For people who would like to do more gardening but live in a short
growing season area, a hobby greenhouse is the answer. A
hobby greenhouse is not large enough to produce vegetables or flowers
on a commercial basis. It will, however, give you a place for
a tomato plant or two and some fresh greens even if you live in the
northern regions. Greenhouse enthusiasts even have their own
association, called the Hobby Greenhouse Association, which publishes a
quarterly magazine. The organization also sponsers events and
helps individuals connect to get help with the aspect of gardening that
they are interested in, whether it's growing cacti or saving seeds.
If you are in the market for a hobby greenhouse, there are several
types on the market. The smallest type is not large enough to
walk into and must be accessed from the outside. It resembles
an old-fashioned phone booth made all of glass and outfitted with
shelves. This type is designed to fit as many plants as
possible in as small a place as possible. The shelves are
made of glass to allow as much light as possible to reach plants on the
lower shelves. Another inexpensive version of this sort of
hobby greenhouse is shelving covered with a zippered tent of clear
plastic. This sort of arrangement is great for the
small-scale hobby gardener wanting a place to keep her flowers or
houseplant starts.
There are a variety of designs of hobby greenhouse that are large
enough to walk into but made entirely of clear glass or
plastic. They are often about the same size as a small
storage building. Some independent builders have started
making these to sell locally. Among national brands, one of
the nicest is called the "Solar Prism." It is called this
because of it's unique construction. This hobby greenhouse is
made of a single piece of durable clear plastic which is designed to
work like tiny prisms side by side. They trap the rays of the
sun and shoot them back into the greenhouse at all angles.
For this reason, these little greenhouses are said to glow
when the weather is cloudy.
Better hobby greenhouses are equipped with automatic sensors that open
vents which allow ventilation and keep the interior temperatures from
getting too high. These are a great labor saver, but can get
expensive. Another benefit sometimes found in nicer
greenhouses is a built in irrigation or misting system.
Members of the Hobby Greenhouse Association, or HGA, have invented many
interesting designs of greenhouses.
If gardening is your hobby, greenhouse growing will interest
you. With a greenhouse, you can have the earliest tomatoes
and salad greens all year. You can also start seedlings for
the main garden early in the spring when outdoor temperatures would
kill them. A hobby greenhouse can be a good investment.
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