If you live in a private house in town or in a cottage in the suburbs, no matter how small your garden is, I bet you grow vegetables or at least culinary herbs in your backyard garden. And it is just wonderful to have great food right at your hand. But successful planting might be a bit challenging. The conditions for fruitful farming are not only sun, soil, and water. It is also the ambient temperature.
When did people begin to feel the need for greenhouses?
The idea of growing plants in climate-controlled spaces occupied the minds of people in different parts of the world at different times. Gardeners worked on the concept of creating something similar to a modern greenhouse back in the Roman Empire at the beginning of our era as well as in Korea in the 15th century and Europe in the 17th century. In Victorian England in the 19th century, glass and wood box was invented to deliver exotic and rare plants to the plant show.
Building a greenhouse was very expensive, and only wealthy people could afford it. In the 1960s, different types of materials became available. Since production costs have dropped, greenhouses became more accessible to smallholder farmers. They came in a variety of shapes and designs and were made from different materials. Polytunnel, polyhouse, hoop house, greenhouse, grow tunnel, all of them served the same purpose, after all, to extend a growing season.
Why do people need greenhouses?
Nowadays, you can easily become the happy owner of a wonderful foldable portable hoop house. Literally, you simply cannot do without it if you need to grow early vegetables or greens. You can use it for seedlings. With its help, it is easy to get an excellent harvest of vegetables. Do you need to grow seedlings of vegetable crops or grow some ornamental plants and flowers? Maybe you need a space to grow potted plants or to root cuttings before planting in the ground? Are your seedlings need protection from frost on the soil? Or you want to grow early vegetable crops? The hoop house may become a great solution!
Hoophouse vs Greenhouse
Having a hoop house is much cheaper than building a greenhouse. But it still allows you to get strong, mature seedlings with a high survival rate and extend the favorable growing season by 1.5-2 months. Unlike a greenhouse, the height of which allows a person to walk there at full height, the height of the hoop house can be much smaller. Usually, the size corresponds to the height of the plants grown in it. The main structural elements of the hoop house are arch railings, pegs, clips, and covering. And it is enough to create an optimal condition for your plants a perfectly protect seedlings from morning frosts! Such a construction collects heat from the sun during the day and stores it in the dark.
Where is the best place for a greenhouse?
It is important to choose the right location for your hoop house. It should be a sunny, unshaded place, protected from the wind as much as possible. Hoop houses are usually located east to west in length. This orientation provides maximum illumination. Good if it is located next to the beds, on which the seedlings will subsequently be planted. This will shorten the time it takes to transfer the plants from the greenhouse to the garden beds and will speed up and simplify the work. You can also install it right on your garden bed and remove it when the temperature settles.
Are you ready to give it a try? It is lightweight, easy-to-install and what is most important, it is a useful and practical thing even for beginners!
