14:39 - 08 July 2011
While the initial cost of a greenhouse can stretch the budget, you need to look at the long-term benefits too. A greenhouse is for life, especially if you choose a quality made product. It is also a lifestyle choice and a must-have item for most gardeners. Over the lifetime of your greenhouse, it will more than repay your initial investment and add a huge quality factor to your life. You can even take it with you if you move!
Don’t think of it as a cost, think of it as an investment into your health and well being. If you are a keen gardener your greenhouse will allow you to pursue your hobby in whatever direction you choose and to grow plants cost effectively that you would otherwise have to buy ready grown.
To make the most of your greenhouse you need to use it to grow all year round and to choose to grow produce that you would normally buy. You will save more money by growing things with a high monetary value, such as cucumbers, aubergines and herbs. Look at the salads, herbs and vegetables that you buy on a regular basis and use your greenhouse to raise the plants instead. Salad is a prefect example, how many bags of salad leaves do you buy each month and how much do they cost? By sowing a little seed every week or fortnight from February to late summer you can easily replace the salad that you buy, eat more healthily and eat a wider variety of different salad leaves.
Herbs in particular are costly to buy fresh and yet very easy to grow from seed. Some such as basil can be used to create fresh pesto. Replace the costly pine nuts with baked sunflower and pumpkin seeds, or walnuts. Use strong cheddar instead of Parmesan and garden grown garlic for added flavour. You can make plenty of basil-based pesto, which can be frozen or will store in the fridge for a week or so.
Extend the season and grow earlier crops by starting them off in the greenhouse and planting out as soon as the frosts allow, but likewise, grow later crops too when the produce is more expensive to buy in the shops.
By growing plants from seed instead of plug plants or mature plants you can save a fortune, likewise by taking cuttings from garden plants and favourite plants you can fill your garden with colour and interest for a fraction of the cost. Take that a step further and sell your surplus and you can easily cover the cost of your compost and seed and start to offset the initial cost of your greenhouse.
If you can’t afford to buy organic fruit and veg in the shops then a greenhouse is the perfect solution as you can choose to grow your produce organically, providing fresher crops than you can buy and without pesticide residues, not only will this save more money, but you are ensuring that the food that you do grow is even healthier for your family.
Don’t forget that the greenhouse is a valuable addition to your garden anyway; it’s a haven where you can pot your plants and potter to your hearts content. Make it into a special space with a chair for those odd moments when you do get time to rest, or a rendezvous for like-minded friends and it becomes much more than a place to grow plants.
If you have positioned your greenhouse correctly, with the ridge running from East to West you should have a south facing slope on the front of your greenhouse. By installing solar panels on some of this surface you can not only shade your plants in summer, but also generate some electricity to run your greenhouse lighting and equipment.
