Product Description

A guide for anyone who owns or is considering buying a greenhouse. It gives advice on the best kind of greenhouse to buy, which plants to choose, how to care for them, how to control the environment, and includes descriptions of the ten types of plants that can be grown in a greenhouse.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5442 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From the Back Cover
A vital guide for owners of greenhouses and conservatories, and those considering investing in either.

* A-Z photographic listing of hundreds of plants from flowers to fruit, shrubs to vegetables. * Month-by-month calendar of tasks. * Chapters on structure and equipment, plants, greenhouse maintenance and pests and diseases.

About the Author
Dr. D.G. Hessayon
Dr D.G. Hessayon's Expert books have made him the world's best-selling author on gardening. Born in Manchester, he was variously a horticulturist research scientist, university lecturer, artist and newspaper editor before launching the Expert series in 1959. In 1999 Dr Hessayon was awarded a Guinness World Record Certificate for being Britain's best-selling living author of the 1990s. He lives in Essex, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.

Excerpted from The Greenhouse Expert by D.G. Hessayon. Copyright © 1994. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Perhaps the greatest joy in owning a greenhouse is the one which receives least attention in the textbooks. The point is that when you go through that metal or wooden doorway and then close the door, you are entering a private world which isolates you from your workaday worries as well as the weather.

Outdoors you must share your plants with neighbours, passers-by, family, and so on, and all around you there is an environment you cannot control – frost, wind and rain dictate your activity. Not so in the greenhouse – all you have here are you, a protected environment and a group of plants which rely upon you for their very existence. Watering, feeding, pricking out, potting on … without you they must surely die.

There is something very comforting about working in a well-run greenhouse. You are warm and dry when the wind is blowing or the rain is falling outside, and your results depend entirely on your skill rather than on the vagaries of soil type and weather. But don’t be oversold by some of the glowing pieces in books, articles or catalogues.

First of all, greenhouse growing is not simply a matter of common sense – there is nothing obvious about the right way to train a Cucumber or the reason why you have to ventilate on a cool day. Do read books like this one and its companion volumes to find out what to do. Next, don’t be fooled into believing that not much work is involved. Constant attention is needed at most times of the year, and this means every day in summer unless you install an automatic ventilator and an automatic watering system. Finally, take the money-saving claims with a pinch of salt. An average-sized heated house will certainly not 'pay for itself quite easily in a year'’ The greenhouse fitted with staging etc. will cost you about £100 a year to keep the temperature at a minimum of 42-45 degrees F during an average winter.

So it is not a money-making proposition nor is it a simple pastime calling for occasional action. It is instead an absorbing hobby which enables you to produce a range of plants at a time when their garden counterparts are far behind or their growth outdoors is impossible. There is a steady stream of jobs to do, but none of these is strenuous, which makes greenhouse growing especially suitable for the not-so-young and the disabled.

All sorts of shapes and a wide range of sizes are available, but the fundamental difference between one type and another is the minimum temperature at which it is kept. The cold house is the simplest – no artificial source of heat is provided and so in the depths of winter the temperature will almost certainly fall below freezing point. Despite this, the cold house extends the growing season by trapping the sun’s heat during the day. Here you can work protected from the elements with plants which are sheltered from wind and rain and can enjoy day temperatures which are appreciably higher than outdoors. Tomatoes are the favourite crop – during the rest of the year there are cuttings to take, seeds to sow and vegetables to grow. You can have Strawberries, Turnips and Potatoes weeks before the outdoor crops are ready and a wide range of annuals can be grown to provide colour.

Still, the cold house is rather limited. You cannot grow frost-sensitive plants between early winter and mid spring unless you provide heat. The usual practice is to turn the structure into a cool house in which winter temperatures do not fall below 42-45 degrees F. A whole new world opens up because you can now grow ‘greenhouse plants’ – Azalea, Cineraria, Cyclamen, Freesia, Primula, Streptocarpus and many, many more. Half hardy bedding plants can be raised for the garden and a succession of blooms can be created for either greenhouse or living room. The installation of a heater transforms growing under glass from a place for Tomatoes, Cucumbers and hardier plants into a place of great variety in which to exercise a year-round hobby.

So buy that greenhouse if you have the money to spare, enough free time to care for it properly and a liking for growing things. If possible, but the next size larger than you have planned as most people who buy a greenhouse soon run out of space for all the exciting things they want to grow. Keep it as a cool house – the attraction of having a warm house with a minimum temperature of 55 degrees F is obvious if you want to grow exotics, but such warm conditions are undesirable for some plants and you will also have a fuel bill of about £300 a year. The stove house with a minimum temperature of 65 degrees F is for the tropical specialist and not for you.

What you grow is up to you. Perhaps you just want to produce fruit and vegetables with little thought for floral display. On the other hand you might want nothing more than blooms and foliage attractively arranged all year round – in this case your greenhouse has become a conservatory. Although there are no strict rules about what to grow, you should avoid trying to grow too varied a mixture – youi cannot place shade lovers like ferns next to sun lovers such as Geraniums. Finally, don’t let your greenhouse become a place which houses a row of Tomato plants, an assortment of house plants which have finished flowering, a few trays of shop bought annuals awaiting bedding out and a collection of pots and gardening equipment. A greenhouse offers you a way to extend the joy of gardening – use it properly.

Customer Reviews

great for beginner and those with gardening knowledge.
A great book at a good price.Ideal for the first time greenhouse owner aswell as experanced owners.
It has advice on what to grow, pests and how to treat them.great advice all-round.

The Greenhouse Expert
Very Good guide to read before you buy then to use after.
It covers everything you perhaps did not consider when and choosing then using your new a greenhouse.

Greenhouse
As a new starter to greenhouse growing I have found the advice in this book very helpful. I would recommend it to anyone wanting good basic advice.