Bigger is better with greenhouses

I love to walk through a vintage greenhouse and feel the warmth around me. It’s the all-pervading earthiness, combined with nostalgia-inducing fragrances that evoke these feelings. Slatted wooden benches, a hard-packed dirt floor, and rusty heating pipes. I’m a teenager again, working a summer on a small local estate, watching tomatoes grow.

And now I have a greenhouse in my own backyard, but not so grand as that old one. It’s small, about the size of a large pickup truck but with a much lower carbon footprint. I mainly use it for transitioning all my seedlings and cuttings from the house where they’ve been all winter under lights.

It’s warm in the greenhouse when the sun is shining but at night, I often have to provide supplementary heat from a small fan heater. In fall I use the greenhouse for tender plants and houseplants for a few weeks before moving them back indoors.

If a greenhouse is in your plans, here are a few tips to keep in mind. Consider the quality first. There are small, budget greenhouses that have plastic film over a frame that are good for a few seasons of spring use. These are lightweight and need to be well-anchored or weighted down. The framework of a larger one is usually solidly constructed of galvanized steel or aluminum, sometimes wood, strong enough to withstand our climate and high winds. If you want to make use of it year-round, it will have double wall glass or, more likely now, double polycarbonate panels.

If it’s only to provide an early start in spring, like me, then a lightweight one may be sufficient. Mine is constructed with an aluminum frame and single wall polycarbonate and it’s held up well over the last dozen years. As for size, I haven’t met a greenhouse owner yet who hasn’t wished theirs was just a little larger.

It’s easy to say buy the biggest, but you do need to consider where it will be situated. Out of the way at the bottom of the yard like mine might be the first choice, but unless you like trudging through snowbanks to visit your orchids, the closer to the house the better, providing it will receive plenty of sunlight. Having a greenhouse close to the house also means it will be easier to provide heat, light, and water.

I might wax nostalgically about packed dirt floors, but these really are impractical. Gravel or paving stones are far better, or even consider a concrete base. Either way, ensure that the greenhouse is anchored to the ground. No point buying one if you’re going to donate it to a stranger three blocks away at the first gust of wind.

The price of a greenhouse will depend on size and quality, of course, and will range from under a hundred dollars for the small one with a plastic cover to a few thousands. Before signing on the bottom line, consider the extras — yes, the extras. How will it be heated and how will it be cooled it, and how will it be ventilated?

A greenhouse might produce wonderful, evocative fragrances, and your very own tomatoes in January might prove delicious, but if the cost of growing them is equivalent to a trip to California for a pick-your-own outing, you might want to start out with the something more modest. Whichever you choose, it won’t be big enough.

As for size, I haven’t met a greenhouse owner yet who hasn’t wished theirs was just a little larger