You're gonna love greenhouse gardening!
When living in cool or temperate locations, gardening outdoors becomes a real challenge. Gardening inside a greenhouse provides a solution for the cool weather regions. The concept is very simple. Your garden is planted within an enclosure, usually plastic or glass, that lets in light. The energy is then trapped within the greenhouse, which then warms up the plants and soil.
Greenhouse gardening is not that different from your average outside gardening. The main consideration that you need to think about is controlling the temperature of your greenhouse. If you keep your greenhouse too hot, your plants will wilt and die. It only takes an hour’s worth of heat to destroy all your work. The trick is to try to keep a balanced constant temperature, usually 80 degrees F. This is done through the strategic placement of thermometers and ventilation. If the greenhouse gets too cold, electric heaters are good for keeping the frost off your plants.
The best way to ensure the right amount of sunlight and heat for your greenhouse is to build it in a spot that can take advantage of the maximum amount of sunlight throughout the year. This is especially important during the spring and fall seasons since the sun is at its lowest point in the southern sky. You should try and have your greenhouse located where the sun’s rays will reach through a southeastern to southwestern direction.
To ensure that ventilation flows throughout the greenhouse you should space your plants evenly within the greenhouse. One method of having good ventilation is to open the greenhouse doors in the morning and close them in the late afternoon. This is a fine method during the winter as well, as long as you keep the weather report in mind and make sure that winter frost does not creep into your greenhouse in the late afternoon. A ventilation system using electric fans is the most effective way to ensure circulation. The goal is to set up your fans in a way that they create a circular air flow in your greenhouse. This is especially crucial in the winter months when the greenhouse is heated. You don't want the hot air to stay by the ceiling of the greenhouse while the cool air settles by the plants.
A great way to cool off the greenhouse when it gets too hot is to hose down the entire greenhouse floor and then open the ceiling vents. This method cools it down very quickly. There are also misting systems you can set up within the greenhouse. Misting systems and foggers can add humidity to your greenhouse, and help in lowering temperatures when it gets too hot. Shade cloth though is also a very important element in keeping the greenhouse cool in the summer. Applying the use of thermostats and temperature alarm systems are the best way to maintain a constant temperature, especially during times of changing weather.
Commercial potting soil works fine for the plants in your greenhouse. It’s a good idea to grow your plants in large tray beds as opposed to pots and containers. The flats or tray beds should be raised off the ground. This makes it easier to work with the seedlings and to keep the soil warm all around. The best greenhouse gardening soil mixtures include fir bark, sand, peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for drainage.
As with all types of gardening make sure that your plants receive adequate water. Greenhouse gardening means that care must be taken not to over water your plants. Keep the soil damp in your greenhouse, but not soggy wet. A climate-controlled greenhouse regulates the moisture level within the greenhouse.
Make sure you use your imagination when planting in your greenhouse. You can grow vegetables, fruit plants and decorative plants straight from the seed, and all year round. You should have plenty of space so that you can plant new plants and move around seeing to the health of your other plants.
Vegetables like carrots, beets, turnips and other root vegetables need to be planted in a deep box tray which will fit under benches. Lettuce and other low growing leafy vegetables can be planted in tubs with vegetables that have a taller growth. Vegetables like peas, cucumbers and tomatoes do well in tub type containers as well.
Now, you can make a Greenhouse from plans, using raw materials, or you can buy a greenhouse kit from places like GreenhouseGarden.com. This site is a really complete resource for anything having to do with greenhouse gardening, greenhouse kits, and even do-it-yourself from scratch greenhouse construction. The sky's the limit as far as style and price for greenhouse kits. They can range from $174 to $3,000 plus depending on size and construction materials. They have many links to lead you to a variety of greenhouse kit providers. These kits vary in size, design shape, and materials. You can find greenhouses made with fiberglass, red wood, steel tubular, and extruded aluminum frames. The paneling choices for your greenhouse may consist of twinwall polycarbonate glass, tempered glass, or even a polyethylene mesh cover.
Now if you really want to construct your own greenhouse from scratch, I recommend you go to this site: www.h2ouse.com. They have a great little directory of greenhouse designs and blueprints, some of which are free.
There are so many advantages to greenhouse gardening because in essence, you have so much more control of the major factors that influence growing plants. These are weather, sunlight, moisture, and temperature. Your greenhouse is your own little controlled environment.
By the way, don't forget to stop by and read our article on home gardening.
