Having a greenhouse has absolutely transformed our growing season and I wish we’d had one sooner!
Here are my top reasons for why I think you should save up to buy a greenhouse!
It Lengthens Your Growing Season
We bought a super cheap little heater online and used it to heat our greenhouse in the spring when the seedlings stayed in there overnight and into the fall once the weather started to get a bit cold.
It really allowed us to extend our growing season and start things early and keep them going a little longer than the normal weather would allow, without having to cover with sheets, etc!
A Place for Seedlings
The wonderful thing about having a greenhouse is that if you’ve planted any seeds or purchased seedlings early from a nursery, it can really help your plants to do a little hardening off ahead of time. The light in most greenhouses is slightly filtered which means it can provide a little shelter compared to being in direct sunlight outside. It can also provide shelter from the elements if it’s warm but not quite warm enough for seedlings to be outside yet.
The other big difference is that as much as indoor grow lights or having plants sit beside windows is a good option, it definitely doesn’t compare to being outside! Our seedlings grew way faster once we were able to get them out into the greenhouse (even if it was just for the day when nights were still below 0C).
Extra Warmth and Protection
This last year we planted tomatoes (Golden nugget, Roma and Beef Steak), bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and cucumbers (straight eight and munchers) and planted some inside the greenhouse and some out in our gardens.
While it wasn’t a fantastic weather year in Calgary for gardening, the difference between our yard plants and the greenhouse plants was absolutely night and day. The beef steak tomatoes grew over 6 feet tall in the greenhouse, while in the garden they were barely 3 feet. We also had two full croppings of cucumbers from the greenhouse while the garden cukes barely produced 2-3 fruits each.
Here are some of our beautiful greenhouse Roma tomatoes!
There are definitely some veggies and plants that would do so much better in a greenhouse and some that won’t need it at all, but if you intend on growing things like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, etc, then DEFINITELY consider getting a greenhouse!
Interested in learning more about gardening and food at home? Definitely consider joining us in the Food as Medicine Membership! We learn all about how to grow our own food at home and so much more!