Greenhouses Gardening: Easy Tips for Beginners
If you live in a harsh climate, at a high elevation, or just want to grow food year-round, then a greenhouse might be the perfect season extender that enables you to achieve your gardening goals!
Find out how to make your greenhouse gardening the best ever!
GREENHOUSE GARDENING Tips, Tricks & Ideas
OVERVIEW:
- Location | Site
- Type of Material for Foundation
- Cost
- Wind
- Ventilation
- Available Materials
- Mice and Gophers
- Pots, Planters and Containers
- Whether you are building a custom greenhouse or purchasing a greenhouse kit, these considerations are equally important with greenhouse gardening .
PERMANENT or TEMPORARY LOCATION:
First, decide if your greenhouse will stay in one place or be movable.
We built our greenhouse on a concrete slab for convenience.
To do this, we bolted 2 x 6 boards to the slab and then attached the greenhouse to those boards.
Foundations are useful, but you should check each location to see if a foundation is possible.
TYPES of FOUNDATION MATERIALS:
- Poured Concrete Footer and Stem Walls
- Cement Block Foundation
- Treated 2×6 Boards on Concrete Slab
- Placed Directly on the Ground
GREENHOUSE or SHED FOUNDATION:
You can use either a concrete footer or cinder blocks for a strong foundation, but this option is more permanent and ore expensive.
If you choose to build a footer, attach your greenhouse to it or the concrete blocks to keep it secure.
IMPORTANT: If you want organic certification, avoid using treated lumber in your foundation, footers, stem walls, or boards. Treated lumber has chemicals that can seep into the soil.
Treated fence posts can also affect your organic certification, so check with your local conservation district or organic certification board.
FLOORS:
We have a concrete floor in our greenhouse. This has worked out well as the concrete warms during the day and radiates heat at night.
I have kept lettuces, greens, kale, and chard well into the fall months in this small greenhouse.
I dig my garden kale plants and transplant them into the greenhouse to extend the growing and harvesting of these greens.
If you are planting in containers, pots, and planters, then concrete floors work well.
You can also use wooden planks for flooring, but a simple dirt floor works equally as well.
Be cautious with treated lumber in or near your greenhouse if you want to sell your produce as organic.
When setting up your greenhouse, watch for mice and burrowing rodents and plan for their presence.
COST:
The cheapest way to set up a greenhouse is to anchor it directly to the ground using rebar or tie-downs.
Concrete floors, cinder block foundations, and beam foundations may work well for you, but make sure to figure in the cost of the materials and labor. If you have materials on hand, then a permanent foundation may work out well.
WIND:
No matter which type of foundation you choose, just make sure to secure your greenhouse to the ground so your greenhouse and vents do not receive any wind damage.
If you are placing your greenhouse directly on the ground, then plan to secure the structure to the ground by rebar or some other type of tie-downs.
If at all possible, build your greenhouse in an area that received adequate sunshine but that is somewhat protected from the wind!
VENTILATION:
Make sure to consider a ventilation system for your greenhouse. It will heat up considerably with direct sunlight.
We used automatic vent openers in the roof. These vents were non-electric and worked off a tension spring.
I would highly recommend installing some type of automatic vents.
This type of automatic vent opens and closes on its own as your greenhouse warms and cools.
They are a lifesaver for you and your plants!
SUNSHINE:
Make sure to locate your greenhouse where it will receive at least 8 hours of sunlight a day. It is super important to have the necessary amount of sunlight to ensure strong, healthy plants.
If plants do not receive at least 8 hours of direct sunlight, they will become leggy, which means they grow too fast trying to reach the light.
The stems are long, spindly, and weak. These types of plants do not produce well.
SHADE CLOTH for SUN PROTECTION:
With 8 hours of direct sunlight, you must be keenly aware of overheating and sunburn. Shade cloths are available to protect your plants from sunburn.
If you have automatic vents, then you will need to hang your shade cloths on the inside of your greenhouse.
Hanging your shade on the interior of your greenhouse will allow the vents to open and close properly.
If you have vents on the sides of your greenhouse, then you can securely tarp the shade cloth over the top of your structure.
Most plants tolerate the heat real well if they have adequate water. Never let your plants dry out in a greenhouse.
WATER SOURCE:
It is very important to locate your greenhouse near your water source.
We have hauled water in watering cans, which works……but which is also very time-consuming and difficult when the weather is hot!
So, locate your water source and plan accordingly.
MICE and GOPHERS:
Word of Warning: Make sure to deter any critters from burrowing underneath your footers or foundation.
I had a very happy group of mice that just loved sneaking into my greenhouse.
I finally figured out why my lettuces and green were not germinating as this little group was digging up my lettuce and spinach seeds right after I planted them.
There were neat little holes all over the top of the dirt in my pots!
Plug any and all holes from mice, chipmunks, gophers, or picket pins.
Steel Wool Works great for plugging small holes to stop all rodents from getting into your greenhouse.
If you decide to build your greenhouse directly on the ground, then plan on burying some type of wire on the outside.
This buried wire will help prevent and deter any burrowing animals.
Tip: Mice love tomatoes! Be sure to block and seal all holes and openings in your greenhouse!
STARTING PLANTS IN A SMALL GREENHOUSE:
I have planted in pots and containers with good success. The pots and containers are placed directly on the concrete floor or on planting tables.
We built planting workbenches so I had plenty of space for seedling trays, hanging pots, and planters. Make sure to look at ideas for starting garden seeds.
Planting in the ground is much less expensive for the simple fact that you will not need to continually replace the potting soil or planting medium.
If you plant in the ground, you will need to add soil amendments, but the dirt can be developed year after year to increase the fertility of it, and the soil in your greenhouse will retain water much better than above-ground pots.
Planting directly into the ground also allows you to plant earlier, as the soil inside the greenhouse warms up much faster and retains heat much better than garden pots and planters.
