Where should it go?

Location, location, location!  It’s not something that only Hollywood directors (or those making fun of them) spout.  Any avid gardener who owns a greenhouse will tell you that unless you start with the perfect location, your greenhouse is going to be a dud.  After all the time you will spend in building it, setting it up and planting, that is the last thing that you want.

Sunlight is a must for a greenhouse but it doesn’t have to be a full day of sunlight.  One of the suggested locations for a greenhouse is somewhere in your yard that is the furthest East.  The main goal is to provide your greenhouse with as much sun as possible and the best sun for optimal growth is the morning sun.  After the morning, it is fine to have shade on the greenhouse and there shouldn’t be any problems with the overall health of your greenhouse.

Another factor into having a successful greenhouse is to place it in an area that has excellent drainage.  The best way to ensure that you have adequate drainage is to build the greenhouse slightly higher than the ground.  This will ensure that your greenhouse won’t flood and excess water will drain away.

Lastly, a successful greenhouse is one that is accessible. If it is difficult to get into or if there is no way to run electricity out to it, then chances are, your love of greenhouse growing will quickly evaporate.  Take into consideration what you want to do in the greenhouse and provide places to work that are both inside and beside the actual greenhouse.

Sirena Van Schaik

Photo Credit

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But not everyone is like me. I realize that a lot of you love gardening so much that you want to do it year-round. Gardening with a greenhouse will extend your growing season and allow you to “winter over” many plants that would otherwise perish during the winter.

If gardening all winter long appeals to you, then greenhouse gardening is for you.

No Room For A Greenhouse?

Would you love to have a greenhouse and do gardening all year long, but you don’t have room for a greenhouse? That’s not surprising. The average residential home lot size dropped by more than 500 feet between 2001 and 2003, and lots are getting smaller all the time.

Twenty-six percent of new residential home lots are only 4,000 square feet in size. Put a 2,500 square foot home, a deck, a couple trees and some flowerbeds on that lot, and you don’t have the kind of room that traditional greenhouse gardening requires.

With a small scale greenhouse, you can have your own greenhouse garden on a small lot or even on a deck or patio.

Lean-To Greenhouse

A lean-to greenhouse makes gardening year-round possible on a small scale. This size of greenhouse is perfect if you just want to grow some winter salad crops in pots, winter over some potted plants, or start seeds early in the year.

A lean-to greenhouse is a three-sided structure made of clear, unbreakable polycarbonate panels set into an aluminum frame. The structure attaches to the exterior wall of a home, a shed, a garage, or a fence.

The structure is 51 inches wide, 26 inches deep, and 77 inches tall – tall enough for to fit three shelves. If you also put plants on the base of the greenhouse, you get 32 square feet of greenhouse space for gardening.

Juliana Greenhouse offers a lean-to greenhouse for gardening all year long. The price ranges from $308 to $430. A larger model, with the same depth and height, but measuring 75 inches wide for gardeners who can handle a seven-foot wide greenhouse.

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Things to Remember

The first thing that you have to remember when you are doing greenhouse vegetable gardening is that you absolutely must have the right type of area in which to have your garden. Any one can put a bucket in a window and try to grow food, but in order to do real greenhouse vegetable gardening you need a real greenhouse set up. If you do not have a greenhouse you will have to build one, so be sure that you are following set plans to make your greenhouse. The only way that the greenhouse vegetable gardening will work is if you have the right type of set up and the right kind of garden for yourself. Be sure that you are able to do the greenhouse vegetable gardening in the way that it was intended, and this means that you need to have the right kind of space.

The other thing that you want to remember about greenhouse vegetable gardening is that you need to pay careful attention to what types of plants you are using. In order to make your greenhouse vegetable gardening a success, you need to be sure that you are growing plants that can grow well with the greenhouse as a home. Therefore, you should be doing research to make sure that you are able to use the right kinds of plants and that you know exactly what you are doing when you begin.

With the right kind of research and a lot of hard work, you can make greenhouse vegetable gardening a great way for you to grow food, grow plants ,and do just about anything else that you would like to do. If you do it right, you can also do it year round, which  means that you can enjoy the prospects of it for as long as you would like to enjoy them.

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There are basically six different reasons as to why greenhouse gardening is used, and they are: raising plants for winter use, holding over garden plants to be used as parent plants for next season, getting an early start for tender plants started from seed, increasing the possibilities of a greater variety and continuous supply, easier culture of small vegetables for winter use and to propagate and experiment with various plants as a hobby.

The First Step

If you are interested in greenhouse gardening, then the first thing you are going to need to do is choose a site for your greenhouse. This is actually one of the most important aspects of all, as where you decide to locate your greenhouse is going to greatly affect how your plants turn out.

You want to choose a level, clean site in a low-traffic area, and you need to make sure that your greenhouse is going to receive the maximum of winter sunlight possible. There are a few things in particular that you are going to need to consider when you are deciding on a site for your greenhouse.

For instance, you want to consider the change in the angle of the sun between summer and winter, as well as shadows cast by existing structures and trees, whether growing trees are going to block sunlight from your greenhouse in the future, and whether any existing deciduous trees are going to allow winter sun.

The Workspace for Your Greenhouse Gardening

The next step in the greenhouse gardening process is to ensure the best workspace. Your greenhouse interior should always allow enough room for potting plants and moving about comfortably, and you also want to take into consideration the height of the benches and tables that you plan on using inside.

Temperature is also important to take into consideration with greenhouse gardening, and the more sun that is provided, the more heat the greenhouse will be able to produce. However the more heat is produced, the more ventilation is going to be needed, and so you want to place a thermometer in the shade near the middle of your greenhouse so that you can always keep track of the temperature inside and make sure that it is not too hot or cold.

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Ok, you’ve put a lot of effort into planning and building (or installing) your greenhouse. You’ve got tabletops, benches, pots, shelves, cabinets, watering systems and a dozen tools to help. Now, you get to really enjoy what greenhouses are all about – plants!

The ‘green’ part of greenhouses is usually the most fun, since that’s why you get one in the first place. But here, too, you’ll want to do some planning and careful execution. That planning should start at the same time as that for the greenhouse itself. The structure and its contents should be well matched for optimal results.

Fortunately, you’ve got hundreds of choices.

Consider first where you live. Even in a greenhouse, the amount of sunlight per day throughout the year, humidity and temperature levels and other variables need to be accounted for.

Northern Idaho, for example, has long, dry summers. New Hampshire, even though it’s also in the northern latitudes and gets about the same amount of rain and sun, is much more humid. You can only control humidity to a certain level.

If you get plenty of sunlight in the summer and early fall, or can compensate with artificial lights, tomatoes love greenhouses. The high heat makes them grow great and, since they are easily injured by frost, they appreciate the protection in the Fall.

Some citrus fruits, like oranges and lemons, are nearly impossible to grow outdoors in certain locations. It’s simply too cold much of the year. But you can compensate in the greenhouse and actually grow your own.

Strawberries are another favorite for greenhouse gardeners. Commercial strawberries are expensive and many people have concerns about pesticides. You can grow your own and control costs and quell health concerns.

Radishes, onions, carrots, lettuce and spinach like cooler temperatures. They can really do well in a controlled environment like a greenhouse.

Then, of course, there are the traditional ‘hothouse’ flowers – orchids first and foremost. Orchids in the wild grow up higher because they benefit from the breezes. You can simulate that in the greenhouse with a simple fan and ventilation system.

Orchids can also be very expensive and growing your own can be a great way to save money and still have beautiful flowers. For the truly ambitious, there are dozens of competitions across the country for orchid growers. Be careful of getting bitten by the ‘orchid growers bug’, though. It can turn into an all-consuming hobby!

But lots of other flowers make great choices for greenhouses, too. Practically anything you would grow in an outdoor garden will do fine in a greenhouse, provided you have proper sunlight and shade control. Keep in mind, too, that some plants don’t do as well in pots unless they are large enough that the roots have plenty of room to spread.

Most bonsai are outdoor plants, though some benefit from the protection of a greenhouse in high winds and cold winters. Take care that the species you select is suitable for a high temperature, high sunlight and humid environment.

Sooner or later, though, it’s time to stop planning and start gardening. Enjoy!

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When the plants are finally ready for the garden, they are bigger and stronger and have a better chance of growing up and providing a lot of food for the season.  Greenhouse vegetable gardening can be very rewarding and will be something that will be used for years to come.  A greenhouse can be designed and put together with local parts or people can purchase them over the internet and build them in the backyard.  They can be bought from the very small to the very large commercial size. 

Most people will get one that isn’t the smallest but not too big for the size family that they have.  Greenhouse vegetable gardening takes some extra work and planning because they need maintenance.  In the winter, some parts may need to be taken down so that snow doesn’t collapse the greenhouse.  This also means that in the early spring, the top will have to be put back on.  This isn’t very easy to do if the wind is blowing at all.  It will take some extra people to put the covers on if the there is a breeze.

Greenhouse Vegetable Gardening Problems

Every person that has a greenhouse will tell others that there are all types of problems that can happen with the ownership of a greenhouse.  Greenhouse vegetable gardening means that a person needs to make sure that the greenhouse stays in good condition, if it doesn’t, the plants will be at risk of dying.  Having a greenhouse allows people to get their plants hardy and might even be more productive than those who don’t have one. 

If the greenhouse is sturdy, it can be used in the winter which allows the person to have vegetables even in the dead of winter.  Greenhouse vegetable gardening can have its problems but it is also worth it to have one in order to have fresh vegetables at ones demand anytime of the year.  If people have the room for a greenhouse, they should consider putting one together.  It will be enjoyed for years to come.

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Most crops for winter greenhouse vegetable gardening doesn’t necessarily need to be heated; only certain plants need extreme heat year round, tropical fruits for example can need extra heat in the winter.  Most leafy and root vegetables will do well in the fall and winter months; winter greenhouse vegetable gardens are protected from the cold and enhanced with a bit of extra heat from the surrounding glass.

Most plants in a winter greenhouse vegetable garden will be in containers or raised garden beds; the purpose for this is to make the plants easily transferable once the risk of freezing has passed.  Most vegetables will grow well in container part or full time provided they have adequate drainage and plenty of water; plants not producing fruit or blooming may require less water, it is important not to overwater plants.

Choosing the right containers for winter greenhouse vegetable gardening will improve the success of the winter garden; every container should have drainage holes.  For greenhouse use terra cotta or plastic containers are probably the best choice; terra cotta is porous and allows the roots of the plants to breathe, while plastic is inexpensive and unbreakable.
 
Top Choices For Greenhouse Winter Vegetable Gardening

A greenhouse will extend the life of an existing garden or it is possible to have a greenhouse winter vegetable garden; many salad favorites such as lettuce, spinach, Swiss Chard, Kale, carrots, radish, and beets grow well in the winter.  A greenhouse winter vegetable garden can keep the cold off the winter hardy crops allowing them to be harvested all winter instead of until the first freeze.

Caring For A Winter Greenhouse Vegetable Garden

Potted plants in a winter green house garden will often need more water than in-ground plants; as such checking the water level and insuring the roots are not water logged is essential.  To check if the plant needs to be watered place a finger about an inch into the soil; if the soil is dry it needs to be watered, always water the soil not the leaves, the roots bring the moisture to the leaves they have no need of their own. 

To ensure the roots are not water logged pour water onto the plant until the water drains freely from the bottom drainage spouts; when this happens allow the water to pool and spill off access water, standing water can attract parasites or disease.

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