The Backyard Greenhouse is finally getting some respect!
Ms. Kirkpatrick plans to decorate using washed-out paint finishes, farm tables and old galvanized-steel seed trays. She has several old baskets to hold tools and clay pots. And she wants to have cabinets built around an abandoned porcelain sink she discovered in her grandmother's house. "I'm now looking for old, ratty oriental rugs to throw on the floor," she says.
At International Greenhouse Co., a commercial and residential distributor in Danville, Ill., sales to homeowners are up about 30% from three years ago, while commercial sales have been "in the dumps," says business owner David George. Hartley Botanic Ltd., a British maker of Victorian-style greenhouses (average price, $65,000), pegs annual sales growth in the U.S. at about 15% for the past three years. Behind the growth is increasing "awareness about growing your own food and getting back to nature," says Johnny Mobasher, Hartley's U.K.-based managing director. Hartley's typical consumer is about 60, "fully retired, their mortgage is paid up, working a couple days a week and with a lot of disposable income," he says. Brenda Plantz, 65, has been experimenting with different plant combinations in her "Victorian manor" greenhouse from Hartley, which she had built last July at her Charlottesville, Va., home. The cost, including electrical wiring, gas heating and plumbing installation, was about $80,000. Her San Marzano tomato plants, started from seed, are about a foot tall, and mesclun lettuces are ready to pick. She plans to start English cucumbers from seed soon. But more than a vegetable zone, Ms. Plantz's greenhouse is her playroom. "It's a huge sunny spot, and fun to go there in the wintertime, sit at the table and have a cup of tea," she says. Greenhouses let in light and contain heat—meaning on a sunny, frigid day, temperatures inside can easily run 50 degrees higher than outside, says Shane Smith, author of the book "Greenhouse Gardener's Companion." In winter, that can be ideal for growing tropical plants, which thrive in temperatures in the 80- to 90-degree Fahrenheit range. But watch out in spring and summer, when interior temperatures can be unbearable for plants and humans, climbing up over 120 degrees. Crack open a few windows or run a fan so plants don't overheat. On winter nights, to protect plants from frostbite, it may be necessary to run a space heater. Mold and mildew thrive in greenhouses with overwatered plants or inadequate ventilation. The fan or the heater will help, but running them also will add hundreds of dollars a year to the electric bill. "It's kind of like having a pet," Mr. Smith, the author, says. "If you disappear for four or five days, you can have problems." Ms. Plantz appreciated the risks of ownership last August, when an earthquake rattled the East Coast a month after construction ended. "I looked over to the greenhouse and the very end pane moved," she says. "We were petrified that the whole thing would come crashing down." The structure remained standing. When Dan Schwenker, 57, and his wife, Deb, 55, built their long-dreamed-of outdoor pool, Mr. Schwenker thought of a way to swim year-round. "An idea popped into my head—greenhouse," says the retired vice president of a Burlington, Iowa, construction company. "We usually go for a swim at night, after we get off work." Even in the dead of winter, he says, "you can just go out there, turn on the pool lights, see the blue water— it's just really nice." From the Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/articles/ By Anne Marie Chaker March 7, 2012
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Creative Garden Pallet Uses Are you looking for a way to add dimension and interest to your garden area? Is your dilemma one of limited space? Try adding an old pallet to your plans for an inexpensive solution to many gardening challenges. You might already have one lying around that you can reuse. You can also seek pallets out at recycling or donation centers and at stores that carry large item inventories. Don’t be afraid to just ask your local hardware store if they have pallets you can take off their hands.
Once you have found a pallet, you should clean it up and determine whether the wood of the pallet has been chemically treated with preservatives, especially if you would like to plant edibles into your pallet garden. After that, the key to incorporating a pallet into your project is to tap into your creative side and think a little outside of the box. Or maybe inside the box, in this case. Here are ten clever ways to use a pallet to enhance your garden projects.
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