Setting up a mini greenhouse for early season starts is an exciting process for the avid gardener. Mini greenhouses prolong the growing season by letting you start seeds earlier and allowing you to bring vegetation indoors after the weather grows too cool outside. Mini greenhouses come in many different varieties.

The Attached Greenhouse

The attached mini greenhouse is very popular greenhouses. Not only are they easy to set up, they are conveniently located right next to your home. Many mini greenhouse kits are available that allow for easy attachment to an existing structure, such as your home or garage. Some homeowners choose to convert an unused carport or breezeway into a haven for their plants. Others purchase a greenhouse kit made for attaching to a building. Some lean-to greenhouses are even fully enclosed so you can just lean them up against your home without having to drill holes into your house’s siding. The ambitious gardener may even decide to build an attached mini greenhouse from scratch.

Attached mini greenhouses are often more convenient because sources for ventilation, heating, cooling, and water are readily accessible from the existing structure. Many attached greenhouses are transformed into functional rooms with the addition of brick flooring, wooden benches, and wrought iron furniture. These combination solarium/greenhouse rooms are very popular retreats for rest and relaxation or even as a breakfast room. 

The Basement Mini Greenhouse

Numerous gardeners choose to convert a portion of their home’s basement into a mini greenhouse. Many compact greenhouse kits turn a shelving system into a miniature greenhouse, perfect for small spaces. Each shelf includes a grow light and the entire unit is covered in a protective wrap. These types of indoor greenhouses require manual watering and a heated room for plants to thrive.

Some indoor greenhouse kit systems, such as a hydroponic system, come complete with automatic watering and timer controlled lighting.

The Window Mini Greenhouse

The windows of your home can be converted into miniature indoor greenhouses as well. The basic seedling tray with a humidity dome (clear plastic cover) grows seeds quite well when cared for tenderly in a well-lit area of your home. Some people set up an indoor greenhouse in their home’s bay window. These all-glass enclosures provide warmth and light to your seedlings. You may need to add supplemental grow lights if you are not getting enough sun and also keep a fan nearby to provide constant gentle air circulation. If the sun is too intense, you may need to move the plants out of the direct light to keep the plants from burning and drying out too quickly.

Mini greenhouses, whether the conventional outdoor greenhouse or a mini greenhouse area designated in your home, allow a gardener to bring beloved plants and seedlings indoors for extended growing seasons and added convenience.  Mini greenhouses add beauty and value to a home, and basement and window indoor greenhouse systems are relatively easy to set up and maintain. Mini greenhouses are the perfect addition to any garden lover’s home.

Modern greenhouse accessories are growing ever more sophisticated when it comes to temperature control, and most gardeners know what temperature their plants prefer - but what about humidity? This is a factor which many gardeners overlook, yet it can make a big difference to the health of your plants. Carefully controlled levels of humidity can help not only exotic plants like orchids but also ordinary plants like tomatoes, which will grow faster and larger in consistently humid conditions. Modern humidifying equipment makes it possible to provide your greenhouse plants with the levels of humidity they like best.

Most greenhouse coolers are fed through a hose, drawing water from the supply in your house, but they use very little water and very little power. They turn the water into a fine mist and use a fan to circulate it through the air inside the greenhouse. This creates a sort of fog which may make your greenhouse look a little odd from the outside but which will benefit the plants within.

As well as providing the appropriate humid conditions for your plants, greenhouse accessories like these can be useful in helping to cool your greenhouse on very hot days. Some gardeners consider them a better option than vents because they don’t introduce outside air, so they limit to risk of your plants becoming vulnerable to insects and disease.

If you haven’t yet experimented with humidifiers, now’s the time to do so. The technology has been improving fast and has finally reached a level where it can be relied upon to do a consistent job with minimal hassle. It’s easy to use, so you won’t need any special understanding of machinery or of the complex ways in which humidity can affect plants. Simply research what your plants need and set up the system to take care of it for you.

Besides being a place where you can grow interesting and useful plants, your greenhouse ought to be a place where you can relax. If you’ve spent many hours working there to make your plants beautiful, it’s a shame if you can’t take the time to sit around and enjoy them. Larger greenhouses can be a good place to sit with a book or some knitting, or to take tea with friends. They can provide you with a pleasant outdoor experience even in winter. But in order to use your greenhouse this way, you first have to find the right furniture for it, and that can be trickier than you might think.

Because space in the greenhouse is limited, it’s important to work out how your greenhouse furniture is going to fit. This means not only working out how you can squeeze it in, but also how you can actually use it and move around it. Benches are often more practical than chairs because they can easily be tucked away when out of use, and can also be used for standing on when cleaning the roof. Folding chairs are practical because they can be set aside easily when you need space to work. A small folding table can be handy both for holding drinks and for when you need an extra surface to manage tasks like potting.

Like all greenhouse accessories, greenhouse furniture needs to be water resistant. The humid atmosphere of a greenhouse will soon damage unprotected wood and wickerwork, and molds growing on your furniture can spread to your plants. Be careful to choose furniture which has been properly sealed with a water-repellent paint or varnish. Metal furniture should be resistant to rust - often the most practical option is furniture which has been coated with a layer of plastic.

Don’t just buy the first well-made greenhouse furniture you see - take your time and choose something which co-ordinates with the overall look of your greenhouse. Like your plants and greenhouse accessories, it should be part of a pleasing whole. Then your greenhouse will really be a place in which you can enjoy spending time.