A Greenhouse for Your Garden
The delight in the colour and fragrance of flowers and the enjoyment of seeing plants sprout from seed, gain strength and grow to maturity, are pleasures that can be yours all year round if you have a greenhouse. With one of these useful structure...more
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Construction
All kitset aluminium framed greenhouses come with quite detailed instructions, provided by the manufacturers, some even offering a free erection service. If you have to do the job yourself then get a friend to help. After painting the water?bitume...more
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Heating
Whether or not you decide to beat your greenhouse will depend entirely on the types of plants you will be growing. An unheated structure offers enough protection for many plants at most times of the year but there will come the time when s...more
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Ventilation
One aspect of greenhouse design, frequently overlooked, is the provision of adequate ventilation. Plants continuously lose water through their leaves through transpiration. Poor ventilation can allow water vapour to condense on the leaf su...more
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Light and Plants
Most gardeners are familiar with seed potatoes that have been \"chitted up\" in the light so that the sprouts become sturdy and blue/green in colour. Potato sprouts that have been in the dark for a few weeks, however, are pale, long and...more
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Insulation
Even if the winters in your area are mild, a wise gardener is always prepared for any exceptionally cold spells. It is then that your normal heating equipment will not be able to cope and many of your valuable plants will succumb to the cold. If y...more
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Furnishing Your Greenhouse
The key to successfully fitting out any greenhouse is to construct and attach things so they can be moved without too much trouble. One of the great pleasures of greenhouse gardening is the almost magical ease with which you can switch from a trop...more
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Cold?frames
Greenhouses are not the only garden structures used for growing plants. Cold frames, shade houses, and garden rooms can alter your climate, creating an artificial atmosphere that promotes plant growth. Both cold?frames and the heated version of a ...more
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Shade Houses
A shade house changes the climate to accommodate growing plants. It offers shade and wind protection so that many plants such as cymbidium orchids can be transferred from the greenhouse to the shade house for the summer period where they need cool...more
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What is Hydroponics ?
Hydroponics is now a well known name for the art of growing plants without soil.
The name Hydroponics is derived from the Greek words: hudor meaning water and ponos meaning work. Using these two words together we have \'water working\' and...more
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Advantages and Disadvantages for the home gardener.
Advantages:
1. most growers would regard the very low labour input required as the principal advantage. Digging and weeding are completely eliminated. Application of nutrient solution is the main labour and this is a simple matter. The only other d...more
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Factors Affecting Plant Growth.
The plant obtains its food from mineral elements in water solution from the soil using a process known as Osmosis. If you have a semi-permeable membrane dividing two solutions of different strength, liquid will flow through the membrane from the ...more
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DEFICIENCY AND EXCESS SYMPTOMS IN PLANTS.
NITROGEN (N) Deficiency; Paleness of the whole leaf especially in older leaves. Yellowing of the whole leaf. White roots. Stunted plant, pale and thin. Over-large root system.
Excess; Growth elongated and spindly. Leaf ...more
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NUTRIENT FORMULAE
Make up your own or buy ready made?
This question will never be answered to everyone\'s satisfaction.
To make up your own formulae, a good understanding of chemistry is necessary. For a beginner it is far better to buy a ready-made p...more
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Light
Plants are strongly influenced by the radiant energy in their environment. The principles of radiation and how radiation interacts with matter are taught in physics and physical chemistry classes.
We could make a complete study of the follo...more
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Disease and Pest Control
Hydroponically grown plants are subject to exactly the same insect and fungus pests as a normal garden.
Healthy, fast-growing plants are always less susceptible, and control measures are easier under hydroponics.
The most important p...more
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Mist Propagation
The technique of rooting cuttings under a regulated mist and in full light is now well beyond the experimental stage. It is considered as the only method of rooting cuttings which were once considered either difficult or impossible to root. The us...more
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An Automatic Greenhouse
A fully automatic greenhouse has, until recently, remained no more than a dream for only one reason, the lac~ of automatic watering. The answer has been found in the fact that there is a direct relationship between the evaporation of water...more
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Holidays and Your Greenhouse
Unless you have an automated greenhouse, there is nothing that will compare with personal attention from a friend when you are away on holiday. If you have a friend, or neighbor that can look after your greenhouse, make their job easier by leaving written...more
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Watering Systems
The first really successful system was introduced in England and is known as the capillary sand bench. This system relies on the capillary action of water rising through fine material like textile fibres or sand. The water is always below the leve...more
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Propagating from Seeds
The most efficient and least costly method of obtaining plenty of small new plants for your garden is sowing seeds in a greenhouse. Under the right conditions the seeds should have a high germination rate and you will be able to develop strong, healthy pl...more
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Raising Seedlings
Check your seedboxes regularly and, when the first seedlings appear, remove the newspapers covering them but leave the glass on for another day or two. Use a fine spray to water the new seedlings then move them if necessary to a position receiving...more
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Transplanting
When seeds are sown directly outside they usually develop into seedlings that are too close together and that will compete with each other for light and nutrients. Generally they have to be thinned out so that there is adequate growing space betwe...more
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Propagation from Cuttings
Although it is easy to grow calceolarias, cyclamens, primulas and a wide variety of other shade and glasshouse plants from seed, there are also many plants, such as carnations, chrysanthemums and dahlias, for example, which are better grown vegeta...more
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Looking After Your Cuttings
Having carefully selected, cut and prepared your cuttings make sure that you provide them with the conditions they will need to quickly develop into new plants. Avoid damaging your cuttings when you place them in a propagating mix by first making ...more
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