One typical, small, prefabricated, plastic greenhouse comes packed in a do-it-yourself kit. The 6- by 8- by 7-foot model sells for under $80.00. Extra 4-foot sections are available so you can extend the house as much as you wish. The manufacturer claims it will stand up under 50-degree-below-zero weather. He recommends for it a $15.00 electric heater.

A manufacturer of prefab greenhouses puts out a delightful 10- by 12-foot Fiberglas house with an aluminum frame. This house eliminates hail damage, glass replacement, and periodic painting.
Still another manufacturer of prefab greenhouses includes with his greenhouses a Fiberglas roof.

Crops for the Transparent Plastic House
Many growers use the plastic greenhouse just as they would the cold greenhouse. They grow spring bedding plants and vegetables in it and, during summer, use it to store large specimen plants. Other growers use the plastic greenhouses the year round for growing potted African violets, wax begonias, geraniums, and so forth.

The care of plants in a plastic greenhouse, if it is well ventilated, approximates that of under-glass plants. If there is only side-ventilation, you should install a fan to circulate fresh warm air in winter and to bring in cooler summer air. If your crops need shading, do not use a material with a linseed oil base. This soaks into the plastic and can never be removed.

Other Uses for Plastic
Both transparent and corrugated plastic can also be used for glazing a cold frame or lath house. In these structures you can harden off annual and perennial seedlings, getting them ready for spring sales. Or you can start any of the plants recommended for growing in a glass-glazed cold frame.

And there are many uses for plastic inside the glass house. I use thin sheets of transparent plastic to cover flats of seedlings or cuttings. It helps to maintain constant moisture and cuts down the time spent on watering the plantings. I like plastic bags for storing tubers and bulbs. Also, I fasten sheets of transparent plastic inside the glass house to provide insulation against cold and so cut down on heating costs.

Fiberglas House in Illinois
Mr. and Mrs. F. O. Reh of Belleville, Illinois, have pioneered in Fiberglas greenhouses, and their experience is valuable for every grower. In their first plastic greenhouse, the Rehs used 40- by 140-inch sheets of corrugated plastic for the roof.

A clear mastic was used to seal the plastic sheets together. (The sheets can also be “cemented” together with a weatherproof adhesive tape.) An overlap of one corrugation was used. The sheets were fastened to the various supports with galvanized screws, set with lead washers. In this greenhouse, there are no provisions for vents in the roof, but four screened ventilators at ground level allow air intake. Top ventilation is provided by a thermostatically controlled low-speed fan. This fan makes an air change in the house every 7½ minutes without creating any drafts.

Owners of home greenhouses invariably have one problem in common. They do not build them large enough. This is an especially knotty situation for those of us who have profit in mind. If you are in this boat, you will welcome ideas on obtaining more growing space with the use of “auxiliary growing facilities,” such as cold frames, hotbeds, and lath houses.

COLD FRAMES
A cold frame is an outdoor growing “area” built without a bottom but with a solid-sided frame of wood, cement or brick, and a removable hinged top, glazed with glass, Fiberglas, or plastic. Cold frames are invaluable. For instance, they take some of the spring bulge from a greenhouse. By using them for growing greenhouse-started annuals and perennials, you make under-glass room for a new crop of salable plants. Then there are plants such as delphiniums, pansies, and Oriental poppies, to be planted in the frame in late summer and kept there over winter. The cold frame makes an excellent “cold-42 conditioning” rooting area for the spring-flowering bulbs you wish to force.

You can purchase material and build your own cold frame, buy ready-fitted supplies from a greenhouse dealer and assemble it, or you can buy a ready-made cold frame of wood or aluminum with plastic “lights.”

How to Build a Cold Frame
The frame should face south. If you are going to have but one frame you might want to attach it to your south greenhouse wall. If you plan on a number of frames, build them in rows either free-standing in the garden or attached to the greenhouse, garage, or other building.

In cold-winter areas the frames should be provided with a cover of matting, either the roll-up kind or straw mats. Wooden slats, cheesecloth, and shading paint compounds help protect plants in the frame from summer sun.

Standard-sized sash for use on the frame come 3 by 6 feet. If you purchase this, you will have to govern the width and length of your frame accordingly. However, you can use any kind of window frame, and with so many home owners converting wooden window frames to aluminum, you may be able to get wooden storm sash for little or no cost from almost any window or wrecking company, or through a want ad in your local paper. It may be easiest for you to obtain the sash and then construct the frame around it.

Here’s how we built our cold frame. For the back we used the cement wall of our garage. The frame is 18 inches high in the back, sloping to 8 inches in front, to allow water to run off. Lumber, 2 by 12 inches, 14½ feet, forms the front. The sides are 28 inches long.

The lights (three storm sash) are hinged on a 2 by 4 wooden strip which is nailed to the garage wall.
If you live in a cold climate and plan on using the cold frame for year-round growing, build it on a concrete or brick foundation which extends below the frost line. In my area the building code specifies that the frost line is 42 inches deep.

On sunny days, even in midwinter, you’ll have to be careful about ventilation. Heat can build up rapidly in the confinement of a cold frame and “cook” the plants. A notched stick will make it easy to raise the sash cover as needed.

THE HOTBED
A hotbed, obvious as it may sound, is basically a cold frame with heat. While cold frames receive all of their heat directly from the sun, hotbeds are heated with electric soil cables, stable manure or steam, or hot water heated with flues. The hotbed can be used earlier in the spring and later in fall and early winter than the cold frame.

Hotbeds are constructed just the same as cold frames, with a slope to the south to admit heat from the sun and to allow water or snow to run off. Plants growing in these frames are protected on cold spring nights with the same kind of mats suggested for cold frames.

Hotbeds are usually built to be permanent structures, with the frame of wood, concrete, or brick extending into the ground below the frost line. As with the cold frame, you can build it yourself, purchase a kit of materials for building it, buy a ready-built one, or have someone construct the entire thing for you.
A soil-heating cable furnishes the simplest kind of heat for the hotbed and these cables come in a variety of sizes and prices. The type used for hotbeds is insulated and enclosed in lead or plastic sheathing. The cables are made in several lengths but the most useful sizes are 40, 60, or 80 feet, all adapted for use with an ordinary electric service of 110 volts.

A 60-foot cable will heat a 6- by 6-foot hotbed. You should reckon your cable to suit your space. Each 60-foot cable carries an electrical load of approximately 400 watts. In our area the cost of operating such a cable on a continuous 24-hour basis is about 1 cent per hour. You should have a thermostat to regulate air temperature and another to regulate soil temperature. However, you will find that during many hours of the day the sun will heat the hotbed enough so the thermostat shuts off the current. As spring nears, the outdoor temperature rises and the artificial heat will be on for shorter periods of time.

You can conserve heat by making certain that all construction is tight. Bank the sides of the hotbed with earth and check the sash—it should fit tightly. If it doesn’t, weather-strip the top of the frame. Make sure that all glazing is well puttied and that it laps J4 inch at joinings. Keep the glass clean to admit maximum light. In my area it is not practical to use a hotbed before March first.

As the spring temperature increases, start ventilating the hotbed by raising the sash a crack. This applies equally to cold frames. From midday until mid-afternoon on warm spring days, you will have to ventilate more. Be sure to close the frame before the temperature falls at night.

There are many associated benefits as to why individuals or households would desire to produce their own produce. Many of those gains would include a safety factor from knowing how the food was farmed. Additionally, it may be more affordable.

Also, in order to draw out the growth season or possibly get an early beginning on a growth season, one may like to invest in a movable greenhouse. If so, there are definite characteristics that a portable greenhouse must contain. Those characteristics should include the type of cover, simplicity of assembly and storage.

Portable Greenhouse Cover

A portable greenhouse is a structure that is for sale on the market and is contrived for people who enjoy gardening. It literally is a structure that maintains a conducive environment for the growth of plants. Specifically, it maintains the proper temperature, keeps the plants secure from detrimental factors such as the wind and maintains the proper humidity.

To ensure that the portable greenhouse furnishes these required operations, it is crucial that the overlay of the movable greenhouse be well made. Therefore, there are tested qualities to the roof that should be incorporated.

Those qualities should include the substance that the cover should be made from. Generally, the cover should be durable, provide for light to enter, offer UV protection and lessen condensation. Also, the cover should be constructed so that there is a door and windows that are screened.

In addition, the windowpanes and the doors should have the option of being secured. Ofttimes this can be accomplished through lightweight fasteners.

Ease Of Assembly

Another critical option to look at when picking out a portable greenhouse kit is the simpleness in which the movable greenhouse can be put together. For example many portable greenhouses can be taken out of the transport cartons and put together speedily. Usually, this procedure takes less than an hour and requires no tools.

Other easy portable greenhouse kits only require the unit to be removed from the box and erected by merely pulling up on the frame. Once in place a bar that steadies the unit is placed appropriately. Once the frame is in place the cover is then draped over the frame.

Simplicity Of Storage

A factor that you will also want to consider is storage for the portable greenhouse when you are not using it. You will have to factor in the size of the unit when broken down and the area that you have available for storage.

Often portable units can quickly be let down by removing the stabilizing bar and depressing any levers to allow the unit to break down. When they are down most units simply get placed into their storage bags which double as the cover.

Want to raise tropical blossoms in a mild-mannered climate? Or live in the frozen North and envision some nice, weighty, juicy home grown organic tomatoes to dress your moose burger with? Then you require a greenhouse, also known as a hothouse. Conservatories are simple to fabricate and maintain, and come in a smrgsbord of sizes and materials to suite every last house and wallet.

They even have indoor greenhouses available for those who don’t have a yard to put one in..

A History of the Greenhouse

The origins of the greenhouse are uncertain. The emperor of Rome Tiberius evidently used a crude form of hothouse to grow the cucumbers that he liked so much. The modernized greenhouse can trace its origins to 13th century Italy. From there, the idea scattered across Europe, resulting in the great “botanical gardens” of the 19th century.

Greenhouses Nowadays

In our own time, greenhouses for home use have grown in popularity. They can be made with many different materials including an external shell comprising of glass, Plexiglas or even fiber glass with frames made of wood, steel or aluminum. They can be located anyplace that has healthy access to sun. A lean-to greenhouse can be connected to the side of a house and are a good option for those with limited budgets and/or space.

People living in flats can even buy models that will fit right in the window. Freestanding building are the most versatile type of building, as they can be located anywhere in your yard without respect to the placement of your home. Lastly, the largest and most expensive variety of greenhouse is the even-span, a full-size structure attached to a building at one end.

Questions to Consider

When contriving your nursery, several factors need to be considered. How will it be heated? How will you ventilate it? Where will the light and carbon dioxide come from, both of which are essential for growing hothouse plants? Once again, several alternatives are available, ranging from uncomplicated combinations of fans and heaters to sophisticated, thermostat driven air conditioning systems.

As a popular rule of thumb, the more you are disposed to spend, the less work you will have to do monitoring and maintaining your greenhouse. Also, you need to account for the capability of the heating system. This can be concluded if you account the square footage of the surface area and have a good approximation of the heat holding ability of the glazing material on the structure.

The better insulated the material is, the less powerful the heating system needed. Put Differently, purchasing a nursery has the possibility for many fake savings, and skimping on your base structure may turn out to be really costly in the long haul.

Do you wish you could grow vegetables but you don’t have enough yard space? Maybe you should think about getting an indoor greenhouse. If you live in a condo or apartment, it’s easy to see the attractions of an indoor greenhouse. But even homeowners with large yards are attracted to the idea of an indoor greenhouse.

A real benefit is the lower expense involved. Even a simple lean-to greenhouse shed is more costly to build than a small indoor unit. It’s not that difficult to build a greenhouse in your own home with supplies that are readily available at any home improvement outlet.

Or maybe you want an indoor greenhouse, but aren’t interested in building one from scratch. Fortunately for you, it’s possible to purchase indoor greenhouse kits. You can get these in various styles and brand names. They’re available at nurseries, department stores and even online.

You can buy indoor greenhouse kits in many different varieties, from a small countertop herb garden to a larger unit that might consume a good portion of your basement.

If you don’t find this idea suitable, you can build your own greenhouse on the cheap. Begin by building a freestanding set of shelves, about 4 shelves in total. You will need to attach it securely to the floor.

Next, there needs to be a way to retain the moisture and heat that you have provided. This can be accomplished by using sheets of plastic or an old shower curtain to cover the shelves, and sealing them with duct tape. You can provide heat by purchasing heating pads and placing them at the bottom of the greenhouse. Make sure you buy a thermometer so you can measure the temperature regularly.

Place a cup of water in your greenhouse to provide the humidity your plants need. The plants will require light, and you can provide this with a simple fluorescent light. But you should really consider purchasing a specially designed grow light that will help your plants thrive. A basic unit is relatively inexpensive.

Your next task is to find some containers, fill them with soil and plant your garden. Set them on the shelving unit and give them a drink of water. Now sit back and admire your do-it-yourself greenhouse that does the job just as well as a kit.

These are general guidelines, and you can add to them with your own ideas and preferences. You will most certainly end up with an indoor greenhouse that’s perfect for you, whether you buy or build.