Greenhouse Garden

A greenhouse garden gives a gardener more time to spend cultivating his garden without the perils of nature. Even a small greenhouse affords many new possibilities, from early vegetables to orchids. Available automatic equipment can give complete control of the environment. Growing vegetables in winter, in the cold and frigid areas, is a popular trend for a greenhouse garden.

In a greenhouse, a gardener can raise plants that would suffer from cold, heavy rain, wind, and disease if they were grown in the open. For cold-climate gardeners there is the enjoyment of having plants in full bloom in the dead of winter when the outside landscape is covered with a blanket of snow.

In a natural setting, moreover, a plant's growth culminates in pollination and seed production; once an insect has pollinated a flower, the bloom begins to fade. In the protected environment of a greenhouse, with its screened ventilators, flowers remain in bloom longer than they would outdoors.

Greenhouses may be either heated or unheated. An unheated greenhouse will not keep out frost, but during the growing season it creates consistently warmer conditions for plants than exist outside. This extra heat speeds the development of plants and helps force shrub branches into flower and fruit ahead of their normal season.

An unheated greenhouse also gives the outdoor gardener a jump on the weather; he can get vegetable and annual seeds germinated, and the seedlings will be ready to set out as soon as the garden soil warms up in the spring. Besides starting plants early, he can bring some into the greenhouse in the fall, thereby extending their season.

This extended growing season begins in spring as the greenhouse glass traps the heat of the sun on clear days. Then in fall the glass retains the warmth that has built up in the soil during the summer.

For the ardent gardener who lives where winters have freezing temperatures, but more usually range from 35 degrees to  minus 45 degrees F an unheated greenhouse is invaluable. He will find that a wide range of half-hardy shrubs, annuals, and many bulbs, such as lilies and gladioli, can be grown there.

When artificial heat is introduced into a greenhouse, the range of plants that can be grown increases greatly. Tender plants that otherwise would never survive freezing weather can be kept under perfect conditions. With the installation of automatic equipment for heating, ventilation, shading, and watering, environmental control is almost total. In a greenhouse garden you not only can start your seeds and bulbs for flowers or vegetables, but you can use it for just relaxing.