For saving space and soil, this method also has several
other benefits, including no soil-borne diseases, no
weeds to pull and no soil to till, run-of-the-mill side
benefits of soil-less gardening.

What do I need in my greenhouse?

That’s a quite a far-reaching question as it does depend on what you want to use your greenhouse for. But assuming you are a newbie to greenhouses and have your very first greenhouse to start growing, the first thing you need is good ventilation. Your greenhouse has a door, which needs to be close fitting and ideally wide enough to wheel a barrow through. It probably has a window or two that open manually, but to get the best airflow in your greenhouse you need vents that open low down and also vents up high to allow hot air to escape. You can buy automatic opening kits that fit onto greenhouse vents and will open the windows when the internal temperature rises, which is ideal if you work or are often away.

Growing Tomato
Photo: SuperFantastic

Many gardeners have one area of the greenhouse floor to plant into to for greenhouse tomatoes and other hothouse plants. On the other side they have a potting bench and some staging and shelves. Most greenhouse growers will admit that they never have enough room in their glasshouse to grow everything that they want to grow, so space management is important.

The potting bench is a great place to start, as it is here that most greenhouse gardeners sow seeds, pot up plants and generally make their mud pies. To keep mess to a minimum it’s a great idea to have a potting tray in place that will catch any spilt compost so tat you can collect it up and reuse it or add it to the compost heap.

The greenhouse staging and benches are for growing on your seedlings and cuttings. You need as much surface area as you can fit into your greenhouse to enable you to grow as many plants as possible. If you plan to start sowing early you really need a propagator and if you want one that is heated you ideally need a power supply. This needs to be installed by a qualified electrician to meet the current regulations. A power supply enables you to have electric lighting and heating in your greenhouse and barring a power cut is a reliable way to provide both.

Probably the one of the last considerations is the watering. Ideally you need a greenhouse tap inside the greenhouse to supply clean mains water to water your young protégés. With a tap installed you can fit an automatic time to any watering system, but ideally to a micro drip system that will direct water to where it is needed the most, i.e. at the roots of your plants. A watering can with a long reach is also a good idea and self-watering trays with clean capillary matting are also a good investment.

Finally you need some plants, some pots and modules and some compost and most gardeners would agree that a chair and a cushion are a great finishing touch to a garden room where you are bound to spend many happy hours of your life.

To know more about what you need for your Greenhouse and what are Cold frames visit http://www.growhouse-greenhouses.co.uk/greenhouses.php

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