Building Greenhouses Today

Save Money And Plan Your Greenhouse For Best Results In Growing Your Produce

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:18:59 +0000

Many are intersted in building greenhouses today. Now that you have decided that you would like to build a greenhouse, lots of planning needs to be done.

What type of greenhouse do you want to build and what kinds of plants do you want to grow? There are large freestanding greenhouses, smaller lean to greenhouses, window greenhouses, and even some indoor greenhouses. In order to determine which type of greenhouse will meet your needs, you need to determine what those needs will be.

Do you want a greenhouse to start seedlings early in the spring or do you want to keep your plants growing late into the fall or are you interested in wintering your plants. You also need to determine the kinds of plants you want to grow in your new greenhouse–flowers, vegetables, herbs.

In addition to the types of plants you want to have in your greenhouse, you also need to know how many you want so that you will be able to determine the size of your new greenhouse. This is also determined by the area that you have available as well as the climate in your vicinity.

After you have determined what you will grow, the size of greenhouse you will need, and where it will be located, you must determine the best materials to suit your needs. You need to determine the framing material, the covering materials, and the base or flooring.

Framing can be made of wood, which provides a good deal of strength, and is needed for certain types of covering such as glass. Other types of framing materials are PVC, steel and aluminum. Each type of framing material has benefits and drawbacks.

Coverings are another decision to make. Polyethylene is used quite often and is a heavy duty clear plastic which bends quite easily and is therefore often used with PVC frames. Polycarbonate comes in sheets or panels and has the clarity of glass. It also comes with different layers with each layer offering more durability. Corrugated plastic works with wood, aluminum, or steel frames but is used less often these days. The last and most traditional is glass. This is probably the most difficult to install and breaks quite easily. It is very attractive, clear, clean and crisp so it is often used in fancier greenhouses such as Victorian greenhouses.

The base for your greenhouse is determined by such factors as the terrain of your location, the strength of the base needed for the type of greenhouse, and the weather in your location. Bases are often made of steel or lumbar. Some greenhouses are placed on concrete foundations which can significantly increase their cost.

As you can see, there is much to consider in deciding on your greenhouse plans for building a new greenhouse today. There will be more things to consider such as greenhouse supplies as well as greenhouse kits that you will need to consider later on.

DIY Hydroponic Hints And Advice!

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:59:54 +0000

by Charles Jackson

With your own DIY hydroponic systems in place you can grow anything you fancy and you’ll before long possess an abundance of quality fruit, vegetables, flowers or herbs!

So if you are thinking about getting into DIY hydroponics then you really should as there are many benefits to it:

1. One of the foremost problems with soil based farming is under or over watering! Well as with hydroponics you don’t water them, this difficulty is totally eliminated!

2. Hydroponic plants grow up to 50% faster! This is because the roots do not have to enlarge to look for nutrients, they are already present in abundance! Home hydroponic plants grow extremely swiftly.

3. No soil means that little space is considered necessary. You don’t even need to have a garden!

4. There’s no spread of soil borne illnesses which generally effects garden plants!

5. You’ll have no need to utilize any horrid pesticides on your hydroponic plants as garden pests which thrive in soil will not get anywhere near.

6. As soon as your DIY hydroponic system is up and running, running costs are 20% lower!

7. You will be able to grow more plants in a lesser area! Even though your plants will grow to be superior, the roots will be smaller which makes this achievable.

8. There are no weeds with hydroponic gardening! This means that upkeep is almost non existent. All you actually need to do is collect your fruit or veg and enjoy.

9. The yield is year round and not seasonal. This is for the reason that you have manipulated the growing conditions specific to the plants optimal growing situation. You will have never ending fruit or whatever you decide to plant.

10. You can plant your plants anywhere; in a greenhouse, garden, rooftop, living room, bed room or corridor.

11. As the roots have full access to all the water they call for and the growing conditions are ideal all year round, your plants will grow on average 40% larger!

About the Author:

You should learn extra about DIY Hydroponics as well as about setting up your very own DIY Hydroponics Systems!

How-To Hydroponics, Fourth Edition

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:21:29 +0000

Have you wanted to learn about hydroponics but didn’t know where to start. This is a great, easy to understand resource with great customer ratings. Check out the description below.

Hydroponic Lettuce – 9 Reasons You Should Grow Your Own!

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:38:46 +0000

by Charlie Jackson

If you’re thinking of growing hydroponic lettuce then you’ve chosen probably the easiest vegetable to grow hydroponically! Hydroponic lettuce is scrumptious too and you might have a serious side line for additional income.

Hydrofarm EMSYST Emily’s Electric Garden System

Beneath are some reasons why you should grow hydroponic lettuce at home.

1. As you’re not growing them in the soil, you’re not going to have that soil flavor that is just so darn hard to wash off lettuce. You know what I’m talking about don’t you!

2. No soil borne disease will be passed on to your lettuce. This is a large dilemma for many gardeners.

3. Have you observed that slugs forever tend to go for the lettuce before anything else? Well as there’s no soil, they won’t have a chance to get anywhere close to your hydroponic lettuce. So you will not have to obtain any costly pesticides either.

4. Your management expenses will be around 20% lower after everything is set up.

5. Upkeep time is reduced. There is no need to water them as they already have access to all the vitamins they need and weeding does not exist with hydroponic gardening. In fact all you will really have to do is pick the lettuce once it’s ready.

6. For hydroponic lettuce, the growth time is usually 4 weeks! So if you plant your initial seeds once a week for four weeks, you’ll have everlasting lettuce yields.

7. Anywhere you can think of, you can grow hydroponic lettuce; on your roof, garden, living room, corridor, cellar, loft or greenhouse.

8. Your hydroponic lettuce will be approximately 40% bigger than there soil born brothers! This is because you’ll have manipulated the growing conditions to be their optimum for lettuce and they will have access to all the vitamins they require.

9. Since water is swiftly obtainable constantly, the roots do not need to spread out. This means you will be able to grow more lettuce in a smaller space despite the lettuce actually being bigger.

About the Author:

Hydroponic Lettuce is tasty and simple to grow! You can as well earn a lot of money from growing it. You ought to find out more about planting Hydroponic Lettuce At Home!

The Problem with Traditional Vegetable Gardening?

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:11:48 +0000

By Jonathan White, environmental scientist. Traditional vegetable gardens require an enormous amount of hard work and attention – weeding, feeding and strict planting schedules. There is also the problem of seasonality, allowing beds to rest during the cooler months producing nothing at all. Then we are told to plant green manure crops, add inorganic fertilizers and chemicals to adjust imbalanced soils. It takes a lot of time, dedication and a year-round commitment to grow your own food the traditional way. But does it really need to be that difficult? Let me ask you this question. Does a forest need to think how to grow? Does its soil need to be turned every season? Does someone come along every so often and plant seeds or take pH tests? Does it get weeded or sprayed with toxic chemicals? Of course not! Traditional vegetable gardening techniques are focused on problems. Have you noticed that gardening books are full of ways to fix problems? I was a traditional gardener for many years and I found that the solution to most problems simply caused a new set of problems. In other words, the problem with problems is that problems create more problems. Let’s take a look at a common traditional gardening practice and I will show you how a single problem can escalate into a whole host of problems. Imagine a traditional vegetable garden, planted with rows of various vegetables. There are fairly large bare patches between the vegetables. To a traditional gardener, a bare patch is just a bare patch. But to an ecologist, a bare patch is an empty niche space. An empty niche space is simply an invitation for new life forms to take up residency. Nature does not tolerate empty niche spaces and the most successful niche space fillers are weeds. That’s what a weed is in ecological terms – a niche space filler. Weeds are very good colonizing plants. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be called weeds. Now back to our story. Weeds will grow in the empty niche spaces. Quite often there are too many weeds to pick out individually, so the traditional gardener uses a hoe to turn them into the soil. I have read in many gardening books, even organic gardening books, that your hoe is your best friend. So the message we are getting is that using a hoe is the solution to a problem. However, I would like to show you how using a hoe actually creates a new set of problems. Firstly, turning soil excites weed seeds, creating a new explosion of weeds. And secondly, turning soil upsets the soil ecology. The top layer of soil is generally dry and structureless. By turning it, you are placing deeper structured soil on the surface and putting the structureless soil underneath. Over time, the band of structureless soil widens. Structureless soil has far less moisture holding capacity, so the garden now needs more water to keep the plants alive. In addition to this problem, structureless soil cannot pass its nutrients onto the plants as effectively. The garden now also needs the addition of fertilisers. Many fertilisers kill the soil biology which is very important in building soil structure and plant nutrient availability. The soil will eventually turn into a dead substance that doesn’t have the correct balance of nutrients to grow fully developed foods. The foods will actually lack vitamins and minerals. This problem has already occurred in modern-day agriculture. Dr Tim Lobstein, Director of the Food Commission said. “… today’s agriculture does not allow the soil to enrich itself, but depends on chemical fertilisers that don’t replace the wide variety of nutrients plants and humans need.” Over the past 60 years commercially grown foods have experienced a significant reduction in nutrient and mineral content. Can you see how we started with the problem of weeds, but ended up with the new problems of lower water-holding capacity and infertile soils. And eventually, we have the potentially serious problem of growing food with low nutrient content. Traditional gardening techniques only ever strive to fix the symptom and not the cause. However, there is a solution! We must use a technique that combines pest ecology, plant ecology, soil ecology and crop management into a method that addresses the causes of these problems. This technique must be efficient enough to be economically viable. It also needs to be able to produce enough food, per given area, to compete against traditional techniques. I have been testing an ecologically-based method of growing food for several years. This method uses zero tillage, zero chemicals, has minimal weeds and requires a fraction of the physical attention (when compared to traditional vegetable gardening). It also produces several times more, per given area, and provides food every single day of the year. My ecologically-based garden mimics nature in such a way that the garden looks and acts like a natural ecosystem. Succession layering of plants (just as we see in natural ecosystems) offers natural pest management. It also naturally eliminates the need for crop rotation, resting beds or green manure crops. Soil management is addressed in a natural way, and the result is that the soil’s structure and fertility get richer and richer, year after year. Another benefit of this method is automatic regeneration through self-seeding. This occurs naturally as dormant seeds germinate; filling empty niche spaces with desirable plants, and not weeds. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge this method faces is convincing traditional gardeners of its benefits. Like many industries, the gardening industry gets stuck in doing things a certain way. The ecologically-based method requires such little human intervention that, in my opinion, many people will get frustrated with the lack of needing to control what’s happening. Naturally people love to take control of their lives, but with this method you are allowing nature to take the reins. It’s a test of faith in very simple natural laws. However, in my experience these natural laws are 100% reliable. Another reason that traditional gardeners may not like this method is that it takes away all the mysticism of being an expert. You see, this method is so simple that any person, anywhere in the world, under any conditions, can do it. And for a veteran gardener it can actually be quite threatening when an embarrassingly simple solution comes along. I have no doubt that this is the way we will be growing food in the future. It’s just commonsense. Why wouldn’t we use a method that produces many times more food with a fraction of the effort? I know it will take a little while to convince people that growing food is actually very instinctual and straightforward, but with persistence and proper explanation, people will embrace this method. Why? Because sanity always prevails… …eventually! Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method. For more information see www.Food4Wealth.com

Easy Start Greenhouse

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:20:10 +0000

EasyStart Greenhouse 6′ x 4′ Timeless Design

These top quality aluminum greenhouses are smartly designed to keep costs to a minimum, and quality to a maximum. Greenhouses are green and come complete with clear 4mm twin-wall polycarbonate glazing for good light refraction, high insulation and added safety.

Features No rust, no rot aluminum frame UV coated 4mm twin wall polycarbonate Includes ground stakes and all hardware Inside height: center: 76″; shoulder 49″ w/base 54″ Sliding Door – Opening: 24″ W x 65″ H Powder coated green

Add an optional galvanized steel base (4″ high) for supplemental strength Ships Fasts — Arrives within 1-2 weeks

*Exaco roof windows do not fit in 4′ x 6′ models

An Exaco Trading Design EXACO USA Ltd. is a family owned company in Austin, Texas. The company has been a supplier to major home centers for 17 years and prides itself on its relationship with a sheltered workshop in Austin that provides jobs for persons with mental disabilities. Exaco greenhouses are specially designed to extend the growing season, even in the middle of the winter. It is the only product of its kind available at such a reasonable price. Garden.com is also proud to present Exaco composters. Both are made of superior craftsmanship and design.

Hot Pots: Container Gardening in the Arid Southwest

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:57:23 +0000

If you live in the arid Southwest as I do, you will find this little book a gem. It contains detailed information about creating a decorative yard, patio, or balcony in arid climates and discusses the variety of plant options available. It discusses the variety of plant options available—from vegetables and fragrant flowers to colorful containers that create an atmosphere of tranquility and attract nature. This is truly “a find” for those who live in an arid area such as the Southwest.

Algreen 81112 50-Gallon Agua Rain Water Collection and Storage System, Dark Brown

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:42:22 +0000

Another Algreen rain water collection system with 5 Star reviews. This one is a dark brown if that matches your needs better. It has 50 gallons of storage for those areas that get enough rain to capture and use for their greenhouse watering needs. This one has a great value price too.

Fiskars 5998 Salsa 58-Gallon Rain Harvesting System, Spice Granite

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:18:48 +0000

Save 30% today on this great Rain Harvesting System.

Listen to what just one customer had to say, “Fantastic. I love this product I purchased 2 and am seriously thinking of getting another 1 or 2. I have 6 down spouts and could harvest a great deal of water for my gardens. I have several gardens and am a Master Gardener.”

Dramm ULVA+ Sprayer with Battery and Recharger

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:01:18 +0000

This is a portable and lightweight sprayer for use in outdoor row crops or flowers. It has a low volume and ultra low volume to apply most chemical formulations. It comes complete with battery and recharger.