a water source. Think about it when you are putting the greenhouse in place. If you’re water source is close to the house you must put the greenhouse within reach. Or, you can be like me… carry about 20 buckets of water out each night and only water ¼ of the plants before you give up. (That said, the cursing involved in the greenhouse creates more carbon dioxide and makes plants grow better).

Research plants before planting them in your greenhouse.

4. Always read or know the size to which your plants grow. Picture this…novice to gardening and new, proud-owner of a large greenhouse. “Oooh, what can I grow,” immediately pops into ones head. She plants dill, (accidentally) 30 tomato plants, eggplant and zucchini among other things. Everyday the novice goes out to water her plants and gets very excited. Until slowly, the greenery is a foot tall, then 2 feet tall then, well, then these plants are insanely out of control. Have you ever seen the size of a zucchini plant’s leaves…they are twice the size as your head! Zucchini sucks the life out of the plants planted underneath it and surrounding it. So, as for the garlic cloves planted…she was forced to make salsa sans garlic. On another note, the dill she planted grew to be at least 15 feet tall. A word to the wise, find out how big the stuff gets and plan accordingly.

5. Never buy a greenhouse if you have no one to look after it while you are on your holidays. Greenhouse plants require a lot of work because generally the soil dry-out quicker. Therefore you must water everyday at least once. Irrigation systems can help with this, but it is still advisable to have someone check it regularly to ensure it works. I went on holidays for 2 weeks and yes I had a friend looking after the glassy greatness, but the following things happened:

• She left the door open one night and some strange animal went on a frenzy hacking up all of the plants, probably eating a couple too.
• She watered, but not enough water was used. Therefore, I lost a lot of plants including my favorite.
• Leaving the door open also helped some of my plants get infested and it also created havoc with the internal temperatures.
• Some of the tomato plants needed to be pinched out and after 2 weeks I had inferior, deformed tomatoes.
• Cats. Cat pee in a damp, warm environment smells well, like cat pee.

There are many other kafuffles and calamities associated with this divine garden structure. There are many, many good things too. It is advisable to ask your friends, garden centers and online resources for advice before installing a greenhouse and planting plants inside. Now, that I have had my greenhouse for five years, I have trial and errored myself to plant-death and have a general idea about what is correct. After all, gardening is 90% trial and error and 10% knowledge. Holly Masters loves to garden and takes pride in her greenhouse.