Greenhouses extend the gardening season

It's about this time of year that gardeners are apt to sigh and mutter, "I wish I had a greenhouse."

If only we had a greenhouse, we figure, we could keep tender plants alive until next year, extend the fall season, get a jump on spring and even — maybe best of all — create a warm, green oasis to sustain us through winter.

Now, apparently, more gardeners are making the wish a reality.

"Greenhouse gardening is growing at an exponential rate," says Mike Helle of Sunshine GardenHouse, a company in Longview, Cowlitz County, that ships greenhouse kits all over the country. Although the number of gardeners who own greenhouses is still quite small, "the growth in the last few years has been in the range of 15 to 20 percent a year."

Considering the boom in all aspects of gardening over the last couple of decades, it's not surprising that everyday gardeners might see greenhouse growing as the next frontier. Often, though, the concept has seemed too complicated and too expensive.

It doesn't have to be either, Helle contends.

"I have been trying to demystify greenhouse activity," he says, by making the technical aspects as straightforward as he can. After all, he says, "if you want to be complicated, even lawn care can be technical."

And although greenhouse gardening used to be thought of as something reserved for the wealthy, good-looking kit greenhouses now "are affordable on a level that is still an investment, but not outside the realm of what many gardeners would be willing to spend."

Helle's company sells greenhouse kits starting at $1,299 for a 6-by-4-foot model.

To make greenhouses more user-friendly, Helle says, some of the major kit sellers are getting together to increase awareness and discuss ways of providing a kind of "tech support" system for potential greenhouse owners.

In England, he says, "one of every five homes has some kind of greenhouse. ... They've grown up with them, they know how to do it. That's not true here — greenhouses are not part of our gardening history. But we're getting started on a new adventure here."

Of course, some people in the U.S. have been growing plants in greenhouses for decades. Stuart Hughes, of Maple Glen, Pa., for instance, erected his first greenhouse in 1972 — a Lord & Burnham lean-to model with single-pane glass — and used it for 20 years before he took it down to make way for a big Patio Enclosures solarium, where he grows about 200 orchids.

Hughes, a retired biology teacher who produces a newsletter for the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Hobby Greenhouse Association, also built a conservatory that serves as a cool greenhouse, and a sunroom with two window walls that he calls "the cold room," where cold-tolerant plants spend the winter, as well as adding a large Pella window greenhouse to the kitchen.

About 800,000 people nationwide purchased sunrooms or greenhouses last year, up about a third over five years ago, says Bruce Butterfield, research director for the nonprofit National Gardening Association.

"Many people dream of a greenhouse," says Butterfield, "but often it's hard to swallow what they cost."

What they cost, though, depends on what you want.

"We can do anything that anyone wants us to do," says Bob LaRouche, owner of Glass Enclosures Unlimited in Wayne, Pa., who deals mostly with custom designs. He has built Victorian conservatories, greenhouses with wine cellars below and one with a virtual-reality golf range and a movie theater underneath.

On the other hand, Michigan-based FlowerHouse offers tent-

like pop-up units that company founder Scott Wehner calls "self-erecting portable greenhouses." (The concept won an award for innovation at the huge Gafa trade show in Germany in September.)

In between the extremes of greenhouses are numerous choices of varying complexity.

"A free-standing kit greenhouse is a project that could be undertaken by the average, rather handy person," says LaRouche, "but a greenhouse that is attached to your home should be undertaken very carefully and should probably be built by a professional."

Therese Lundvall is a greenhouse consultant with Charley's Greenhouse & Garden in Mount Vernon, Skagit County, which has specialized in greenhouse kits and accessories for nearly 30 years. She thinks there are several reasons for the increased interest in greenhouse gardening.

"We noticed after 9/11 that a lot of people felt very unsettled, and wanted to be able to control their food more," she says. "They were worried about different kinds of attacks, so we had a lot of people say, 'We want to grow our own stuff.' And it was also a comfort thing; instead of going on vacations, they wanted to stay home and nest a bit. Greenhouses really jumped after that date.

"And one of the major things people say when we are recommending greenhouses is that they want to raise their own bedding plants, either by seed — people are lured by that 99-cent packet of seeds — or by cuttings, because they don't want to lose their favorite plants."

Resources

"Greenhouses" edited by Fiona Gilsenan (Sunset Books, $12.95).

"All About Greenhouses" (Ortho Books, $11.95) and

"Greenhouses for Homeowners and Gardeners" by John W. Bartok Jr. (NRAES, $30).

"The Greenhouse Gardener's Companion" by Shane Smith (Fulcrum Publishing, $21.95).

"Crystal Palaces: American Garden Conservatories" by Anne S. Cunningham (Princeton Architectural Press, $45).