Whether you call it a greenhouse, a glass house or a hot house, they all have the same purpose: to allow control over the the environment to keep it at or near optimum levels regardless of extreme weather conditions for the purpose of producing plants year-round. While gaining the ability for gardening all year seems like a more recent innovation, the growing of plants in a greenhouse has been around for the last two millennium.
Here's a quick timeline of greenhouse growing throughout the ages.
1st century AD: Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella and Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), referred to protogreenhouses (specularia) constructed for the Emperor Tiberius (42 BC–37 AD) on the Isle of Capri.
The Sanga Yorok, a treatise on crop husbandry compiled by the royal physician of the Joseon dynasty of Korea during the 1450s, indicate the use of Ondol, a traditional underfloor heating system, to grow mandarin plants and ripen the fruit.
In the 17th and 18th centuries France had structures called Orangeries to protect fruit trees from cold temperatures. Wye House in Talbot County, Maryland has the oldest surviving Orangery in the United States.
The large wrought iron glasshouse structures built at the conservatory of the Royal Horticultural Society in Cheswick (1840) and Royal Botanic Society in Regent’s Park (1842–46) in England had a significant impact on greenhouse designs developed during the 20th century.
The greenhouse structural designs were developed to suit the local climates of where they were built. For example, in the Netherlands after World War II, the engineers in the city of Venlo developed a multi-span, tall, glass, insulated greenhouse design that was called Venlo-style after the city. These were developed with wide aluminum or steel trusses to provide sufficient strength to withstand high winds and snow loads. The Parral-type greenhouse evolved in the Almeria region of Spain. These structures have plastic-covered, curved roofs and low gutter heights. The Almeria region does not experience snow loads or high winds so plastic roofing and lightweight frames were used to keep the construction cost low.
The attractiveness of growing your own food is the fact that, after the initial costs, it can save you money by not buying produce and fruit at the store, it will allow you to preserve the harvest for winter, and it will give you better control of what you're eating, if you want to avoid GMO or foods sprayed with pesticides. If you live in an area that has mild winters, you can continue to grow produce, herbs, and fruits throughout the winter months.
Now that you have a general idea about growing in a greenhouse, make sure that you have the proper equipment. While some of these, like the greenhouse itself, are required for gardening year round, other things just make life a little easier. If you're anything like me, you love being able to grow your own food but even the best managed days get busy and sometimes remembering to water the plants slips your mind for a day (or two).
Greenhouse
This is the most obvious starting point for gathering your equipment.
If you're limited on space, a mini 4-tier greenhouse* is the ideal solution and can fit inside the house. If you have a yard, a 6'x6' polycarbonate greenhouse is just the right size for a couple, or for more space a 14'x8' greenhouse is available. For those with plenty of space, a 20'x10' greenhouse is for the serious gardener.
Shelves and work tables
When buying a greenhouse, it's just that: the greenhouse. It's up to you to buy the shelving units and work tables. Shelving units or work benches are best for holding the planters at the height you need.
Shelves are needed for the plants. Shorter ones can as few as 3 or 4 shelves made of metal or sturdy plastic. For taller greenhouses a 5 shelf unit would provide more space. If you would rather use a wooden shelf, theses are available as well, though not usually as big as the metal or plastic shelves. However, with using a wooden shelf, there are ones that have more creative designs than the usual shelf.
Potting benches are great for a work area. These range from a basic wooden bench or one with extra work space to aluminum to ones with a dry sink or with room to hang tools on it.
Equipment
Trawls, cultivators, weeders, and pruners are the basic tools needed. This goes along with the pots, soil, watering can, and seeds that actually grow into the plants you want to grow. Gloves are optional.
Trowels look like miniature shovels. These can be bought individually or as a set. A transplanter like this one will have a handy standard of units for measuring depths. Other ones come in a set of three consisting of a trowel, a transplanter, and a cultivator (the one that looks like a miniature rake).
Like everything else these days, a weeder comes in basic with a wooden or plastic handle, or with an ergonomic handle.
Garden pruners are needed for plants with vines or twigs that need pruning to keep them in good condition. Plants like tomatoes regularly need pruning to prevent the lower vines from using up valuable nutrients when they don't produce any tomatoes on that vine.
Of course, these can be also bought as a set. This is usually the more cost effective way to get all of the needed equipment rather than piecing it together one by one.
Seed starter trays are the best way to start the seeds. These come in plastic ranging in size from 6 cells to 72 cells. Cardboard trays are a great option as they can be put into the compost when the plants have outgrown them. For those who want a more permanent solution, individual Terra Cotta pots are available in 2.5" or 3".
A watering can is needed to keep up with the watering if a garden hose isn't available. Who doesn't remember their grandmother using one of these classic green watering cans in the yard? I used one when I first started gardening, but have since moved on to this metal one (I'm a bit unintentionally rough with my equipment and the sheep love helping me fill it.).
Potting soil is needed for the seeds to grow in. Like the vegetables themselves, this can come in organic or non-organic types. Some are just for flowers while others are just for vegetables, while others still are just all-around potting soil.
Seeds are individual to each greenhouse gardener. Some may want to grow just flowers. Others may want just vegetables or herbs. Non-GMO seeds are available as well as survival vegetable seeds. Don't ask me what the difference is between regular seeds and survival seeds, because I don't know (hmm...a topic for a later post?). To me a seed is a seed, whether it is or isn't GMO notwithstanding.
Extras
Now for the extras that make greenhouse gardening a little easier. These are not required, but will surely make your job easier. Here at Tyler Farm, we use solar powered outdoor equipment when we can. We originally bought solar powered lights for the shed, sheep house, and chicken coops, and now we have no idea how we lived without them. We've become spoiled without needing to take a flashlight outside with us each night to close up the chickens and sheep.
A drip irrigation will make it easier to keep the plants watered. One like this can water from 10 to 15 pots. Bonus points for being solar powered.
An automatic vent opener is ideal for those who are away from home or just don't have time to run outside to check the humidity levels in the greenhouse. This will automatically sense when it's too hot in the greenhouse and raise the vent, and then lowering it when the temperature drops back down.
Speaking of humidity, a humidity meter is great for keeping track of, well, the humidity. I love this little one because it's basic. There are ones that are Bluetooth compatible and use an app, but I'm not a fan of using an app for everything I do.
A heater is important in the winter time, but since I don't know much about that aspect of it, I don't want to give you the wrong information. If you need a heater for your greenhouse in the winter, do your research carefully and make sure that whatever one you choose is safe for the type of greenhouse you have. We wouldn't want a melted greenhouse because the heater was so powerful that it melted the plastic.
I'm sure there are things I'm missing on this rather lengthy list of things needed for your greenhouse gardening so let me know what I might have missed. Now get out there and grow some plants!
* Please note that as an Amazon Associate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases through this post. This will help keep the farm (and this website) up and running.
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