Gardening is good for the soul, everybody says so, but greenhouse gardening is the equivalent of a luxury spa treatment for you and your plants, where you are cosseted against the worst of the weather.  A cool spring day, one that makes you tighten your scarf and shudder, suddenly becomes thoroughly pleasant. No wonder I […]

Succession planting is a great way to get more from your vegetable garden. Following one crop with another is easy to do, and requires just a little planning. Having a greenhouse to jumpstart your plants is a tremendous help and adds to the variety you can plant successively. Here in Zone 5/6 our main planting […]

Leeann Lavin is a writer and blogger based in New York, her company Duchess Gardens has award winning, international experience of designing and implementing unique and creative custom garden designs. Leeann has also had publishing success with her book “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook”, which shows off her passion for home grown cuisine […]

Having decided what species of orchid you want, you need to consider how to heat your greenhouse. Many orchids have an aversion to the byproducts of propane or natural gas heaters, so this aversion limits the options in designing a heating system. In my opinion, the best way to heat an orchid greenhouse is with […]

Many a greenhouse owner wants to grow orchids. Orchids, after all, are the largest family of flowering plants. They can be found on every continent and in a wide range of settings – in rainforests, in temperate climates, and even in rather harsh environments, such as deserts and alpine regions. Many orchids are epiphytes, which […]

You water, you feed, you cajole. But despite your best efforts the limp leaves of red and green relax into their juvenility. You estimate the time it will take your baby lettuce to reach salad size. Five, six, seven weeks! By then your crop will be “wise-beyond-its-weeks lettuce,” battle-weary from encounters with aphids and whitefly, […]

Snow crunches under foot, and a white quilt covers the landscape, reflecting and refracting bright sunlight across the wintery scene. Animal tracks show that squirrels, rabbits, and deer are still foraging, but miraculously your plants are alive and safe from them. This is because your entire garden is concentrated inside a 220 Square foot Hartley Lodge […]

This Farmer LOVES the Spring. Why? The days lengthen and warm. It also means that I get to fire up the greenhouse, mix potting soil, fill flats, and plant seeds. Lots of seeds, for summer vegetables: I will plant well over 10,000 seeds. My organic potting soil consists of coco peat & fish meal. I […]

On a recent tour of English gardens I was drawn to the potting sheds and work areas with their neatly stored tools; and to the wonderful greenhouse facilities and cold frames which held rows of baby plants waiting to be dug into freshly prepared beds. I wanted a greenhouse and a cold frame of my […]

Continuing to battle the predators of your garden with latest remedies and tips may just have you spinning your wheels.  Why not embrace the beasts and fight fire with fire – or in this case, pests with pests? Essentially, your ultimate goal in maintaining your garden is to preserve a balanced ecosystem. That way your […]

The golden age of greenhouses could easily be said to have been before World War One when huge greenhouses dominated gentrified England. The carnage of WWI ended this golden age when so many men were killed that after the war there were not enough people to run the vast glass and cast iron emporiums. Many […]