Greenhouses are an excellent way to maximize your home garden.
Adding a small greenhouse to your backyard garden will actually extend your growing season and increase your crops no matter where you live.
Not only will a greenhouse extend your growing season and help you grow healthier, more productive plants, a greenhouse can actually give you multiple crops of many varieties of delicious, home-grown produce.
How is this possible? Let's face it, severe weather is the nemesis of all gardeners.
If weather conditions are great, then crop production is great, and if weather conditions are lousy...
well you get the picture.
Greenhouses actually allow you to provide a controlled environment in which your plants can thrive, no matter what the weather conditions.
As previously mentioned, weather is a key factor to the success or failure of any outdoor garden, and all climates are prone to severe weather.
Northern climates struggle with short growing seasons due to the ever-present possibility of a late spring freeze or an early fall frost.
Greenhouses eliminate this concern by providing protection for your plants when the temperatures dip below freezing.
In the spring, the controlled environment of a greenhouse allows you to start seeds months before you would ever consider planting in the ground.
Then, when it is safe to begin planting outside, you already have healthy, thriving plants to put in the ground, rather than sewing seeds.
Further, as your garden first begins to yield, you can start another round of seedlings in your greenhouse that will thrive and produce well after the first killing frost has ended the production of your outdoor plants.
This benefit adds months of enjoyment of those just picked, ripe from the vine, vegetables over outdoor gardening alone.
In Southern climates, the length of the growing season is not a concern, but the long, hot, summers are.
Extended periods of exposure to oppressive heat and intense sun will cause many plants to stress and stop producing altogether.
Soft leaf plants like lettuce, spinach, & herbs, often wilt and even change from sweet in taste to bitter when exposed to too much sun and heat.
Greenhouses help you control the savage summer months by providing protection from the intense and drying sun's rays, preventing wilt and maintaining the quality of your plants and their production.
Greenhouses make it simple to start mid-year seedlings for multiple crops by providing protection for the young, tender plants from the summer sun's harsh and shriveling rays.
Greenhouses also protect your plants from damaging wind, and too much or too little rain which are conditions that can occur in any climate, and can be catastrophic to you crops.
Extreme weather conditions are present anywhere, and when faced with severe growing conditions, many plants go into survival mode.
They put their energy into staying alive rather that producing crops.
For example, windy climates will cause some plants to put their energy into growing thick, tough stems rather than producing fruits & vegetables.
Too much rain can actually kill your plants by causing diseases like fungus and root-rot.
Greenhouses give you control over all these unfavorable conditions.
Home gardening is a wonderful pastime that unfortunately is too short-lived due to many different climate conditions and severe weather.
Greenhouses give you control over these conditions, extend your growing season, and help you grow healthier and more productive plants.
By adding a small greenhouse to your backyard garden, or even as your home garden, you will maximize the enjoyment of your own home-grown produce.
The rewards will be delicious!