What true gardener hasn’t experienced a kind of sad, “gone” feeling every fall when he has had to put his garden to bed for the winter”?
And it’s no wonder because it means the end of the garden for perhaps five long months for those of us who live in the North.
I built a small greenhouse to bridge the gap from fall to spring. Now I have my gardening, with all its joy, twelve months of the year, and I wonder why I waited so long to do it and why more garden enthusiasts haven’t done the same.
In the short time I have had my greenhouse, I have found that gardening under glass is far less strenuous and presents far fewer problems than outdoor gardening. This means more relaxation and time to enjoy the flowers and plants than one ever gets during the outdoor season.
And I scarcely need to point out that a small greenhouse is no longer something exclusively for the well-to-do, as there are now many types designed to fit any pocketbook.
Building a Small Greenhouse
I would describe myself as just an ordinary guy (though perhaps a bit “cracked” on the hobby of gardening!), living in a suburb of Chicago, commuting some 20 miles twice a day, and, like thousands of others, trying my best to meet the everyday competitive problems of a large city.
When I come home at night, I am tired and weary of the noise and dirt of the metropolis.
In the spring, summer, and fall, I can go into my garden and find tranquility, comfort, and physical exercise, all of which help me to relax and feel at peace with the world and my family.
In the wintertime, no garden awaits my return, so, as I have said, I built the greenhouse. Now, I can look forward every day to pleasurable evenings and weekends working in my garden under glass.
A greenhouse’s basic, essential work can be done quickly, and there is plenty of time to just sit and enjoy my flowers.
What a thrill it is on a cold, blizzardy winter night on opening the greenhouse door to inhale the fragrance of the flowers, to see the blaze of color, and to feel its humid warmth!
What a beautiful escape from the tension and struggle of the city. The day gets off to a better start, starting after watering the plants each morning and having one more good look at the flowers before catching the 8:03 for the town.
And how much fun it is to give friends a bouquet of mums, sweet peas, stock, nasturtiums, or a potted plant that you have grown yourself.
Yes, gardening in a small greenhouse gives me a tremendous “lift,” and no investment has ever paid such satisfactory dividends.
Developing Know-How
Before building my greenhouse, I made every effort to learn as much about growing under glass as possible.
I’m sure I made a pest of myself visiting local florists and growers, but when they realized how truly interested I was, they volunteered a wealth of valuable information.
You will find many amateur gardeners with small greenhouses are, likewise, most cooperative.
I read several hooks and garden magazines, all of which helped me develop a greenhouse “know-how.”
Books For Greenhouse Gardening
As regards the hook on this subject, I would suggest by all means that you read “Greenhouse Gardening for Everyone” by Ernest Chabot carefully. You can buy this book in any good bookstore.
I keep one copy of it on my greenhouse work bench and another in my library so that it is handy at all times. I call it my greenhouse bible.
Anyone planning or operating a small greenhouse owes Mr. Chabot a debt of gratitude for his book’s excellent material and how it has been arranged and written.
Some other books I have found to be very helpful are:
- “Commercial Flower Forcing” by Laurie and Kiplinger
- “Commercial Floriculture” by Fritz Bahr
- “Principles of Floriculture” by E. A. White
- “Geraniums” by Helen Van Pelt Wilson
- “Grow Them Indoors” by Allen II. Wood
- “Standard Encyclopedia of Floriculture” by L. H. Bailey
Choosing The Right Greenhouse For Your Needs
The greenhouse for you. Numerous sizes and types of greenhouses are available, but you’ll be wise not to bite oil more than you can chew.
Just as in outdoor gardening, it is better to do a good job with a smaller space rather than a sloppy job with a larger space.
If you are like I am and can’t pound a nail straight, you will do well to put yourself in the hands of experts in selecting and building your greenhouse.
You will find any of the well-known greenhouse manufacturing firms are most cooperative in aiding you to select the type and size greenhouse best suited to your particular needs. You will have money to get the best in building a greenhouse to last.
My house is 25 by 10 1/4 feet; it has two benches running east and west, with a 3 1/2-foot aisle in the center. Be sure to allow ample room in the aisles, both to provide plenty of room to work and permit visitors to move around in comfort.
The ideal location for a small greenhouse is one running east and west, with an open southern exposure, and preferably attached to the home, though in my case, it had to be attached to the garage. A separate heating unit is usually desirable and often necessary.
A New Heating Pipe
The small greenhouse is usually heated by hot water. I am not a heating expert, but I want to call attention to a new type of heating pipe that I believe is revolutionary from the standpoint of efficiency and economy.
Ordinarily, a regular 2-inch steel pipe is suggested, with three runs into the house for incoming heat and three returns. This means six pipes under your benches—all of which take up most of the much-needed under-bench space.
This new pipe is a regular 2-inch steel pipe with 4-inch fins welded to it at intervals of about ¾-inch. I found that one foot of this type of pipe has over five times the radiation of a similar length of a regular 2-inch pipe.
Given this increased radiation, it is only necessary to run one pipe under the benches; therefore, your expense of pipe and labor is less, and you have the advantage of more space under the benches.
Control Insects and Diseases
Insects and plant diseases in a small greenhouse are not the problem they are in the outdoor garden.
Although you make every effort to maintain a clean, neat house, which is very important, you will find that a regular schedule of pest control is an excellent preventive measure.
Do not wait for insects or other pests to arrive before you spray or fumigate. Numerous thick books have been written on garden and greenhouse pests, and you may wonder how any plant could survive by reading about them. But don’t be fooled, as it isn’t half as bad as it sounds.
In visiting several large and more successful professional greenhouse growers, where pest control is a major chore and expense, I have found that the new aerosol-type bomb is very popular in controlling greenhouse pests.
After taking the cue from them, I have completely discarded several “sure-kill” preparations that cluttered my premises, and I now use the new “Hep” bomb (hexaethyl tetraphosphate) exclusively. This aerosol formula has proven highly successful in combating greenhouse pests.
It will kill or completely paralyze most insects in 2 to 10 minutes. It has proven to me the safest, quickest, and most efficient insect control method.
Attached to this bomb is a hose and metal sprayer, which pours out a fine mist that will not leave a deposit on plants, foliage, or flowers and will not fade or discolor blooms nor injure plants through hardening or burning. For my greenhouse (2,000 cu. ft.), it only needs to be on for two seconds.
I can use it anytime, day or night, sunny or cloudy, and soil wet or dry. All I have to do is raise the temperature to a minimum of 60° degrees Fahrenheit, close the ventilator and doors, turn on the spray for two seconds, and get out. I can go back in and work in twenty minutes to an hour. It is simple, clean, and quick.
I also have the aerosol household insecticide bomb with DDT and pyrethrum, which is very effective for controlling minor pests usually found under the benches.
Of course, this aerosol must not be used on plants. No more laborious measuring, mixing, pumping, and cleaning sprayers for me!
A Continuous Display
At the time I write, there have been three killing frosts in this area. The temperature is 22° degrees Fahrenheit, and a cold, raw wind is blowing outside.
The garden has a few weeks of hydrangea, 2 poinsettias, 200 freesias, 200 Dutch iris Wedgwood, 2 pots of lily-of-the-valley, 2 large pots of nasturtiums, 100 ranunculus, 1 amaryllis, and several varieties of vines lining both benches.
Under the benches and along the walk are additional potted freesias, Dutch iris, vine cuttings, geranium plants, fuchsia plants, potted Easter lilies, and more azaleas.
Out in the cold frame are over 250 tulip and narcissus bulbs that will be brought in after January 1 to join the parade of bloom.
The entire selection of plants and bulbs has been planned so that I will have a succession of blooms from early October until June.
A cutting frame, an essential part of any greenhouse, is up near the door and built onto a 3 by 3-foot section of the bench. This frame is covered with a window sash that can be raised or lowered for ventilation.
Under the sash is about G inches of clean, sharp sand, under which a heating cable is thermostatically controlled for 70° degrees Fahrenheit bottom heat. This is where I make soft and hardwood cuttings of mums, geraniums, fuchsia, impatiens, ageratum, vines, and various shrubs.
I am maintaining what is known as a cool house with a top night temperature of 55° degrees Fahrenheit. Almost everything I have mentioned will do well in this temperature.
Of course, you may not wish to have such a large variety of plants, but my main purpose is not so much to specialize as to have a succession of blooms.
Greenhouse For Pleasure and Beauty
Why don’t you build a greenhouse, too? Here is a spot to which you can invite your friends and let them enjoy all of their pleasure and beauty.
“What gardening means to me.” Several people have asked why I am so enthusiastic about gardening outdoors and indoors, and my answer is best expressed by Jessie Morris, whose words, entitled “What Gardening Means to Me,” I have printed and framed in my library:
“Gardening is, to me, an escape from artificiality into a sane world of order and balance. It gives me a feeling of security and satisfies a primitive need for the assurance of unchanging fundamentals. In my garden, I find never-shifting values. I find the eternal laws of the universe in tangible form.
“Gardening makes me humble. For in my garden, I work with a force far stronger than I. When I realize that flowers absorb color and perfume from within a dimension beyond my understanding, my belief in God is strengthened. Gardening satisfies my hunger for spiritual beauty and creation.
“If ideals seem futile, if friends disappoint me, if my heart is sad, or my mind in turmoil if my eyes are dull and my body sluggish, I can go into my garden and find faith, tranquility, comfort, and physical exercise, all of which give me a feeling of well-being.”
44659 by Frank S. Coffin