Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Time to come in from the cold

Companies see interest in greenhouse gardening growing

By Denise Cowie
Knight Ridder Newspapers

It’s about this time of year, when container plants are still lush but ever-shorter days signal that killing frosts can’t be too far off, that gardeners are apt to sigh and mutter, “I wish I had a greenhouse.”

If only we had a greenhouse, we figure, we could keep tender plants alive until next year, extend the fall season, get a jump on spring, and even — maybe best of all — create a warm, green oasis to sustain us through the winter.

Now, apparently, more gardeners are making the wish a reality.

“Greenhouse gardening is growing at an exponential rate,” said Mike Helle of Sunshine GardenHouse, a company in Longview, Wash., that ships greenhouse kits all over the country. Although the number of gardeners who own greenhouses is still quite small, “the growth in the last few years has been in the range of 15 to 20 percent a year.”

Considering the boom in all aspects of gardening during the last couple of decades, it’s not surprising that everyday gardeners might see greenhouse growing as the next frontier. Often, though, the concept has seemed too complicated and too expensive.

It doesn’t have to be either, Helle contends.

“I have been trying to demystify greenhouse activity,” he said, by making the technical aspects as straightforward as he can. After all, he said, “if you want to be complicated, even lawn care can be technical.”

And although greenhouse gardening used to be thought of as something reserved for the wealthy, good-looking kit greenhouses now “are affordable on a level that is still an investment, but not outside the realm of what many gardeners would be willing to spend.”

Helle’s company sells greenhouse kits starting at $1,299 for a 6-by-4-foot model.

To make greenhouses more user-friendly, Helle says, some of the major sellers of kits are getting together to increase awareness and discuss ways of providing a kind of “tech support” system for potential greenhouse owners.

About 800,000 people nationwide purchased sunrooms or greenhouses last year, up about a third over five years ago, says Bruce Butterfield, research director for the nonprofit National Gardening Association.

“Many people dream of a greenhouse,” said Butterfield, “but often it’s hard to swallow what they cost.”

What they cost, though, depends on what you want.

“We can do anything that anyone wants us to do,” said Bob LaRouche, owner of Glass Enclosures Unlimited in Wayne, Pa., who deals mostly with custom designs. He has built Victorian conservatories, greenhouses with wine cellars below, and one with a virtual-reality golf range and a movie theater underneath.

On the other hand, Michigan-based FlowerHouse offers tentlike pop-up units that company founder Scott Wehner calls “self-erecting portable greenhouses.” (The concept won an award for innovation at the huge Gafa trade show in Germany recently.)

The 8-by-8-foot DreamHouse model in a plastic Gro-Tec material costs $300 delivered, and “you could put it up now and take it down in May and hang it from a hook in the garage until next fall,” said Wehner, which could make it useful for gardeners with restricted space.

Because it’s made of plastic, you’d have to pay careful attention to your choice of supplemental heat. Wehner suggests dark flooring and dark-colored containers filled with water that absorb the sun’s heat by day and release it by night, or a small ceramic heater with its own thermostat.

In between the extremes of greenhouses are numerous choices of varying complexity.

“A freestanding kit greenhouse is a project that could be undertaken by the average, rather handy person,” said LaRouche, “but a greenhouse that is attached to your home should be undertaken very carefully and should probably be built by a professional.”