Are you ready to start growing your own crops? Install a greenhouse in your backyard and prepare to be amazed!
1.Best place
While a greenhouse used to be purely functional and was often hidden in a corner of the yard, these days, people like to place the greenhouse in the center of the backyard and make sure the design is in harmony with the atmosphere. It’s usually placed in a sunny place, with not too much wind.
In general, a southern orientation (with the entrance south) is the way to go. This way the greenhouse will receive lots of sun in the summer and benefit from every available ray of sunshine during winter. If you however live in an extremely hot climate, it might be better to face your greenhouse east. You want to avoid temperatures from rising too high during spring and summer.
It’s best to place your greenhouse not too far from your house. It’s a place that you will be spending lots of time in, and if you would like to install water or electricity pipes, it’s easier if the greenhouse is close to the house.
2.Foundation
The foundation of your greenhouse is very important. It will protect it against all possible pressure rising from the ground. Frost during winter can make the ground water rise unevenly into the foundation. During summer, the heat can make the ground sag.
A self-supporting aluminum foundation creates a perfect protection that can cope with the seasonal weather circumstances. It makes sure that the ground in the greenhouse is not separated from the ground outside which helps you to maintain the ground in the greenhouse. Another advantage of the aluminum foundation is that it’s possible to move the greenhouse, so you don’t have to leave your hard work behind.
When you choose a concrete foundation, you have to make sure the foundation is set 23” to 25” in the ground, right underneath the frosting border. You can level the platform that will hold the greenhouse. You need to make it flat at the side of the facades and to be curved on the surface over the entire length of the greenhouse so the rain water can flow away.
3.Lighting
The most crucial life element for our plants is light itself. Lots of failures on growing plants, seeds and flowers find their cause in a lack of light. Especially between the middle of October until the end of April, the days are too short to be sure of strong plant growth. Young plants especially can go yellow, lose their bottom leafs or sadly just die.
A general rule is that plants need light about 14 hours per day if they want to grow well. Even the plants that are just in the greenhouse to survive winter need this amount of light. This means that during winter you need to add an average of 6 hours per day. The ideal time for this is during the evening, for example from dawn until bedtime.
About the different forms of artificial light and the different lamp types, there has already been a lot of scientific research and a lot of articles. When you’re a greenhouse beginner, we can recommend you our article concerning greenhouse lighting.
Congratulations, you are now ready to install your perfect greenhouse!