Gardening Tips

While most everyone associates gardening with growing a garden outdoors, that is not how all folks do it. When the weather outside will not permit, some folks enjoy gardening indoors. Thus, we have now come up with a way to make that happen. Gardening indoors, under a glass housing, is called green house gardening. The following paragraphs will discuss greenhouse gardening, as well as some of the processes involved in doing it successfully.

Green house gardening does not drastically differ from the outdoor methods of gardening, although there are some differences. The main difference in green house gardening is it is highly important to learn how to properly control the temperature inside of your greenhouse. Most plants tend to thrive in temperatures slightly lower than normal room temperature, and most of the time require much more humidity than we live with in our homes. This is a general rule when it comes to greenhouse gardening.

The very best way to produce the proper amount of sunlight, heat, and humidity in your garden greenhouse is to construct your actual greenhouse in an area you can take advantage of maximum levels of sunlight all year long. It is important to pay most attention to the sun locations during the spring, as well as autumn, months, when the sun is at its lowest point in the southern skies. For this reason, the ideal location to construct a garden greenhouse is where sun rays will reach through a southeastern to southwestern direction without obstruction.

When you are green house gardening, it is important to space your plants out evenly throughout your gardening areas of your greenhouse. This should be done in order to help ensure that ventilation flows evenly throughout your greenhouse. You should also open your greenhouse doors during the morning hours, then close them in the late afternoon. This will, as well, help to ensure proper ventilation. You can use these methods during the winter months, too, as long as you make sure weather reports do not indicate frost or snow.

As with any type of gardening, a water source if vital to the healthy production of your different plants. This is absolutely true with greenhouse gardening, as well. It is important to understand that your plants will not have natural water sources, however, it is as equally as important to understand not to over-water as a result of this. Some sort of irrigation system may work best in your garden greenhouse.

Finally, there are many ways you can design where your plants will grow when you choose green house gardening. This is much like outdoor garden planning, except that with greenhouse gardening you will not be growing your plants in the ground, but in deep containers, growing boxes, as well as big tubs. By doing this, you are not only protecting the roots of your plants from freezing ground temperatures, you are also making them easy to move, in the event they need special attention.

Lighting and watering your greenhouse are two of the most important factors in running it.

You will need a good soil for planting seeds. Compost, potting or gardening soil and a little sand or perlite are a good start. Read all directions in your seed packets.

Keep some of those black plastic flats that nurseries use to display their plant containers. These are useful for starting sees and transplants.

Benches in greenhouses are essential, as they hold trays of plants that have already sprouted from seeds.

Styrofoam cups – have several of these handy. Seeds sprout quickly and once they grow large enough to move into separate containers, they can be gently lifted and transferred into ordinary Styrofoam cups.

You can also use yogurt plastic cups, and large commercial type containers that can hold more than one plant. In fact, any container you can think of will be suitable.

Other materials you should have on hand are broken clay pots, cracked walnuts, marbles, charcoal or gravel. These help in proper drainage. Be sure to soak clay pots in water a few minutes before using them. This will prevent the clay from absorbing the moisture from the potting soil.

If you want to have trellises inside your greenhouse, you can make them out of coat hangers, which you can bend to any shape your heart desires.

Herbs are perfect for keeping pests at bay. They are what one writer calls “nature’s insecticides”. Have a variety of them inside your greenhouse. You can make a natural insecticide by adding onions or garlic to a jar of water. Leave it for a week and spray on your plants.

Other garden tools that will help you run your greenhouse efficiently are air coolers for the hot summer. This is to maintain the temperatures at desired levels. Power vents in the roof are also a good idea to release hot air that can build up suddenly in the summer.

In the winter, a good heater would be nice to warm the greenhouse. Other accessories you need are a humidifier, a CO2 generator, and a mister.

Greenhouse lighting system.

A type of light called high intensity discharge lighting (HID) used to be employed by commercial growers in large greenhouses. However, the idea of artificial lighting to stimulate plant growth became increasingly popular.

H.I.D. lighting not only adds to natural sunlight, but can actually serve as a substitute during long winters when natural sunlight is in scant supply. They are energy efficient and operational costs are low. Here are just a few of the benefits of HID lighting:

Increases the health and strength of plants, and stimulates growth and yield rates,

Supplements natural sunlight; by using HID lighting, you also extend “day length”,

Enables container outdoor plants on decks and patios during the summer to be moved indoors during the winter,

Are definitely more powerful than conventional fluorescents.

Greenhouse tables, shelving and plant holders

These are indispensable, especially when you need to work inside your greenhouse and to maximize and organize your greenhouse space. As your plant varieties grow, you will need shelves and tables and plant holders to facilitate your gardening. One popular type of bench that greenhouse hobbyists like is the cedar double layer bench. They are durable and efficient to use.

For shelves, you can opt for two and three section lengths made of aluminum.

Given that watering your plants is an essential – indispensable -part of any greenhouse gardening, a good watering system is required. You can choose either the automatic or hand held watering system to make your watering needs more efficient.

For automatic irrigation systems, there are models that come equipped with an automatic drip irrigation and fertilizer system. Day or night, they regularly water the plants and adjust the flow of fertilizer. Some have a tank in which the water and fertilizer are mixed and are distributed to plants via hoses, Y-connections and drip pins.

Greenhouse garden coil indoor/outdoor watering wand

This is a “self-coiling” garden hose made of rugged and durable polyurethane tubing. It produces ultra-fine mists and sprays in soft, gentle streams. Some wand models extend to as long as 50 feet. No hassle storage because of self-coiling mechanism.

Greenhouses constantly evolve in style and design. It follows then that tools and accessories will grow in number or existing ones will be considerably improved. Manufacturers are probably inventing more tools and accessories this very moment that will make our work in greenhouses easier and quicker.

Remember that you are not limited to a certain variety of plants to grow in a greenhouse. Bear in mind, however, that your preference for certain fruits, vegetables and plants will determine the type of greenhouse you like to build. “Know thy crop” is an important factor before deciding on the greenhouse type you will install.

A good way to get your feet wet in the greenhouse gardening arena, is to start with the Hydro Greenhouse 2.

This table-sized version of greenhouse gardening is only fifteen inches long, six inches wide and ten inches high. The unit is all inclusive as it comes with nutrient mix, planting bed and automatic feed system.

On the lightweight base, is an oval-shaped growing area. A container, looking much like a tiny, transparent silo, is secured on the base next to the growing unit. The tube-like container holds liquid growth nutrients.

According to the advertising, you can grow flowers, herbs and vegetables. Given the size of the greenhouse, these would have to be pretty small vegetables.. I’m thinking radishes and leaf lettuce. You can order one online at www.target.com. (key in mini greenhouse in the search field.)

However, the type of greenhouse you’re more familiar with is probably the frame and plastic cover version. A variety of styles and sizes can be found at www.littlegreenhouse.com. with a wide range of sizes and price tage.

For getting a headstart on the growing season, you may want to get the StarterHouse, RowHouse or Seed House. All are tent-shaped units with front opening flaps that allow easy access to you young plants. The heavy plastic covering allows sunshine in, trapping the warmth inside.

Other mini greenhouse offerings are large enough to be able to stand inside and wide enough to include several multiple-tiered tables and racks inside. Venting is essential in the micro environment you’re creating. With this in mind, the plastic openings can be rolled up like a tent window flap, exposing a screened vent.

Yet another option is offered at www.discountschoolsupply.com. The greenhouse is large enough to start all your garden bedding plants. As usual, this version also is climate controlled by means of a plastic covering that opens for venting and easy access.

Then we have the homemade, window sill versions. Most people are familiar with using milk jugs and egg cartons covered with plastic wrap. These homemade greenhouses are dirt cheap and very effective for sprouting new seeds for the spring garden planting.

One of the drawbacks, however, is actually keeping them on the window sill. One, small bump against the milk jug greenhouse can send it to the floor and send you into replanting a few seeds.

Whatever type of greenhouse gardening you choose, the result is the same: the enjoyment of watching your work grow up green and beautiful.