Garden All Year Long with a Hobby Greenhouse

Gardening can be a lot of fun, especially when warm weather arrives and you can spend more time outside. But a greenhouse can do a lot to help you enjoy your passion for gardening all year long.

Why would you want to have your own greenhouse? Here are a few good reasons:
- You don't have enough room in your house for all the plants you want to grow.
- The climate of the area you live in won't support what you want to grow. The temperature may be too low in the winter or too high in the summer. You may live in a really dry climate but want to grow tropical plants that need lots of humidity. Or maybe the temperature and humidity are fine but the growing season is too short. A greenhouse can provide the kind of climate control that will allow you to grow plants that would normally not survive outside (or even in your house).
- You can still grow longer-season plants, like tomatoes, outside if you start the seeds early inside - in your greenhouse.

But if you think a greenhouse has to resemble the commercial ones where you buy your trees and plants, the prospect of buying or building your own may sound daunting. However - not all greenhouses have to be that big or sophisticated. What you probably need is a "hobby greenhouse," which is smaller, simpler, and - perhaps most importantly - much less costly. In fact, there are probably more hobby greenhouses in existence today than there are commercial ones.

When it comes to a hobby greenhouse, you'll have a lot of choices. Depending on what you need, you can get one that's big enough to walk around in or small enough to fit in a window. You'll still have flexibility when it comes to features like ventilation and temperature and humidity control. You may even be able to find a greenhouse that's solar-powered, which will reduce your heating/cooling and electricity bills and be more environmentally friendly. You may even be able to build your own greenhouse using waterproof shelving and a plastic "tent."

The Hobby Greenhouse Association offers many different kinds of support, including information about how to build and maintain a greenhouse, a seed exchange, and a book and video lending library. It also sponsors local chapters and events to help owners get in touch with each other. And it publishes a quarterly magazine and mid-quarterly newsletter. If you decide to take greenhouse gardening seriously, membership in the HGA is a good choice.

Gardening can be a great hobby, but in many areas it can be limited to warm weather months. A hobby greenhouse can not only extend your gardening time but also give you the opportunity to delve into areas that might have been "off limits" because of your local climate.