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Greenhouses give gardeners the upper hand as cold snaps the growing season
Photos by Stephen O’Connor
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Swirling outside like giddy moths, snowflakes easily erase memory of color but they can’t smother the verdant life in the garden window over the kitchen sink. Its productivity seems impossible, but it’s not. Lettuce, carrots, begonias, broccoli, and basil have been thriving there since October. So let it snow.
Whether an elaborate room with a hot tub and built-in humidifier, or a simple homemade window box with a few shelves, a greenhouse can color even a skeptic’s vision of the winter season, producing fresh vegetables and flowers when most consumers are resorting to frozen and fabricated foods. And, if installed properly, a solar greenhouse can even lower the heating bill.
“In Wyoming, where winter is long and the growing season short, greenhouses are great, therapeutic even,” said Shane Smith, the author of several books about greenhouse gardening (most recently Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion) and the director of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. “Even the smallest sun space can make the snow and cold tolerable.”
Because they come in nearly as many sizes and shapes as snowflakes, greenhouses can suit any space or taste. And if a manufactured model isn’t available, “Anyone with the most basic construction skills can make one,” Smith said.
Greenhouses fall into three categories: freestanding, attached, and window. And within these are numerous other classifications—glass, plastic, portable, solar, and supplemented, for example. Solar greenhouses are the most recognizable variety, requiring only the sun’s power to grow vegetables and flowers. Supplemented greenhouses use heating systems in addition to the sun to generate warmth. If built properly and with energy-efficient materials, every square foot of an attached solar greenhouse or garden window should heat two square feet of the remainder of a home. “The heat gathered from the sun all day can work its way into your house at night,” Smith said.
Variety ripe for the picking
Unfortunately, none of the local hardware stores or nurseries in the area carry attached or freestanding greenhouses. However, a Kolbe & Kolbe garden window model is on display at Jackson’s Home Resource Center. And the Internet can drum up several thousand greenhouse and garden window manufacturers, most of which will ship to Wyoming and Idaho. Smith’s website, www.greenhousegarden.com, is also an invaluable tool when shopping for a greenhouse of any type. He lists several dozen reputable purveyors, the closest of which is American Greenhouse Kit Company in Boise. In addition to a wide array of backyard kits, the company also carries greenhouse supplies and books.
Gothic Arch Greenhouses in Mobile, Alabama, has a freestanding greenhouse that admirably weathers winter climates, says company owner William H. “Buzz” Sierke Jr. The simple A-frame structure doesn’t allow snow to accumulate. “We’ve shipped several of these out to the Rocky Mountain area,” Sierke said. “We’ve heard good things back about them.”
For odd-shaped windows that pre-manufactured garden windows don’t fit, Renaissance Conservatories in Leola, Pennsylvania, customizes mahogany garden windows. “We’ve built them around corners and even enclosed entire decks with really large ones,” said Steve Pearson, one of the company’s designers. Renaissance Conservatories also offers custom options, like choice of wood, glass or hardware, for their garden windows’ interiors.
“People are beginning to recognize that [sun spaces] are really nice to have,” said Danny Williams, an architect based in Jackson who designs homes to include attached greenhouses and garden windows. “Some people like them because they can get a head start on their outdoor gardens. Others just want a nice sunny room to relax and read in.” Williams incorporates both ready-to-install models, and custom greenhouse and window designs of his own.
Just as greenhouses come in all sizes, so do their price tags. “You can find greenhouse kits costing anywhere from $300 to $30,000,” Smith said. A 4-foot-by-4-foot-by-2-foot custom garden window from Renaissance Conservatories costs around $4,500. Attached greenhouses are usually the most expensive, almost always requiring a permanent foundation. These can start at $10,000, and the price escalates depending on interior accouterments, according to Williams.
To achieve optimum energy efficiency, a sun space should be professionally installed, according to manufacturers. Jackson Paint & Glass assembles and installs almost any type of sun space available. “We’ve been doing more and more greenhouses lately,” said owner Jim Tucker. “We work with each manufacturer to make sure we get the proper training about their installation processes.”
But building a greenhouse from scratch isn’t out of the question. Smith told a story about his friend Isador Lopez. In the 1970s Lopez saw the solar-heated greenhouses Smith had begun building and, having a good grasp of the principles behind them, got really excited to build one of his own. One day, ordered by his wife to clean out the garage, Lopez headed to the dump with a truck full of junk. His wife was sad to see that upon her husband's return, the truck wasn’t empty. In fact, it contained more than before. “Isador found everything he needed to build his greenhouse at the dump,” Smith said, laughing. “I think the whole thing cost him about $30, and it works just fine.”
An old but good reference book for those building their own garden window or greenhouse is Mark Freeman’s Building Your Own Greenhouse. Smith’s Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion, although not dedicated to the subject of building, also offers several helpful chapters.
