With all the interest in locally grown food, many people in cooler climates are looking at what they can grow at home. Growing beyond the normal garden season can be fun and rewarding. There are many choices and we can help you decide which is best for you.
Traditional greenhouses are structures that are often heated. People like these because they can control many aspects including the temperature. These structures can be small or large and built in many different ways. Planning how you are going to use a greenhouse is really important. There are utility and maintenance cost associated with these.
High Tunnels are a new twist on greenhouses. You can identify a high tunnel by the tight smooth outer layer of plastic on these structures. These structures are solar heated and often have two layers of plastic covering them. They are designed to extend the growing season by one to several months. The two layers of plastic are actually inflated to provide insulation and withstand snow, rain and wind. We use our high tunnel to grow greens and lettuce into about mid-December in central Wisconsin. It is also a great place to hang out on sunny, but cold winter days as the temperature inside is about 70 degrees.
Gutter Gardens are an inexpensive and easy way for almost anyone to grow indoors. Lettuce and other greens can be planted in standard rain gutters and put near a sunny window. Our sunroom has gutters placed between the jams of the patio door during winter to produce a daily harvest. This is a really easy way to start growing edible plants during the winter to see if you like this.
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Eco-Building & Forestry, LLC., is happy to help you grow more and use your property to do it. Let us know how we can help. Greenhouses, high tunnels and indoor growing have lots of details to attend to and we can help with consulting and construction of these sustainable features.