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You want a
greenhouse . . . .
what next?
You have a greenhouse . . . .
now what?
If you want every
question answered on greenhouse gardening check
out the book,
Greenhouse Gardener's Companion by Shane Smith.
Click here to learn more
about this handy resource.
"...Shane Smith
has been on the vanguard of "user-friendly"
greenhouse design and utilization for several
years. Virtually any question which might be
asked by either a novice or an advanced home
greenhouse gardener is answered fully"
-
HortIdeas
Send me your ideas for how to improve the book
Greenhouse Gardener's
Companion for the next 4th edition
being developed right now.
Explore
this web site to lead you down the path to the
goal of a wonderful heat producing, food
producing and flower producing greenhouse!
Click around.
You won't believe
how much information is on this web site.

Note:
While we must have
advertisers to help support this extensive web
site, we are not beholden to any company nor do
we have any hopes to sell you on anything. Our
only hope is to help you become a great
greenhouse gardener!
Laugh at the winter.
Make the summer last all year!

Kids love
greenhouses too

__________________________
Winter is a
special time in the greenhouse.
Read what the
famous horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey said about the joy of greenhouses in 1928
"It
is in the dead of winter that the greenhouse is at its best, for then is the
contrast of life and death the greatest. Just beyond the living tender leaf-
separated only by the slender film of the pane- is the whiteness and silence
of the midwinter.. . . . .
Order Greenhouse
Gardener's Companion |
You can grow
food and flowers in your
own home greenhouse-
any day of the year!
Gardens Create Abundance
Have a little food security
year-round!
This site grew out
of writing the best-selling book on gardening in
a greenhouse titled:
Greenhouse Gardener's Companion
by
Shane Smith.
The goal of this site is to provide a wealth of
up-to-date information and tips for those who
have a passion for gardening in greenhouses.
You will also find special pages
that discuss:
Heating:
Heat a
greenhouse without going broke. See
Energy Conservation for home Greenhouses.
Natural pest
control, Interior design and more.
Greenhouse
Questions Answered:
Jump to our
discussion
boards,
post
your question directly to the author and other
enthusiasts.
Want a copy of the
Greenhouse Gardener's Bible? Check your local
book store or
click here.
Check out the Greenhouse
Gallery
- see other home greenhouses and read about the
experiences of others. Behind every greenhouse
is a good story. Share yours!
"A well-designed
attached home greenhouse can heat your home,
provide fresh food and flowers. It is no longer
a question of whether you can afford a
greenhouse, but whether you can afford to not
have a home greenhouse"
- Shane Smith
There is such a thing as a
GOOD
Greenhouse Effect!
Grow your own
winter salads.
Leafy greens require
very little heat
in order to produce abundant yeilds!

Start your spring seedlings
see the current planning
schedule
Check back monthly for schedule updates
TWO Favorite tomatoes for the greenhouse
Early Goliath
(from Totally Tomatoes)
Most impressive of the season. Big early fruit.
Good disease resistance. Good flavor. Best of all it had the vigor to
continue on throughout the season!
Sungold
(from Johnny's Selected Seeds)
Always a great flavored cherry tomato. High-yielding, heat tolerant but some
cracking
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This
year I tried
grafting tomatoes
for the first
time . . .
It
was not scientific but I was convinced that this
is a great way to go for increased late season
yields and increased disease resistance. It is
especially helpful in growing heirloom varieties
that have little in the way of disease
resistance.

I
was pleased that Johnny's Selected Seeds sells a
variety of
grafting clips and rootstock tomato
varieties. Check out this
great data that the folks at Johnny's
posted. I experienced similar yield increases.
Plants were more vigorous and yielded higher up
on the tomato truss.
Check around the web and you'll find all kinds
of information and videos on grafting tomatoes.
I'm sad to report that my
greenhouse was wiped out by hail . . .
There is no such thing as a totally hail
resistant greenhouse. This year we got a whopper
with ping pong sized pellets that damaged every
car, roof and garden in the
neighborhood. Fortunately, with a few patches,
caulk, and tolerating the leaks, We can still
keep some crops going through the winter.
I am
now shopping around for my next home greenhouse
and will be excited to tell you what I plan to
grow in next.

Not snow but hail!

Turn your
greenhouse into a
food factory!
Fresh salads, herbs, tomatoes and even
tropical food like papayas and pineapple guavas
can all be grown in your home greenhouse. You
can even grow cut flowers year-round as food for
the spirit
What gives you a lot
of poundage? Greenhouse cucumbers
out-yield most other food crops (with the right
growing conditions.)
Use every square
inch and every cubic inch . . Use your air space
and ground space for effective yields. For
instance, you can grow edible peas or sweet peas vertically up a string next to a crop of
lettuce.
Grow "indeterminate"
vining tomatoes
straight up for higher yields in less space!!!
Learn more about
these
special growing techniques in the book
"Greenhouse
Gardener's Companion."
Tomatoes in a
short growing season using a greenhouse
Like many
greenhouse growers I live in a
short season area where growing tomatoes outside results in poor yields. The
best option is to grow indeterminate tomatoes up strings
vertically in the
greenhouse. I get bushels of fruit every year. One tip I have found is to
use fish based fertilizer early in the season. This has resulted in a
dramatic reduction in diseases. Later in the season I switch to more balance
fertilizers. Here is what
I grew from March to Early October in my unheated backyard Wyoming greenhouse:
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