When you buy a greenhouse, it’s tempting to think that you’re all ready to go, but in most cases you won’t get very far with just a few potted plants standing on the floor! The first and most important of greenhouse accessories to get right is greenhouse staging. Since this is something you’ll want to keep using for the lifetime of the greenhouse, you’ll need to choose it carefully.

The first thing to consider about greenhouse staging is how much weight it can bear. You may not think of plants as being very heavy, but the soil they’re rooted in certainly is, and ornamental plant pots can also add up to quite a burden. Some commercially available greenhouse staging sadly isn’t up to coping with this. It’ll start to sag after a little while, and sometime it will collapse altogether. Obviously this isn’t a risk you’ll want to take. Suitable staging should be able to bear 100’s of pounds of weight, so check the manufacturer’s advice carefully. Even if you don’t plan to use all this capacity in the immediate term, it’ll keep your options flexible into the future.

Greenhouse staging also needs to be waterproof. The best choice for this is stainless steel, heavy grade aluminum, or composite framing. There are attractive wooden staging arrays available, but if you buy one of these you must make sure that it’s been properly treated to make it’s water resistant (not just water repellent). It’s also a good idea to re-cover staging like this with a water-repellent paint or varnish every couple of years.

Finally, make sure that the staging you buy gives you the space you need to work. This may sound obvious, but many people fail to measure properly before spending money on something which won’t fit into their greenhouse comfortably. Your staging should provide space for all your plants and greenhouse accessories (consider whether you may want a separate tier for these), but it should also leave you room to move around. If you’re disabled or have trouble bending, make sure it’s at a suitable height for working on. Make sure you’ve got room for supplies as well as for the things you plan to use immediately. Well chosen staging will be with you for a long time.

A greenhouse is an excellent place to relax and get away from it all, something which can be all the more important for people with mobility difficulties which make getting about awkward and tiring. Many people get into greenhouse gardening when they retire and want to be able to keep up the hobby as they gradually find themselves less mobile. In these situations, it’s important to find greenhouse designs which make access as easy as possible.

There are several things to consider when seeking out accessible greenhouse designs. First is the flooring. Although gravel floors are ideal for many types of greenhouse, they can be awkward for people who need sticks to balance and they can be more difficult to get up from - without sustaining further injury - if you should fall. Concrete floors are easier to cope with and are also ideal for wheelchair users. They can be laid so that there’s a smooth path extending through and out of your greenhouse to your home. Just remember that they don’t provide such good drainage as gravel, so you’ll have to take extra care to ensure your greenhouse doesn’t get too damp.

An accessible greenhouse needs to have an easy-open door or doors, a factor which is sometimes forgotten by well-meaning relatives choosing greenhouses for elderly and disabled relatives. It also needs to have plenty of space for moving around inside. For people who are unsteady on their feet, it’s a good idea to have well-secured, strong staging which can be used as a support. When choosing a greenhouse design for use with a wheelchair, make sure staging is at an accessible height - not just for the plants themselves, but also for the supplies they’ll need and for the tools required to work with them.

Greenhouse gardening is a highly adaptable hobby and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be accessible to everybody. Simply choosing the right greenhouse can make all the difference.

One of the worst things that can happen to the greenhouse enthusiast is an outbreak of disease. Because a greenhouse is a largely enclosed ecosystem with air and moisture continually circulating, disease can spread very fast within it. A brown leaf one day can become a few dead plants the next. What can you do to minimize the chance of losing your plants this way?

The key to looking after any vulnerable ecosystem is to fuss over it. Caring for your greenhouse properly should involve visiting it at least once a day and getting a trusted family member or neighbour to care for it when you’re away. Give your plants regular close examinations, and be prepared to be ruthless. If a plant is showing signs of infection, don’t simply clip off the damaged parts as you might in your garden - remove the whole plant. If you’re anxious to save it, transfer it to your house, but don’t keep it in the greenhouse where it can out your other plants at risk.

Many plant infections travel via the soil, so it’s also important to be aware of the risk to plants which share the same soil as an infected plant. This can be true even if they’re in separate containers if the soil they’re using has recently been purchased from the same place or if there’s a risk that you could have transferred soil between the container, your hands, gloves or gardening tools. Soil from plants which have been lost to disease should never be re-used; even years later some kinds of disease organisms can persist in the soil.

It’s impossible to avoid all risk of carrying infection into our greenhouse, but you can reduce the risks by always wiping your feet before you enter, washing your hands before handling delicate plants, and never using untreated soil taken from your garden. Be ready to treat your plants as soon as infection appears by making sure you have a supply of appropriate fugicide and insect spray. Don’t put yourself in a position where you have to wait until you can get to a garden center….by then it may be too late for your plants.

Holding off disease can be one of the most difficult aspects of caring for your greenhouse, and every gardener gets unlucky sometimes, but with patience and perseverance you can reduce it to a rare occurrence.

Many people dream of having a greenhouse but feel it’s a dream they’ll have to put on hold until they can afford more spacious property. However, there are now greenhouse designs available which can be kept just about anywhere, even if you only have a few square feet of back yard. These mini greenhouses are ideal homes for starting flowers to move inside your home or to the garden later, or for growing lettuce and herbs for your kitchen. They’re compact, easy to use, and the perfect choice for urban environments.

There are several different miniature greenhouse designs on the market, meaning that you can still be flexible in your choices despite the limits imposed by lack of space. The simplest, available at very low prices, consist of a low square frame with a roof which is angled to catch the sun. Made of plastic sheeting, some can simply be unzipped when you wish to access your plants. They insulate well and allow in plenty of light. The main problem is that they’re prone to overheating, so they’re unsuitable for delicate plants. In hot weather you should shade them or leave them partially open so that they can be ventilated.

Box greenhouses take up even less horizontal space, but are consequently less good at catching the sun, so you should be careful about where you position them and not use them to grow plants which need large amounts of light. Some of them can be opened from the top, a bit like chest freezers, making them a practical choice for tall plants, though access can be cumbersome. Others have a series of drawers in which layers of plants can be kept. Most of these greenhouses are made with stiff plastic panels which make them sturdy while decreasing the risk of breakage as you open and shut them.

Mini greenhouses like these are so useful that some people who do have room for full sized models keep them as back-up or as a starter home for seedlings. They’re perfect for a patio or for your corner of a community garden, and, properly maintained, they can give you years of gardening pleasure.

If you’re really serious about gardening and want to get the best possible results from everything you do, getting a greenhouse can be a big commitment. You may feel that caring for your greenhouse properly means you need to be there all the time, and this can be difficult if your work or social commitments take you away from home a lot. But by sharing a greenhouse with a neighbor, you can make sure there’s always somebody on hand to take care of things.

Sharing a greenhouse is a great solution for people with busy modern lives. It can also be a great way to get to know your neighbors. After all, the strongest friendships usually develop on the basis of shared interests. A shared greenhouse is most practical if the other person using it lives really close by, and of course you’ll have to feel comfortable with that person being on your property, or they’ll have to feel comfortable with them being on yours, but these are minor issues in establishing what can be a very satisfying approach to gardening.

Sharing your greenhouse with another person means that you’ll have the benefit of one another’s knowledge. You can choose whether to grow plants together or grow separate plants in one half of the greenhouse each, but don’t forget that properly caring for greenhouses requires co-ordination - you’ll have to communicate closely to make sure plants are not over watered, hygiene standards are adhered to and you’re not trying to keep incompatible species. It can be a good idea to keep a log book in the greenhouse so that you can each note what you’ve done there and when.

If you’re too busy to give a greenhouse the attention you feel it deserves, sharing can be an excellent solution, enabling you to enjoy all the benefits of greenhouse gardening despite your busy lifestyle.