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March 2009

What kind of greenhouse should I buy this spring? (pt.2)
03/23/2009 - 13:04
Buildings like the Cross Country series perform great and look even better.

In the first part of this article I posted last week, I covered Do-It-Yourself and hobby greenhouses.  In this part of the article I want to cover prosumer, cold frame, and full commercial greenhouses.

Professional + Consumer = Prosumer

Most of the greenhouses I will call prosumer are lumped together in our hobby greenhouse category, located here on the Greenhouse Megastore.  While technically this is true, the size and cost of these structures really makes them much more than just a hobby.  Sizes can run from 12' x 12 to 20' x 20' and above, while costs can begin right around the $5,000 dollar mark and go up beyond $20,000.  I call this category prosumer because that is a pretty serious commitment to make for "just" a hobby and because any of these structures would fit right into a retail growing operation as a show house, a research house, a seeding house, etc.

Cold Frames

Cold frames are a high quality, inexpensive greenhouse structure with commercial capabilities.Technically speaking, the source of all knowledge (Wikepedia...or Google) indicates that our cold frame buildings don't meet their definition of the term "cold frame," - 

In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protect plants from cold weather. The transparent top admits sunlight and relies on the greenhouse effect to reflect back radiant heat that would otherwise escape at night. Essentially, a cold frame functions as a miniature greenhouse season extension device.

  - but that's OK; our buildings are interchangeably called cold frames, hot houses, and hoop houses, among other names. The important thing to know about them is that they are non-engineered greenhouse structures.  This just means that an engineer has not signed off on the structure, but that they are field tested to withstand, typically, 70mph wind and corresponding snow loads.  Their non-engineered status and inexpensive materials list makes them a very affordable, similar functioning structure compared to full commercial buildings.  Often times they are used for production houses in a commercial growing setting.

Full Commercial

These buildings are the most versatile and feature filled structures of all.  They are useful in educational, reseach, and commercial applications and can be as inexpensive as $20,000 all the way up to $100,000 and beyond.  The main determinate of price will be size and choice of equipment.  These buildings can be gutter-connected, partitioned, hundreds of feet long, multiple climate zone behemoths, or, they can be releatively simple 35' x 48' teaching greenhouses with just a heater, fans, and shutters.

They will be structurally engineered to a specific wind and load rating, constructed with load bearing sidewall posts and usually glazed with 8mm twin wall polycarbonate.  There are multiple sizes and several styles to choose from, so if you are interested in anything outside the standard sizes and configurations, then you will need to call a sales representative to get a quote for these buildings. The two buildings of note are the Ranger 2000 Series, a lighter duty, less expensive building, and the Gable 7500 Series, the big boy of our greenhouse family. These categories are by no means hard and fast, black and white.  There certainly is some overlap, and what's commercial to one person may be hobby to another.  But this at lease gives you a peek at what is possible and available to you when you begin to consider your greenhouse structure.

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Commercial Greenhouses, Hobby Greenhouses
cold frame, hobby greenhouse
3.666665
The President's doing it so it must be cool.
03/20/2009 - 14:52

Looks like the new Prez is even getting into the whole vegetable garden thing.  It's hard to believe that this will be the first vegetable garden at the White House since WWII.

Anyway, it just goes to prove the point I made here, here, and here, that vegetable gardens are becoming the new hot accessory for this spring.  They're like a Prada handbag made out of dirt or something.

Hmm, on second thought...better not try to lug your new garden around on your arm.  That could get messy. :)

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Gardening and Eating, Organic
President
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What kind of greenhouse should I buy this spring? (pt.1)
03/18/2009 - 12:36
The Easy Grow is a great building for the money.

Well, spring has arrived (or is at least on the verge of arriving) for most of us across the United States.  And I know I can speak for everyone here in the Midwest when I say, "Finally!"  It has been a long, cold winter and it's nice to finally be able to envision a world that is full of color and absent a crunchy icy shell. With spring comes the flurry of activity all gardeners are familiar with: planning the garden layout, preparing the soil, purchasing seeds, propagating, planting, etc.  With all the economic woes this year, new and first time gardeners are coming out of the woodwork in an effort to save money and have fresh, safe vegetables. Some of those new gardeners are purchasing or are contemplating purchasing a greenhouse for their backyard or lot.  Even if you are a seasoned garden veteran, a greenhouse is a logical next step to supplement your existing garden activities.  However, there are a few different types of greenhouses available, and the differences between the two can be somewhat difficult at times to determine. Every greenhouse essentially works on the same principles, so one "works" just as good as any other.  However, not every greenhouse owner wants the same things from their buildings.  Greenhouses can differ in aesthetics, efficiency in heating and cooling, climate control capabilities, durability, ease of use, ease of construction, etc.  Now is a great time, before growing season really gets going,  to outline the different types of buildings available and their respective pros and cons. Do-It-Yourself The primary advantage a DIY greenhouse is the cost.  They can be very inexpensive to construct since they are usually devised and built with at least a portion of available scrap material.  Scrap windows, scrap lumber, etc.  I've already covered poly film covered PVC greenhouses, which are a popular DIY solution because of the low cost.  But as with anything, you get what you pay for.  In this case, you get a short term greenhouse structure that will require frequent work as it is exposed to the elements. The drawback to a DIY of course is that you are 100% on your own when it comes to planning and building them.  There are some plans floating around on the Internet, and there are threads devoted to DIY greenhouses located at several of the more popular gardening sites, but for any direct help you're on your own to figure it out.  That's why these are best for the tinkerer, the weekend warrior, the person who doesn't mind projects and has the time and energy to devote to them.  Once complete they can be very rewarding.

Hobby, Residential, and/or Backyard Greenhouses

These greenhouses are small, usually no more than 150 sq. ft., and come in kits that include pre-cut, pre-punched frame pieces and panels along with a step-by-step instruction manual.  They sometimes even include a video.  These kits are perfect for small spaces and for those that don't have the time and/or energy to devote to either a DIY project or a larger project.  They work well as a place to start seeds and overwinter plants, although they can be a bit small to fully supplement a vegetable garden.  They also work great as a place to maintain flowers and other decoritive plants. Hobby greenhouses typically have extruded aluminum frames and twin wall 4mm polycarbonate, although some have thinner, single wall polycarbonate.  Both coverings are rigid, but the single wall has very little insulation value comparatively. I have chosen to split this article because the above two categories of building are probably going to be the most common for those still hoping to purchase a greenhouse for this year.  In the next part of my article, I'll cover prosumer, cold frame, and full commercial greenhouses. Please check back to find out more about all of these great types of buildings.

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Frame Style and Material, Location and Other Considerations, Hobby Greenhouses
backyard greenhouse, hobby greenhouse, residential greenhouse
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Tighten that belt.
03/10/2009 - 10:50

With all the doom that has befallen the economy, its nice to hear of the few bright spots left.  Especially when those bright spots are in your industry. :) Apparently seed sales for, specifically, vegetables are way up this year, as mentioned in this article in the Seattle Times. Folks across the country are attempting gardening for the first time, presumably, because of a little bit of fear, a touch of yearning for a return to simpler times, and a dash of attempting to recapture something we collectively felt as if we've lost.  And of course there's the cost savings that comes from dropping a couple of bucks on a packet of seeds that will produce an entire summer's worth of food.  That's always nice.

"If a person has been laid off, and had a finite amount of money, they're looking at spending $2 for a head of lettuce that'll last two days," says Greg. "Or for $2 they can buy a packet of lettuce seeds that has 300 seeds and eat lettuce all summer long."

Not only does it save you money, but you end up with fresher, healthier vegetables that you can personally verify were cared for properly.

But it's not just about saving money, says Bruce Butterfield, research director for the National Gardening Association.

"I think one place where a lot of people feel they have some small control over what is going on around them is in their backyard," he says. "It's this whole sense of, 'I'm gonna have better-quality food, and save money."

So if you haven't considered gardening and growing your own food, but the current climate has you entertaining the idea, we say go ahead!  Join the growing movement for fresh, healty, independent, and safe food.  You will not be alone.

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Goin' Green, Gardening and Eating, Organic
fresh vegetables, saving money
1
Tradeoffs.
03/04/2009 - 16:34
Shade cloth is an inexpensive and easy way to cool any space.

Life is full of tradeoffs.  In fact, every decision we make involves choosing the sacrifices and benefits of a specific course of action.  This may seem abstract and philosophical, but I can use this analogy to talk about shade cloth and it makes complete sense.  Well...at least to me. There are two factors at play when you are deciding on what shade cloth to choose: light transmission and heat reduction.  Really it is just two sides of the same coin, since a reduction in light transmission reduces the amount of infared heat (which is really just infared light).

WARNING: SCIENCE TALK - It's actually pretty complicated, but for our purposes we'll say for certain that light travels as waves.  Humans are only able to see light within a certain frequency range, known as the visible spectrum.  Plants are also photosynthetically active in roughly this same frequency range.  However, in reality this is a very small portion of the total light spectrum.  A portion of the invisible part includes infared, which we feel as heat.  This is why we feel the warmth of the sun when it emerges from behind a cloud, and why incandescent light bulbs get super hot.  So, if you block visible light, as with a shade cloth, you are also blocking infared light.  This is why it feels cooler in the shade.  Density of a shade cloth is given as a percentage, i.e. 40%.  This means the weave of the cloth provides a 40% shade versus no shade.  Essentially that means that same cloth has a light transmission rate of 60%.

As a general rule, shade cloth in densities of 40-50% are perfect for most commonly grown flowers and vegetables.  More shade than this can negatively affect the health and yield of your plants.However, shade cloth does come in a variety of densities and materials, each designed for different applications.  Black shade cloth is our most popular choice because of its low cost and wide range of densities. Different densities and colors are suitable for certain applications, but are geared more toward specialized applications.  This is especially true of densities above about 70% and colors such as tan and blue.  These are commonly used for patio shade, awnings, privacy screening, and fence material.  Keep all of this in mind as we move into summer and your plants are begging you for a reprieve from the dog days.

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Control Solutions, Shade Cloth
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