Whether it’s for your home or business, having a greenhouse will benefit you greatly. Here are some reasons it’s advantageous to invest in this structure:
- A greenhouse can help you grow fresh vegetables, exotic plants, houseplants, flowers, bulb plants, and other types of seedlings. You get to decide what you grow on it from year to year, and you can choose a myriad of produce to focus on. It gives you so much freedom in terms of gardening.
- Greenhouses are good for our overall health and well-being. Being around greenery helps increase our happiness and reduce stress.
- Having a greenhouse can also help us contribute to a more sustainable and eco-friendly world.
Investing in a greenhouse is both good for the environment and our health. Here are some tips for building your own, whether it’s at home or your place of business.
Make sure your structure is oriented properly
You have to ensure that your structure enjoys full-day west and east exposure. It will help combat extreme heat during warmer months, but it can also improve daylight hours and warmth during colder seasons when crops grow much slower. Having your structure placed north will contribute to cost-effectiveness. It helps to cool down the structure during the summer rather than supplement daylight photosynthesis and heat.
Talk to the people who will build your structure. For example, contractors for glass event centers need to be informed that the structure will serve as a greenhouse. With this, they might have ideas on how to orient the glasshouse properly.
Choose the best type of structure for your specific needs
If you plan to grow fruits and vegetables every month per year, your structure needs to be strong enough to support this endeavor. Choosing double poly and tube frames will only produce seasonal crops, and having these types of materials for an all-year-round plan might cause your crops to die or fail.
Invest in high-quality coverings
Thankfully, there are now polycarbonate coverings in the market, which should be good enough depending on the crops you choose. These coverings are good enough for light transmission and long-term durability, so make sure not to skimp on them if you want your greenhouse to be a success.
More affordable coverings might help you save some money upfront. But it will only cost you more in the long-term if you have to keep replacing them if they’re not effective. In horticulture, as in life and investing, we always get what we pay for. So if you must cut costs, don’t do it at the expense of coverings.
Keep the roof high
If you live in an area that snows, your greenhouse will need a peaked roof since you want to avoid the snow collecting and collapsing the roof. A domed roof can work. But you want to make sure that there is enough pitch so that natural elements like rain, snow, and ice don’t collect in a single spot.
Mind the venting and heating
Regulating the temperature is key to ensuring that your greenhouse is true to its purpose. Proper venting is crucial to ensuring that moisture is properly released, lest you want your plants to rot. If your greenhouse is on the smaller side, simply raising the cover using a block of wood or even a brick will be enough.
But if not, you would have to think of other ways to exhaust using a rooftop vent. Generators can also be a good way to keep the greenhouse warm during colder months, and they can also be enough for a wide range of temperatures.
Prioritize short and long-term maintenance
There are no two ways about it: Caring for a greenhouse is hard work, and there are no shortcuts to success. From building the structure and gardening to keeping it clean, it will be hard work throughout, and you need to enlist the help of people who know what they’re doing.
But while investing in a greenhouse may be a lot of work, its benefits far outweigh the efforts. It helps send a message that you or your company care for the planet, and it will help you and the people around you gain a new appreciation for Earth and how it allows living things to grow. It will also help you, your family, or your company to be more self-sustaining.
So dream big for your greenhouse, partner with the right vendors, work hard. You will find yourself ready for whatever the world throws at you for the coming years.
