Winter is coming. The nights are approaching and we forget the decoration and the garden until spring. But in the greenhouse it's summer all year round. With a greenhouse, it is possible to have a little piece of summer that stays with us through dark, snowy winter evenings.
Heating the greenhouses was an expensive activity. But with modern materials, this is no longer true. It is now possible to heat a greenhouse quite economically. What was once a luxury is available to everyone.
The double-walled polycarbonate greenhouse is double-glazed and will retain heat. You can use an electric heater controlled by a thermostat. Little heat will escape to the outside environment. By carefully adjusting the temperature, billing can be controlled.
If you keep the temperature just above freezing, you can grow plants that like fairly cool temperatures. A display of cyclamen, for example, would be fun. When we keep them in our homes, they get very hot easily. A frost-free greenhouse would be ideal for them. You can bring one or two indoors for a day or two before returning them to the greenhouse to activate them at a lower temperature.
There are a whole bunch of plants that are sold as houseplants, but they really hate dry weather. Think of all those beautiful plants that die after a few weeks. Beautiful-leaved crotons or schisanthus, orchid or poor man's butterfly, as they are sometimes called, love moisture. In the greenhouse, you can provide them with the conditions they need.
Many amazing plants, such as the bird of paradise flower or Strellisia, need a nighttime temperature of just 55 degrees Fahrenheit. It is not difficult to achieve. During the day, the sun raises the temperature for you. You will only need daytime heating for a few days a year.
Put one of your lawn chairs in the greenhouse and sit in the winter sun listening to music surrounded by flowers and greenery. The advantage of a greenhouse is that you can use it as you see fit.
I know people who keep fish in their greenhouses. A small pool freezes easily if you have harsh winters in your part of the world. You can lose your fish this way. In the greenhouse, the water is kept ice-free and you can feed your koi carp during the winter.
Interior designers often talk about bringing the garden into the house. Well, with a greenhouse, you really mix garden and house. The greenhouse can become a room dedicated to plants or an extension of the garden.
But maybe cooking is your thing and you want to grow fruits and vegetables in your own greenhouse. You want to taste the fresh products picked during the winter season. It can be done too.
You can grow all kinds of crops in your greenhouse. Salads are probably the easiest of all. Fresh lettuce, watercress, spinach and other leafy greens can be grown in pieces and vice versa. Herbs can be made the same way. All you have to do when you want to make a salad is go out into the greenhouse and rip some leaves off.
The salad takes on another dimension when it is fresh. Just keep a raincoat or umbrella by the kitchen door. It is also easy to grow tomatoes during the winter. They need heat. They like to be around 70 degrees.
You should also consider lighting if you want to grow crops in winter. Most fruits and vegetables need longer days than northern winters allow. Fluorescent lights are pretty good and inexpensive to use, but you'll get the best results from bulbs that mimic the spectrum of natural daylight. These are metal halide or high pressure sodium lamps that have a reflector to increase the amount of light. You can also make reflectors to surround plants from regular aluminum foil. This can be a dumb idea even when relying on sunlight in the winter.
Whatever you grow in your greenhouse, you should consider ventilation. It takes air to move around the greenhouse. In the winter, when you want to keep the heat in, this can be done with a fan. They are no different than those used in or in kitchens and bathrooms
hoods You can install one if you are skilled with tools or buy one specifically for the greenhouse.
If you really want to retain the heat, you can install a pipe hose in the hole and let the expelled air flow back into the greenhouse. For more effect, you can pass the pipe through a hole filled with black stones. The warm air will heat the rocks which will act as a storage heater, slowly releasing heat throughout the night.
So whether you are looking for a greenhouse that will be a place to sit and watch plants and fish or a greenhouse for growing crops, there are good reasons to consider greenhouse gardening.
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