Mini Greenhouses and Greenhouse Accessories

A mini greenhouse is an excellent way to grow plants year round with limited space, greenhouse accessories and costs.

Every gardener dreams of having their own greenhouse to tend seedlings, sprout bulbs, and grow tomatoes all year long but many are wary of the price and space they take up. Even a small greenhouse is expensive if it is permanent and they take a lot of work to maintain. During the summer they can be almost useless and fatal for plants but there is no way to take them down. There is no reason to fret because a mini greenhouse easily solves all those problems.

While most people think of a temporary cold frame as a mini greenhouse there are many designs that can be easily put up in the winter and taken down in the spring. Most take less than 30 minutes to completely assemble while some pop-up in seconds. Plants can get an early start and flowers can bloom all year round. The simplest designs can be made at home with thick, clear plastic and a small wooden frame. More elaborate designs allow the gardener to walk around inside but they are still a bit too small to hang out in on a winter afternoon. Sizes range from small shelf based boxes to freestanding walk in structures.

A small hobby greenhouse can be used to over-winter tender plants, grow produce out of season, and bloom flowers every month of the year. The larger designs often have built in ventilation while a cold frame needs to be periodically opened to let the plants breathe. Since they are portable they can easily be relocated to the sunniest spots for that time of year, however they are more difficult to keep warm so are not ideally suited for holding prized plants permanently and they are much more flimsy than a permanent structure.

Keeping a greenhouse warm and stable in the winter is tough for many gardeners located in colder areas. The larger the structure the more that snowfall, wind and hail will affect it. Rough weather greatly affects a small greenhouse as well and they should have plenty of tie-downs and support whether it is stakes and rope or simply bricks around the edges. Water jugs are a useful stabilizer and have the added bonus of being great heat retainers. When the sun heats them up during the day they retain a lot of that heat overnight preventing the plants from freezing even when the outside temperature is well below freezing.

Greenhouse kits can be found ranging in price from under $20 for a simple cold frame up to $1500 for a rigid freestanding one but most are in the $150-300 range. A traditional greenhouse is going to cost a minimum of $2000 for the smallest, simplest models but for permanent structures these are the way to go. They have to have a foundation poured as well as heat, drainage, and ventilation which can easily drive the cost over $10,000 for a medium sized greenhouse which makes a mini-greenhouse one of the most popular options for the recreational gardener.

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