IT’S HOT!!! Welcome to summer heat here on the homestead. The garden is thriving, the orchard is producing, and the animals are steadily growing. Earlier this year, we added a greenhouse to our little farm. There is so much to learn about how best to utilize the greenhouse to increase production of crops. We were able to start seeds and keep them safe from the cooler weather this spring. For the first time, we started all of our garden crops from seed (except for some of my herbs). While this has been a huge help with being able to choose our varieties of vegetables, there is definitely a learning curve with a greenhouse. Our future hope is to learn how to keep some vegetables going for multiple seasons.
There are various kinds of greenhouses and which you choose depends on cost, location, and purpose. Tunnel greenhouses, sawtooth, and freestanding are just some of the types available. Generally speaking, a tunnel greenhouse is more affordable and easy to use. There are many materials one can use and size is up to each individual. These tunnels usually cover crops in the ground. Being a tall person a tunnel seemed like a lot of bending and crawling to me so we chose a freestanding greenhouse. A freestanding greenhouse can be purchased as a kit or built from scratch. Not having any experience with greenhouses, we chose to use a kit we found at a local store.
Location, location, location! No matter which style you choose you must consider hours of sunlight, ventilation, shade, humidity, and temperature regulation. Our greenhouse gets sunlight pretty much all day long and that must be considered when planning seeds and crops. During the early part of the year it wasn’t a big deal but as summer approaches we quickly realized we needed to add some shade cloth to keep our plants from burning up.
If I were to start this process over, I would have researched a little more about how to best use the greenhouse and probably added some inground beds instead of just shelves and tables. However, just like anything on the homestead, you adapt and learn to use what you have! Here are a few tips when you are thinking of adding a greenhouse to your farm:
- Think basic! What do you want to grow? Do you need in ground beds, or just containers, etc?
- Don’t forget about Vertical Space. Towers, trellis, and hanging baskets utilize space in freestanding or gabled structures.
- Plant All-Around the area. Skinny tables or stacked shelves provide growing space while leaving room to work and walk around.
- Reuse Old Containers. By planting in pots, you can move plants outside when appropriate and leave more space for starting seeds or growing crops that need special care.
- Make Minimal Adjustments. Using a greenhouse allows you to give each plant the type of soil they need. It’s easier to adjust additives to pots or small beds rather than the entire garden area.
One goal that we have for our homestead is to use our greenhouse to grow cool weather crops and hopefully extend our growing season. Whelp, back to work! There’s lots to do around Unruly Acres!