greenhouse growing tips

Greenhouse gardening as a cure for the incurable gardener

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in America. Much of the attraction to gardening is due to the satisfaction of working with the soil, planting seeds or small plants and seeing them bear their fruit. Whether you grow flowers, herbs or vegetables, your reward is great. Delicious additions to the table or lovely vases of fresh flowers give everyone in the family something to enjoy. Once you're hooked on gardening, you get the gardening blues in winter. It doesn't take long before you'll be wishing you could have a setup for greenhouse gardening. Just think. You could grow tomatoes in winter, force some bulbs in November or pamper some exotic orchids.

Perhaps you think that greenhouse gardens are too expensive to be more than a wish-list item. The good news is that a greenhouse gardening setup is not so expensive when you add up the benefits of having one. For example, let's say you devoted your greenhouse garden to winter vegetables. You could grow all the vegetables your household could use for the entire winter. Think of the savings! On top of that, you'd be enjoying truly fresh produce, brimming with nutrients, every day.

You can make a small, but profitable business from your greenhouse garden. You can grow produce and herbs to sell to local, select restaurants. Going organic adds value when selling to restaurants that buy local produce. Another way to make greenhouse gardening pay is to grow starts of summer annuals from seed. You time your planting to have good healthy starts available at planting time, then hold a yard sale. You can sell at a good price and make hundreds of dollars of profit.

A well-managed greenhouse garden can pay for the entire setup in a single season. This is certainly a convincing argument when you want to convince your spouse that this would be a wonderful birthday or Christmas gift.

You may derive so much satisfaction from running a small business with your favorite hobby, that you'll do it year after year. If you'd rather give a shot to grafting plants or growing tropical beauties, your first year of making your greenhouse garden pay means that heating is your only main expense after you've paid off the cost of your greenhouse.

You can purchase a greenhouse or buy plans to build your own. If you're handy with carpentry, you can probably put one together on your own. You'll need to pour a cement foundation, get a heating system, fan and ensure good ventilation. Beyond that, all you require for a complete greenhouse system is shelving, pots or beds and pathways.

If your spouse is one of these incurable gardeners, you'll never hear the end of your gift of a greenhouse gardening setup.