Greenhouse Gardening: Top 3 Reasons You Should Try It

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Gardening can be a rewarding activity, whether or not you have a green thumb. Cultivating and growing plants offers benefits to your physical and mental health. It can help reduce stress, improve mood, and lower blood pressure, among others.

With a greenhouse, you can enjoy this activity even further because you can do it year round. This is especially true of structures that feature smart technologies. Some greenhouses, for example, come with automated window shades and blinds, which let you control the amount of sunlight that enters the transparent structure.

Access Fresh Produce All Year

A greenhouse garden gives you access to fresh produce at any time. Since you grow your own plants, you’re sure that they are safe and have fewer pesticide residues. Organically produced crops can contain more nutrients, like vitamin C, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus compared with conventionally produced products.

Additionally, having access to fresh food is a major cost-saver. You don’t have to buy ingredients that you can easily grow, such as tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, or herbs. You can also plant several herbs and spices to enhance the flavor of your dishes. The herbs you can grow indoors include:

  • Basil
  • Bay
  • Sage
  • Oregano
  • Rosemary
  • Parsley
  • Tarragon
  • Thyme

Pest Invasion and Extreme Weather

One of the challenges in gardening is dealing with pests. They can cause severe damage to your plants and ruin your garden. The most common pests you might encounter are the following:

  • Aphids – they suck out sap from plant tissues.
  • Cutworms – one-inch moth larvae that usually attack the stems of plants.
  • Slugs – they eat any garden plant mostly at night.
  • Scales – they can turn foliage to yellow, and drop off as well as suck plant sap and weaken plants.
  • Spider mites -they destroy a plant’s vitality by turning yellow, brown, or gray until they drop off.
  • Japanese beetles – these insects skeletonize leaves and eat the flowers.
  • Whiteflies – these insects weaken plant growth. They also leave honeydew that causes fungal disease on leaves.
  • Squash bugs – these pests are usually present in squash and pumpkins where they suck juices and wilt plants.
  • Squash vine borers – these feed on stems, causing plants to wilt and eventually die.
  • Tomato Hornworm – they eat the leaves of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes.

Each pest has different effects on plants. They have various ways of attacking, as well. That’s why the method of elimination may vary based on their characteristics. Preventive measures, however, will allow you to keep them out of your greenhouse.

In addition to pests, extreme weather can also affect the health of your plants. Some plants may thrive in cool weather while others require more sunlight than most plants. And then some plants can’t survive a cold temperature. It’s critical to learn which plants have a high tolerance for extreme weather patterns. In doing so, you’ll be able to provide each one with adequate care.

And the best way to ensure that your plants receive the right temperature levels at the right time is to build a smart greenhouse.

Protect Your Plants with a Greenhouse

Conservatory Craftsmen’s luxury greenhouses are designed with advanced technology that makes gardening manageable, and not just enjoyable. Our exquisite structures feature automation and climate control technologies, creating an optimal growing environment for your plants.

We’ll look after the entire process, from design to the completion of the project, to bring you a greenhouse that meets your standards.

Contact us to know more about our services.

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Project Profile: Building the Queens Farm Museum Greenhouses Phase III

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Long before we were able to bring the new greenhouses to the Museum, the old greenhouses had to be removed. Carefully, removing the remaining glass to avoid injury was a challenge. The competent crew of Conservatory Craftsmen got the job done without a scratch.

Dumpsters were filled for recycling the wood products and glass. Metal parts were carefully removed and cataloged. Measurements were confirmed again, and numbers were sent to the shop.

As window frames were produced, glass measurements were taken and tempered, safety glass, was put into production. Each opening had a location ID and a dimension of its own.

The roof glass became quite a matter of discussion. In the ‘old days’ greenhouse glass was lapped, like fish scales. Since large sheets of glass were unavailable, small pieces that lapped over each other fit the need. So, we had to come up with an efficient glass, that was strong and safe and could lap.

 

We designed a glass panel using 1/8″ tempered sandwiching two pieces of glass together over special lamination. This effectively made the glass in the roofs of the greenhouses stronger than the glass on the windshield of your car.

The installation of the glass, the step we call glazing was a blast from the past. We installed glazing putty (pretty much not used in glazing in 50 years) to set the glass. Then we used special, stainless steel brads with a unique tool to hold the glass in place. Finally, we used a specially formulated silicone to seal the glass from the exterior. Each step took a glazier about half an hour and there are 400 pieces of glass on each roof!

 

Roof vents were carefully designed to open with the gearing but close tight to seal and drain away water. In today’s world, that would be a simple matter with rubber seals. For historical purpose there are no gaskets of any kind on this project, each piece of the greenhouse had to be carefully fit to make sure water did not enter the greenhouse and it drained away from the greenhouse.

The project was also featured on Accoya.com, Click Here to read more.