An Introduction To Greenhouse Gardening
Dave Truman
There are three aspects to gardening. The first is where your garden is inside your home. The second is to utilize outside space to plant your garden. The third is to do your gardening under glass and this is called greenhouse gardening.
Greenhouse gardening is very similar to outside gardening. You need to be able to control the greenhouse temperature. Keep in mind that plants do much better in temperatures that are a little lower than house temperatures and they need much more humidity. This will be the perfect environment for your greenhouse plants.
The best way to ensure the right amount of sunlight and heat for your greenhouse is to build it in a spot that can take advantage of the maximum amount of sunlight right throughout the year. This is especially important during the spring and fall seasons as the sun is at its lowest point in the southern sky. You should try and have your greenhouse located where the sun's rays will reach through a southeastern to southwestern direction.
To ensure that ventilation flows throughout the greenhouse you should space your plants evenly around the gardening areas. One method of having good ventilation is to open the greenhouse doors in the morning and close them in the late afternoon. This is a fine method in the winter time as well, providing that you keep the weather report in mind and make sure that winter frost does not creep into your greenhouse in the late afternoon.
The other way is very simple. Just hose down the entire greenhouse floor and then open the ceiling vents. This method cools down the entire greenhouse very quickly.
For whatever plants that you have in your greenhouse, commercial potting soil works fine. Rather than having your plants in pots or containers you should grow them in large tray beds. The best greenhouse gardening soil mixtures include fir bark, sand, peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for drainage.
Make sure that plants will get enough water. You need to take special care and not over water plants. The moisture level is regulated in a climate controlled greenhouse.
You can use your imagination in a greenhouse. Leave yourself lots of room so you can add new plants and move around to look after them.
If you're planning on planting root vegetables such as carrots, beets and turnips, make sure they are planted in a deep box tray that you can fit under benches. Lower growing leafy vegetables can be planted in tubs with taller items. Peas, cucumbers and tomatoes also do well in tubs.
Let you imagination run wild and see what results you can obtain when it comes to greenhouse gardening.
About the Author:
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