Building a Greenhouse 2 – Tools and Materials
Painting from http://www.haroldolsen.com
While you are never limited to any one variety of plants to grow in a greenhouse, your preference for certain fruits, vegetables and plants will determine the type of greenhouse you should build. Knowing your crop is an important factor before deciding on the type of greenhouse you will have.
You will need a good soil for planting seeds. Compost, potting or gardening soil and a little sand or perlite are a good start. Read all directions in your seed packets.
Keep some of those black plastic flats that nurseries use to display their plant containers. These are useful for starting sees and transplants.
Benches in greenhouses are essential, as they hold trays of plants that have already sprouted from seeds.
Styrofoam cups – have several of these handy. Seeds sprout quickly and once they grow large enough to move into separate containers, they can be gently lifted and transferred into ordinary styrofoam cups. You can also use yogurt plastic cups, and large commercial type containers that can hold more than one plant. In fact, any container you can think of will be suitable.
Other materials you should have on hand are broken clay pots, cracked walnuts, marbles, charcoal or gravel. These help in proper drainage. Be sure to soak clay pots in water a few minutes before using them. This will prevent the clay from absorbing the moisture from the potting soil.
If you want to have trellises inside your greenhouse, you can make them out of coat hangers, which you can bend to any shape your heart desires. Herbs are perfect for keeping pests at bay. They are nature’s insecticides. Have a variety of them inside your greenhouse. You can make a natural insecticide by adding onions or garlic to a jar of water. Leave it for a week and spray on your plants.
Other garden tools that will help you run your greenhouse efficiently are air coolers for the hot summer. This is to maintain the temperatures at desired levels. Power vents in the roof are also a good idea to release the hot air that can build up suddenly in the summer.
Greenhouse Tables, Shelving And Plant Holders
These are indispensable, especially when you need to work inside your greenhouse and to maximize and organize your greenhouse space. As your plant varieties grow, you will need shelves and tables and plant holders to facilitate your gardening. One popular type of bench that greenhouse hobbyists like is the cedar double layer bench. They are durable and efficient to use.
For shelves, you can opt for two and three section lengths made of aluminum
Given that watering your plants is an essential – indispensable -part of any greenhouse gardening, a good watering system is required. You can choose either the automatic or hand-held watering system to meet your watering needs more efficiently.
For automatic irrigation systems, there are models that come equipped with an automatic drip irrigation and fertilizer systems. Day or night, they regularly water the plants and adjust the flow of fertilizer. Some have a tank in which the water and fertilizer are mixed and are distributed to plants via hoses, Y-connections and drip pins.
Greenhouse garden coil indoor/outdoor watering wand
This is a self-coiling garden hose made of rugged and durable polyurethane tubing. It produces ultra-fine mists and sprays in soft, gentle streams. Some wand models extend to as long as 50 feet. The self-coiling mechanism makes it easy to store.
Greenhouses constantly evolve in style and design. It follows then that tools and accessories will grow in number or existing ones will be considerably improved. Manufacturers are probably inventing more tools and accessories this very moment that will make our work in greenhouses easier and quicker.
The ones we just described are already being used by many greenhouse enthusiasts. In a few years, new products will definitely appear in the market.
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