Greenhouses for Green Thumbs

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Gardening is a great hobby. It gets you out and about — so its good for the body. And it keeps your mind active. But gardening is heavily dependent on weather, which, if you’ve been watching the news lately, has been a bit erratic of late.

So, a hobby greenhouse may be in order. A hobby greenhouse is not large enough to produce vegetables or flowers on a commercial basis, but it will give you a place for a tomato plant or two and some fresh greens even if you live in the northern regions.

If you really get into your hobby green house, you might want to check out the Hobby Greenhouse Association (HGA), which publishes a quarterly magazine. The organization also sponsers events and helps individuals connect to get help with any 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 to choose from. The smallest 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 space as possible. The shelves are made of glass to allow plenty of light to reach plants on the lower shelves.

Another inexpensive version of this sort 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. They are usually 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.” This hobby greenhouse is made of a single piece of durable clear plastic which is designed to work like several 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 to allow air in and prevent 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 HGA have invented many interesting designs of greenhouses.

If gardening is your hobby, greenhouse growing might 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.